Puerto Rico, Gran Canaria: The Complete Guide to the Sunniest Resort in the South

Getting here from the airport

Gran Canaria airport sits on the east coast, so everyone arriving at Puerto Rico crosses the southern tip of the island to get here. It is about 55 kilometres on the GC-1 motorway, and 45 minutes without traffic.

Two practical notes. If you land at night and have hired a car, the only 24-hour petrol station in the area is the Shell in the upper district, so fill up there rather than gambling on finding somewhere open. And if your accommodation is up the hillside, tell the driver the exact complex name: Puerto Rico is built on terraces and “near the beach” can mean a twenty-minute climb.

What Puerto Rico is, and why it is where it is

Puerto Rico occupies a natural amphitheatre of cliffs opening south, and that shape explains virtually everything about the place. The ravines dropping to the sea form a horseshoe of rock that blocks the north-easterly wind and traps the sun for most of the day.

The consequence is that this is among the sunniest and least windy spots on Gran Canaria, which is precisely why tourism settled here in the seventies. Everything else, the apartment blocks terraced up the hillsides, the marina, the shopping centres, came afterwards.

The less welcome consequence is that the resort is vertical. It is built into the walls of the amphitheatre, so getting around on foot means constant slopes. If you are travelling with reduced mobility or a pushchair, this matters more than any other consideration when choosing where to stay.

From empty ravine to resort

Until the sixties there was almost nothing here. The Puerto Rico ravine ran down to an undeveloped pebble cove and the local activity was fishing and some subsistence farming. In tourism terms the south-west coast of Gran Canaria was a blank.

Development arrived in the seventies with the same approach used across the south of the island: work with the topography to build high without blocking the views, and create the beach where there was none. The sand was shipped in and two breakwaters were laid to hold it and cut the swell.

That origin explains two things visitors notice on arrival. The first is the terraced architecture: apartment blocks climb the walls of the amphitheatre in successive tiers, so almost all of them have a sea view. The second is that there is no old town, because there never was one. Puerto Rico is not a village that grew, it is a resort designed whole on a drawing board.

Worth knowing, to set expectations. Anyone arriving in search of cobbled streets and a church on a square will be disappointed. Anyone arriving for sun, beach and facilities will find precisely what was designed for them.

The beach

Playa de Puerto Rico is golden sand brought in from elsewhere, protected by two breakwaters that leave a very gentle swell. It runs about four hundred metres, has full facilities, and it fills up, particularly between December and March when northern European tourism is at its peak.

What sets it apart from the other beaches in the municipality is that it is inside the resort. There is no drive: you come down from the apartment, cross the promenade and you are on the sand. That, minor as it sounds, is why plenty of people who already know the area keep choosing Puerto Rico over prettier places.

Amadores, ten minutes away

The neighbouring beach is the more photogenic of the two: pale sand, no swell at all and a bay completely closed off by breakwaters. It is six minutes by car or a twenty-five-minute walk along the coastal path, and many people alternate between the two.

The routine repeat visitors settle into: resort beach first thing, Amadores in the afternoon. Amadores holds the sun until late and empties noticeably after five.

The harbour: almost everything leaves from here

The marina is the real engine of Puerto Rico and the reason many people end up here without knowing it. It is the base for almost all the water-based activity in the south of the island: whale and dolphin watching, catamarans, deep-sea fishing, jet skis, and the boat line linking the coastal resorts.

Two things worth knowing before booking anything. First, morning departures are better: the sea is flatter, the animals are more active and far fewer people are seasick. Second, the harbour sits at the western end of the resort, so if you are staying up the hill allow fifteen minutes to get down.

These waters hold bottlenose dolphins and short-finned pilot whales year-round rather than seasonally, so the chance of a sighting is high in any month.

The harbour’s other use is the cheapest and the least exploited: the express boat linking Puerto Rico with Arguineguín and Puerto de Mogán. It costs very little, works as transport, and shows you the cliffs along this coast, which are invisible from the road.

Boat trips, and which is which

The harbour is the departure point for most of the water-based offer in the south, and the options are very different from one another. Worth understanding before you book:

The commonest mistake is booking the whale watching for the afternoon because it fits better around a lie-in. The sea gets up from mid-afternoon along this entire coast, which means fewer sightings and more seasickness. The morning is not a preference, it is the difference between a good trip and a bad one.

Shopping: Mogán Mall and the rest

Puerto Rico has the biggest concentration of shops in the south-west of the island, and it is not all in one place. The difference between the three centres matters, because they do different jobs.

Mogán Mall is the significant recent addition and it has changed local habits. It sits in the upper district beside the road, with generous parking, and gathers the chains that previously meant driving to Maspalomas or up to Las Palmas. It is also the plan that rescues a day of calima or wind.

The other two are from another era and have their own appeal. The Puerto Rico Shopping Centre is the heart of the resort, with neighbourhood shops and terraces, and the Europa is where the evening atmosphere collects, with opening hours running into the small hours.

What is inside Mogán Mall

The mall sits in the upper district and it has changed local habits, because it gathers the chains that previously meant a drive to Maspalomas or up to Las Palmas. You will find Decathlon for sports and beach kit, Lefties for cheap clothes, Fund Grube and Primor for perfume and cosmetics, and Ale-Hop for gifts, along with restaurants and a supermarket.

It is also the plan that rescues a day of calima or wind, and where local people go when they need something that is not beach-related. Parking is generous, which on this coast is worth something.

The old shopping centre

The Puerto Rico Shopping Centre is from another era and has a character of its own. It is a warren of levels and passages with everyday shops, kebab houses, bars with terraces, the Patio Canario, the Da Pinocchio pizzeria, an adult shop and several pubs and clubs that stay open into the small hours.

By day it is practical and ordinary: this is where the 24-hour McDonald’s is, along with the banks and much of the resort’s daily life. At night the atmosphere changes considerably.

Angry Birds Activity Park

On Avenida de la Cornisa, and the only theme park in southern Europe licensed by the video game. It is outdoors and designed to wear children out: ziplines, trampolines, a climbing wall, pedal cars, a karting and bike circuit, skate ramps, a padded parkour course, football pitches, basketball and volleyball courts, and air cannons for firing balls at the pigs.

It is not a conventional theme park, it is an activity park, and it works particularly well with children from around five upwards. Next to it there is also a free public playground, which is the alternative if yours are smaller or you only want a short stop.

Pokiddo, the indoor option

In The Market shopping centre you will find Pokiddo, a 1,200-square-metre trampoline and activity park. It has trampolines, an interactive wall, a ninja zone, obstacle courses, supervised climbing, interactive football and a soft-play area with a ball pit for the youngest.

It is the brand’s first in the Canaries, a Chinese chain now present in over ninety countries. Being indoors, it is the plan that works during a calima, on a windy day, or at three in the afternoon in August, when being outside with children has no appeal at all.

Motor Grande: the part residents use

This is the district that appears in no tourist guide and solves everyday life. Motor Grande is the upper neighbourhood, and it is where the practical things are.

The Mercadona on Calle Madrid opened in October 2017 and was the first in the municipality. It has almost 1,700 square metres of shop floor and 159 parking spaces, which on this coast is a luxury. It opens Monday to Saturday.

There is a change coming on the same street: Aldi has been granted permission to open its first supermarket in the municipality on the site of the former Clínica Roca, now demolished. The investment is around three million euros and the planned sales floor is over 1,100 square metres. There is no confirmed opening date, so if you are reading this while planning a trip, assume it may not be open yet.

Motor Grande also has the Shell petrol station, open 24 hours, the only one in the area with those hours and worth locating if you arrive at night from the airport on a low tank.

Services you end up needing

Motor Grande is where the administrative and practical things are. The Guardia Civil station is here, which is where you go to report anything, along with several services nobody looks for until they need them.

For money, the banks are spread between the shopping centre area and the upper district: there are branches and cash machines for BBVA, Banco Santander and CaixaBank. Worth locating, because the standalone machines in tourist premises tend to charge considerably higher fees.

For cars there are several hire companies in the resort, including Avis and various local firms, usually at prices well below booking at an airport desk. And one very local curiosity: the Shell petrol station car park doubles as a second-hand car market, with vehicles parked up and a sign in the windscreen. It is not a dealership, it is an informal meeting point, but it has been running for years and is part of the local landscape.

Nightlife

Here Puerto Rico is a special case within the municipality. While Puerto de Mogán has dinner and goes to bed, and Arguineguín is a quiet town, Puerto Rico is the only place in Mogán with genuine nightlife.

It splits between two places. The Centro Comercial Europa beside the beach holds the cocktail bars and the live music, with hours stretching into the small hours. And the old shopping centre, which alongside its kebab houses and daytime terraces has British and Irish style pubs and a couple of clubs at night.

The offer is instantly recognisable to anyone who has been to a European sun-and-beach destination: pubs with names like Piccadilly, Scruffy Murphy’s or The Harp, karaoke, sport on big screens and cabaret. It is international resort nightlife rather than a local scene, and it does the job well if that is what you are after.

Put plainly: if you want Playa del Inglés, this is not it. Puerto Rico is a step below in intensity and considerably more family-oriented. And if you want silence, the beach area is not where you should sleep.

Where to stay and what to expect

Puerto Rico’s accommodation is strongly shaped by its origins: it was built in the seventies and eighties for the European package holiday, and that defines what is available today.

One piece of advice that saves a lot of frustration and that hardly anyone gives: in Puerto Rico location matters more than the star rating. The same complex, with the same refurbishment, is a completely different holiday depending on whether it is fifty metres from the promenade or three hundred metres up a hill. Before booking, check the exact point on a map and look at the gradient down to the beach.

The other thing to verify is aspect. The terraced blocks are designed for views, but the east-facing ones get the morning sun and the west-facing ones the afternoon, which in summer is considerably harsher.

With children, and with reduced mobility

Puerto Rico is heavily used by families and it is worth separating what works from what does not.

On accessibility, plainly, because this information is rarely given: the promenade and the beach are accessible, with ramps and boardwalks, but moving between the upper and lower parts of the resort in a wheelchair or with a pushchair is demanding because of the gradient. If that is your situation, stay in the lower area even if it costs more; the difference to the holiday is considerable.

Where to eat

The rule that applies across the whole south holds here with unusual clarity: the seafront and the promenade concentrate the highest prices and the menus most clearly aimed at passing visitors. They are not bad, but the alternative is metres away.

Climbing towards the Puerto Rico Shopping Centre and the upper district, the offer changes and the bill drops. And for genuinely fresh fish, the recommendation everyone here gives is the same: drive down to Arguineguín, twelve minutes away, a fishing town with a working quay where you eat best for the money anywhere in the municipality.

Three local dishes worth ordering even when they are not on the tourist menu: sancocho canario, proper papas arrugadas con mojo, and any local fish grilled whole, usually parrotfish, sea bream or wreckfish.

Fast food and chains

Puerto Rico has two McDonald’s, which is worth knowing because one of them solves a recurring problem. The one in the centre, beside the Puerto Rico Shopping Centre, is open 24 hours: it is one of very few places in the whole municipality where you can eat something at three in the morning. The second is up by the road and is the one with a drive-through, handy if you are passing or coming back from the airport.

There are also fast food chains around the shopping centres and several takeaways with long hours. It is not what anyone comes to the Canaries for, but it is useful information when you arrive late or travel with children who will not wait.

You can browse local places in our restaurant directory and our café directory.

What to do, day by day

Puerto Rico works well as a base because everything is to hand and because it sits at the geographical centre of what is worth seeing in the south-west. These are complete plans by how long you have.

The weather and when to come

Puerto Rico has a reputation as the place where the sun comes out even when the rest of the island is grey, and the geography described at the start justifies it. Here is the live forecast:

And these are the monthly averages taken at the resort’s own coordinates rather than island-wide:

There are 7,3 degrees between the coolest month and the warmest. There is no climatic off-season here, which is why the resort fills with northern Europeans in January rather than August. For the full picture we have a Puerto Rico weather guide.

Getting around

On parking, the usual warning: the area around the beach fills by mid-morning. The upper streets have more space and walking down takes five to ten minutes, which beats twenty minutes of circling.

Puerto Rico against the other resorts

The question that actually matters if you are choosing where to stay:

The two low scores explain who it is not for. It scores badly on walkability because the resort is vertical and the slopes are relentless. And on charm, because it is a seventies holiday development with no old quarter: anyone wanting that has Puerto de Mogán eleven minutes away.

What a typical day looks like

Using Puerto Rico as a base

This is the real argument for staying in Puerto Rico rather than somewhere prettier: for position and facilities it is the best base camp in the south-west. All of this is within day-trip range:

The contrast almost nobody uses: in ninety minutes you go from a beach at 26 degrees to a summit at 1,800 metres where winter is genuinely cold. With a base here, that is a day trip.

Practical things worth knowing

What people usually end up searching for on their phone on the first day, gathered here:

On the duty pharmacy, a detail that saves people a bad night: Mogán always has one pharmacy open 24 hours, but it rotates among the nine in the municipality and is rarely the one nearest you. You can see which is on duty today and how to get there on our duty pharmacy page for Puerto Rico.

The mistakes we see every week

1. Booking the boat for the afternoon. The sea gets up from mid-afternoon along this coast. Morning is the difference between seeing animals and being seasick.
2. Shopping on the seafront. The small shops on the promenade are far dearer than the supermarkets up the hill. Over a week it adds up.
3. Booking without checking the gradient. Two apartments the same distance away on a map can be five minutes apart or twenty minutes uphill.
4. Going to the beach at midday. That is when it is full, when there is no parking and when the sand burns. First thing it is another place.
5. Never leaving Puerto Rico. Puerto de Mogán is eleven minutes away and Arguineguín twelve. The three together are a far better holiday than any one alone.
6. Skipping sun cream in winter. The UV index still sits at 5 or 6 in January and the breeze hides it completely.

In short

Puerto Rico is the most practical resort in the Mogán municipality and probably the best base for a holiday in the south-west. It has the beach inside the town, the harbour that every water-based activity in the area leaves from, the largest shopping centre around, and the only nightlife within twenty kilometres. On top of which it sits in the sunniest, most sheltered corner of the island, which is no small thing.

What it does not have is postcard charm or flat ground. It is a seventies holiday development wedged into the walls of a ravine, and that shows in the slopes and in the absence of an old quarter.

The way to get the most out of it is to use what it has and go looking for what it does not: base in Puerto Rico, sea in the morning, shopping at Motor Grande, fish in Arguineguín and sunsets in Puerto de Mogán. With that combination you get the whole south-west of Gran Canaria without changing hotel once.