City Sightseeing open top bus tour around Las Palmas, in our Granaria cruise stop

When we booked our excursions before departure, we tried to make sure we had a good variety of days out.  A natural wonder, a luxury tour, a day in port, a day at the beach, and a river tour.  Las Palmas in Gran Canaria was to be the day wandering around port.  This wasn’t actually by choice, it was more down to the fact none of P&O’s excursions appealed, and therefore was by default.  Although we’d heard good things about some of the beaches in Gran Canaria, the transfer times quoted by P&O were too long really for our liking. 

 

Las Palmas is a huge port, and had a very industrial feel to it, reminding me of Southampton.  Not the prettiest cruise stop, and the city also had a very “downtown” feel to it.  To be honest, we were at a bit of a loss as what to do with our time there, none of the excursions appealed, and on getting off the Ventura we knew nothing about the area.  We were greeted in the port by a small selection of local market traders, and had the pleasure of buying some beautiful leather goods, before even making it into the city! 

On leaving the port the first things we saw were a large mall, with some well-known brands advertising outside, and a City Sightseeing bus stop.  We opted for the City Sightseeing tour.  Apparently these big red open top buses had been extremely popular in the morning, with wait times of over an hour.  However, we didn’t leave the ship until about midday and only had about a ten minute wait! 

I’m going to cut to the chase a little here, we were quite disappointed with the tour.  There was not a lot to see, except some run down main streets and some suburban areas that we randomly drove around.  Apparently there is an “old town” area, but this couldn’t be seen from the bus either.  We didn’t know whether to laugh or cry at getting repeatedly whacked in the face with overhanging stray branches!  As we were handed earphones, I thought we’d be getting a comprehensive talk through of the area, but all we got was a few street names from time to time.  All for the grand cost of 17 euros each!  There were some quirky buildings along the way, but I would say Las Palmas is a small city best explored on foot. 

 

If we were to cruise again and stop at Las Palmas in Gran Canaria we would do one of the following:

-        Have a wander around the "El Muelle" mall next to the port.  It looked huge from the outside but we didn’t even put one foot inside!  There was also a lovely looking bar with swish outdoor area next to the stairs going up to it, which I’m sure we’d have enjoyed a drink in.  We may have also taken a stroll around the “Museo Elder”, which is the Museum of Science and Technology and again very close to the port.  I’m told the entry fee is minimal but unfortunately could not check this online as the website seems to be entirely in Spanish. 

 

 

 

 

 

-        Or, we would have spent the day at the city beach.  We caught a brief glimpse of it through the streets on our City Sightseeing tour and it looked lovely and golden.  The area around it was bustling with pedestrian areas and café bars overlooking the sand.  This beach, Playa de las Canteras, I would estimate, is about a pleasant ten minute walk away.  I noticed there was quite a lot of information on TripAdvisor on the beach if you want to look into it further.