Gran Canaria - Resort of Puerto Rico (Gran Canaria)

Member Name: Jo984

Product:	Gran Canaria
Date:	14/10/03 (549 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Loads of bars/restaurants, Cheap places to drink, Nice beach

Disadvantages: People pressuring you to eat in their restaurants, Place not very well kept, On a hill so make sure you're fit!

My boyfriend and I went to Puerto Rico which is a resort situated, basically, on a big hill in the shape of a horse shoe.
First of all I will talk about what I thought of the resort in general.
I did think the area was too built up - there are so many hotels/apartments built into the hill and if you happen to be up the top or in the middle (which we were) then the beach isn't as close as you think. You will definitely be fit after staying here as whenever we went to the beach, there was a good walk back up a good many flights of stairs!!

We were in a 2 Star self-catering apartment which wasn't too bad. There were a few cracked tiles on the wall but it was clean and we had everything we needed.

In the middle of the resort is the town centre which houses the majority of bars/restaurants and shops. Again, I thought this place to be too hectic. We went there a total of 3 times, once to buy presents and twice for nights out. You do get hassled by the people in the bars/eating places to go in and spend you money with them which is not what you want on a relaxing holiday. That is what put us off and we ended up having the rest of our nights out in the places down by the beach - which were actually cheaper than in the centre.
You were still asked by some people to go in and eat but it wasn't as intense.
The beach itself was clean and the water was lovely and clear, a good place for the kids to play although the centre is more adult orientated and I think that children would get bored there.

Another thing which couldbe improved are the roads/pavements. I know it sounds fussy but alot of the paving stones are cracked and it can be a hazard, especially for children and elderly people. So I did not think it was the best kept area.

Now down to the nitty gritty - the bars and restaurants!
One place to avoid is the "Restaurant Bahia Playa" which is round to the left-hand side of the resort. The food is d
isappointing and the entertainment is a bit lacking. The prices aren't bad but eating out is part of a holiday and you would cheesed off from going in here.

Another place is "El Tiburon" which is sort of in the middle at the bottom of the resort - the food is nice but the service is not. We had to wait 20 minutes for our bill and as we were sitting on table overlooking the beach we could easily have walked off. The staff seemed more interested in treating the bigger parties to a better service as opposed to the couples. Something else which niggled was the fact that they charged us for a bread roll even though it as automatically put on our plate before we ordered our food. You would have thought it was complimentary! The price was ok, but we felt ripped off by being treated so badly.

The"Restaurante Gran Canaria" is also in the middle over-looking the beack. No complaints here. The food was lovely, drinks well priced and the service good. Good value for money.

"Puerto Bello" is a place across the road from the beach - they took a while to serve us but once they did the food was fine, nothing too special but they made sure we were ok.

If you really want to eat in style however, go to "Oscars Pub Restaurante". This is a couple of doors down from the Puerto Bello. The food is amazing and the drinks are averagely priced - nothing extortionatee. The service is excellent - we had a bottle of wine with our meal and they were always making sure our glasses were topped up! Brilliant, I highly recommend you go there for a night out if you really want to enjoy yourself. The prices are not much higher than the other places I have mentioned so we could have afforded to go there every night but it is closed on Thursdays and you have to book the day before for dinner the next day as it is so packed out - it therefore took us a few attempts to actually get a place there!!! I cannot recommend this place
highly enough so go there!

A good bar to drink in is "Charlies Bar" which is one of the English bars near the beach but "underground". The local beer is 1 Euro and if you drink Smirnoff Ice like me, then you get two bottles for 5 Euros.

A good place to get breakfast, although it is in the centre is "The Pitstop". This is an english-run bar and their breakfast is cooked well and the service is good. Some of the places run by the locals do not really cook their breakfasts well and the food can be cold and eggs underdone. But The Pitstop was great.

Well I think that is it! I personally would not come to this part of Gran Canaria again as it was just too built up and sometimes hectic. I have been to San Agustin which was a lot more relaxed so would probably go back there. But I still enjoyed my holiday as it was nice and sunny and we were still able to forget about England for a week!

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