Parque de Santa Catalina — Attraction in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Between the harbour Puerto de la Luz in the east and the  to the west, you’ll find the bustling district of santa catalina where, especially along the Calle Mesa y Lopez boulevard, most of the big stores can be found, including two branches of Spain’s largest department store El Corte Ingles, as well as specialised shops and elegant boutiques. The heart of this district is the big and busy park santa catalina  which is actually more of a square dotted with palm trees and flowerbeds than a park where a sizeable slice of Las Palmas nightlife takes place. Numerous restaurants bars clubs and discos attract fun-loving locals and visitors until dawn

But also during daytime there is always a lot of activity here, with people doing their shopping or frequenting the many outdoor cafes, crowds of elderly men playing cards, chess and dominos and tourists getting information at the tourist information point. It’s also where the city’s sightseeing bus (guagua turistica) begins its tour. At carnival time a big stage is erected here and the Parque Santa Catalina becomes the centre of the city’s colourful and exciting celebrations. A role it repeats during the popular womand music festival...

As a Port town and cruise stop-over I couldn't fault it. Yes, it is heavily geared up for 'passing trade' but not prohibitively so. The main thing we we found endearing was the the politeness of its residence, something that came across throughout our round trip of the Canaries - and mainland Spain. Back to the town itself, wide open, bright, airy, clean for sure, no overflowing bins nor litter about the place, a total sense of pride in the place. I cannot speak about further inland as we didn't have much time to seek out other towns or villages, but if our experience is anything to go by, I can't see them being a disappointment. This was our very first visit to the Canaries as a whole package and I'm sure there are other more frequent travellers with different stories to tell, but personally, we found all the locations we stopped to be a breathtaking contrast to UK. It just goes to show what a bit of effort can really achieve. Go, people,...

There are a few bars here and a couple of places to eat burgers and pizza. We arrived on a Saturday but there still wasnt much going on there. Walk towards the beach and youll find an abundace of shops. Walk beyond these and youll come to the wonderfully, clean Playa de Las Canteras beach. The Promenade has great places you can go to for good food and a nice cold drink when the sun gets too hot. Please don't waste your money and avoid the Chinese buffet called 'Buffet Casa Chen' there. You get what you pay for there with its cheap cuts of meat which has has some Chinese sauce poured over it and beers served in filthy glasses (yes this was somewhere we ate earlier on in the day...never again). We're currently having a lovely cold beer outside La...