Amadores Beach, Gran Canaria

We usually like to try a new place every year for our summer holidays but this year we decided to return to the resort of Puerto Rico on the island of Gran Canaria after staying there last year. One of the main reasons for the return was the fact that we loved the apartments we had stayed in last year and the other main reason was for the wonderful Amadores Beach. Not being a family of beach lovers after visiting this beach once, we were totally hooked and just couldn’t get enough of it!

Set with the unusual backdrop of newly built, extraordinary and very classy looking hotels built into the high volcanic rock the Amadores beach should not be missed. The beach itself is actually manmade and almost forms a complete circle with the sand being crescent shaped with huge boulders then arching out into the water leaving only a fairly small gap for the sea to make its way in and out. These boulders have huge mosaic starfish attached to them, which look wonderful, giving the beach a bit of character.

For those of you who haven’t visited the resort of Puerto Rico, it is a very hilly and steep resort. The beach is situated at the bottom of a very steep hill. We always liked the walk down to the beach, it was hard work as it was very hot and the pavements are made of stone tiles, which because of the very dry climate, can become really quite slippy, and when only wearing flip flops and sandals it can be quite a challenge. Having said all this we did like the walk, a good way to workout after over indulging the night before! If the walk isn’t for you, or if you are perhaps at the other side of the resort and a bit far to walk then there are plenty taxis and buses available to take you directly to the beach. The taxis were very cheap, probably just a cheap as the bus and most of them were estate cars so you were able to put all you towels, inflatables etc in the back of the car and the taxi drivers were always more than willing to take you just so long as you weren’t dripping wet and most preferred you to have a top on. If you have hired a car for your holiday then there is also a large car park situated at one end of the beach.

As you walk or indeed drive down the hill to the beach the view is stunning, beautiful golden sands with clear blue waters. To get to the beach you have to go down a number of stairs or alternatively down the big wide ramps. The back of the beach is lined with palm trees along a lovely stone tiled promenade where you will find a number of shops and restaurants. Plenty shops for all your needs from beachwear and inflatables to newspapers, juice and snacks. There is also a really good choice of restaurants from the more expensive, full meal restaurants to the more affordable family orientated snack bars. All restaurants and shops are covered by canopies, which is really pleasant during the day, giving you a chance to escape from the sun for a while whilst enjoying the cooling breeze rolling in from the sea. We also ate in a couple of the restaurants in the evening and again this was very pleasant as the canopies were pulled back once the sun had set and the breeze rolling in from the sea was wonderful. The view of the evening sun setting over the beach was truly breathtaking and unforgettable.

This is also where you will find the toilets. Beautifully well maintained and very clean toilets. Very large giving plenty room for all and reducing the risk of queuing. You can also use the showers here if you like to shower immediately after having a swim, but we just preferred to wait until we got back to our apartments. Along the promenade there are foot washes dotted all the way along, which was great to get the sand of you feet and shoes before heading up for a taxi.

Once you reach the sand and find your “spot” you can either lay out your towels or mats or alternatively you can hire a sunbed for only a few euros for the day. Personally we preferred our towels and mats and it seemed that this was probably true for most of the Brits with it tending to be more of the Spaniards who seemed to hire the beds. You can also hire a parasol, again for a couple of euros, but I do think you have to be fairly early for this as they do seem to go quite quickly, even although there were hundreds of them. We didn’t bother hiring one as we do like to work on our tans and when we felt we needed a break from the sun we preferred just to go and sit out of the sun for a while. We did also find that the parasols could be a bit of a nightmare when it was windy, which was just about every day, with people chasing after them or being attacked by a rogue runaway parasol!

Now that you are settled you can begin to enjoy what the beach has to offer. Firstly the sand, it’s wonderful. Imported from the Caribbean the sand is golden in colour and quite rough with big grains, not fine like most sand. Erin and I liked to sit with a little rake and sieve and rake through the sand looking for tiny little shell, which had managed to survive, there were so many of them, perfectly formed and yet so tiny. This is just the first of many reasons why I loved this beach so much. I absolutely HATE fine sand that sticks to your skin and you seem to fine in every crease of body days after leaving the beach. The sand here didn’t stick to you, obviously when you were wet it would stick to you skin, but once you were dry it was easily rubbed off, and it didn’t get into your food. You could actually eat on this beach without your sandwiches crunching in your mouth.

You’ll probably find after about 10 minutes on this beach you are so hot you can’t wait to get into the water. Well once you are in the water you won’t want to leave. It is truly wonderful, beautiful clear blue water lapping around your body. When you first go in the chill makes the hairs on you body stand to attention, then you take a deep breath and let the water rise about your shoulders, it takes your breath away and then it’s heaven, cool and refreshing and so easy to swim in, you just seem to float effortlessly. Alternatively you can lie back on your inflatables, chill and soak up the relaxing atmosphere.

There are bins dotted all the way along the back of the sand. They were filled with white bin liners, which were emptied regularly and indeed in all the times we were there I never saw an overflowing bin and I certainly never saw any rubbish lying around either.

There is a lifeguard on watch during day light hours helping to make you feel safe. He is also there for the disabled visitors, which is another reason I find this beach so wonderful, they obviously want everyone to be able enjoy every aspect of the beach. There was a Spanish woman who we saw visiting the beach every day, she was always on her own and she was a wheelchair user and yet she managed to enjoy a good hour swimming in the sea every day. “How did she manage this?” I hear you ask! Access from the road to the beach is easy for wheelchairs and buggies with well maintained and suitable ramps taking you right down to the sand. The woman we watched daily would get herself to the sand using her powered wheelchair where she was met by the lifeguard with a large 3-wheeled buggy. The lifeguard would then help the lady into the buggy and he would wheel her down to the water. The buggy was made of bright yellow plastic and had 3 very large and chunky wheels, obviously making it very easy to wheel across the sand. There was a roped off section of the beach in front of the lifeguard’s post always allowing him easy access to the sea in case of an emergency. Once the lifeguard had reached the water with the lady he would wheel her right out into the water, this was amazing to watch, the yellow buggy floated out into the water until it was deep enough for the disabled lady just to slip off into the water. She obviously really enjoyed her daily swim in the sea and it was very satisfying to watch just how easily this could be done, something that could potentially be quite difficult.

Ok, so I’ve covered the normal things you do at the beach, the sunbathing and the swimming. If however you need a bit more excitement then there are still a number of things for you to do.

To one side of the beach you can hire a pedal boat. There were a good number of them and we never had to wait any time to get one. They were great fun, quite big pedal boats, with seats for 4, with the front 2 pedalling. We did however see 5 or 6 people on a couple of the boats, as I said they are quite big and there is quite a large flat area at the back where a couple of people could sit. It was great fun pedalling around the sectioned off area of the beach, which was very large. The kids had fun jumping off the boat into the sea and there were a couple of steps at the back of the boat to make it easier to get out of the water again. If you are not the strongest of swimmers or if the kids are a bit younger you can also wear a life jacket if need be. We really enjoyed this and at only 8euros for the boat for an hour we felt this was more than value for money.

Once you’ve finished with the boats at the other side of the beach is the Amadores Aqualand. This is a floating inflatable play park. Suitable for all ages this park looks great fun. I have to admit I didn’t manage to pluck up the courage to have a go but my 2 kids (12 and 16) thoroughly enjoyed themselves. There were 2 huge inflatable trampolines, a huge rocking see-saw, a very large inflatable climbing wall, which you could either jump from or slide down the other side, there were slides and spinning tops to run around and there was a long inflatable, narrow “plank” connecting the 2 trampolines, which entertained us with plenty laughs as we watched everyone, wet and slippy trying to run across it from one trampoline to the other without falling in. Again for the weaker swimmers or indeed the less confident you could wear a life jacket if required. This again was very reasonably priced at 5 euros per person for 45 minutes.

For the younger ones who are perhaps a bit too young for the Aqua Park there is a well maintained play park, just beside the Aqua Park. A lovely park suitable for the younger generation.

If you still have time to cram any more fun into you day then there is also the Amadores Crazy Golf. This is open from 10.00am until midnight and is absolutely wonderful. The most beautiful and well maintained crazy golf I have ever had the pleasure of playing on and there’s been a few! This is situated just beside the beach car park. There is a truly nautical theme to the whole place, with signs and plaques embossed with shells and a bin at each hole in the shape of a ship’s funnel. Each hole is very well maintained with a green carpet to putt on and some very tricky obstacles to manoeuvre around. There are sharks, and mermaids, ship’s wheels and fountains. A true masterpiece of workmanship, which is spotlessly clean and still looks as if it had just opened. At the end of the 18 holes there is a small covered area with drinks machines and a few tables and chairs. We played here both during the day and at night but did find the day time game just too hot. Both times it took us about 1 ½ hours to complete the course and during the day time we did find the sun just a bit too intense, I think I preferred the night time game. Both times however we were able to watch lizards running around, which we all really enjoyed as well. For the 4 of us, 2 adults and 2 children we were 15euros, which we felt was a bit expensive at first, but once we had seen and played the crazy golf and the length of time it took us we all agreed it was well worth the money.

There is the Amadores Beach Club also situated beside the car park where you can go to use the sauna and solarium or perhaps relax and enjoy a massage but to be quite honest this is not something I would use on this type of a holiday. We didn’t go in here but it did look very expensive.

I think I have just about covered everything! Sorry this has been so long but as you can see there was so much to cover and I wanted to get the true feeling of the beach over to you all.

I really love this beach and everything it offers. It has something for everyone and plenty of exciting activities to chose from. You can literally spend the whole day there without having to leave and you certainly will not get bored.

I loved the fact that it was so clean and well maintained.

It’s quite odd too because there were no seagulls at all. Here, we are so used to seagulls attacking us on the beach, especially when we are eating, but it was very peaceful with no screeching gulls, instead there were pigeons walking around the sand all the time. Grey pigeons, white pigeons, speckled pigeons, but they didn’t annoy, they just wandered around the sand, not getting too close and eating crumbs.

There are signs up saying no ball games but a few people played with bats and balls on the sand, my kids included, and a few men were playing boules, but everyone who did this stayed well up the sand to the back of the beach where no-one was sitting, therefore not annoying anyone at all.

We did find this beach usually very busy but there always seemed to be room for everyone without having your space invaded at all. It also tended to be fairly peaceful, not too noisy. I also found it quite easy to keep my eye on the kids and we always found some sort of marker to remind us of where we were sitting, just in case any of us did get lost. This really is a wonderful place to visit with something for everyone.

Also posted on Dooyoo under the same name.

©lel1969