Maspalomas? No Thank You!
Day 2 on Gran Canaria - heading south.
35 years ago one of us visited Puerto Rico in southern Gran Canaria and it was touristic already back then. Of course we needed to visit the south to see how it looked now and what the hype is all about. Everyone from Northern Europe knows someone who has been to the famous Spanish island and we hear about places like San Augustin, Playa d’Ingles, Maspalomas and Puerto Rico. We know that the weather is usually more sunny with higher temperatures in the south and that is why many of us visit Gran Canaria during winter time. Maybe we would regret having chosen to stay in the north in our hideaway between mountains and no walking distance to either a beach or any type of restaurant?
Well, we started our drive around 10 in the morning and chose to take the highway, straight to hell (Sorry! Straight to the place to be…if you love resort towns and checking out tourists of all sorts!) Our motorbike was great to drive and the Honda NC750X DCT really delivers also on a 120 km highway and the roads are very good. We ended up in Maspalomas in no time and can’t say we saw much before we left again. We drove around with open jaws (as open as they can be in a motorbike helmet) and all we saw was buildings made for tourists like hotels, restaurants and entertainment plus half naked tourists on their way to something?
We wanted to check out the beach but it was hidden behind buildings and we decided to find a place to have some brunch before maybe giving it another try. 20 minutes later and having driven around in circles we decided to stop at a terrace by the street leading towards the sand dunes of Maspalomas. Maybe we would check that out later too?
The restaurant was not the most inviting place but how bad can a coffee and eggs with toast be? We ordered our food and the toast would come with butter and jam! 🥳 We enjoyed a sunny spot by the street and observed people walking by and we were surrounded by guests from Germany, the UK, France and Sweden. Everything but Spanish actually 😂.
Fortunately we took one photo to not forget our first and last visit to Maspalomas and it is of our motorbike and the restaurants across the street from where we were sitting…
The Screaming Scammer
Ok, we know we don’t have the mandate to give a fair review of Maspalomas, but our experience was a little bit of a shocker so we didn’t end up seeing much more than we already explained. The food at the restaurant was not the best. The toast consisted of bread but no butter or jam. The espresso was a big glass of watery coffee (worse than the Danish coffee actually 😂) And as a bonus we found out there was a 20 percent service fee added due to Christmas due to government law and we found this out on a handwritten bill. When we politely questioned the price the waiter sent out the owner. All of a sudden the whole neighborhood could hear the screaming man with a heavy accent “I am calling the police! I want my money and you have to leave now and never come back!!”
So, that is the true story about why we basically got kicked out of Maspalomas and will never go back. We also found out there was no government law about a service fee for Christmas and believe it was a scam since no one informed us before sitting down to order. Either way it was not about the money but the very bad treatment from this man (who wasn’t Spanish).
We are sure that many people love Maspalomas (and we learnt it is a safe haven for the lgbtq+ Community but it was just not for us.)So we decided to continue further south to drive through Puerto Rico and then visit Puerto de Mogan, which would end up being a much nicer experience!
In our next blog post we will share more about Puerto de Mogan, the most romantic little village of the south!
Have you been to Maspalomas or any other place on Gran Canaria? Let us know what your experience was!
Warm wishes,
Seen by Veen
