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Best design hotels in Gran Canaria

Seaside Palm Beach is a curved 1970s block in the Maspalomas palm grove that the Paris interior designer Alberto Pinto refitted throughout in bold Seventies colour, from Bar Salón's red tub chairs to the bedrooms. Hotel Veintiuno is an 18th-century house in Vegueta, Las Palmas, with its stone walls, beams and tiled floors set against contemporary furniture.

2 of our ten · Hand-pickedHotels cannot pay to be hereLast checked: October 2026

At a glance

  1. Seaside Palm Beach: A sitting room in coral and blue

    Seaside Palm Beach

    Alberto Pinto's Seventies colour, from Bar Salón to the bedrooms

    Maspalomas · From about €245 a night

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  2. Hotel Veintiuno: The rooftop plunge pool facing the cathedral

    Hotel Veintiuno

    An 18th-century house restored with its stone, beams and old tiles

    Las Palmas, Vegueta · From about €85 a night

    See prices on

What we looked for

Our two design picks come at it from opposite ends. Seaside Palm Beach is a 1970s resort block in the Maspalomas palm grove, four minutes' walk from the dunes beach, and Alberto Pinto, the Paris interior designer, refitted it throughout; MICHELIN dates the redesign to 2002, and it makes more of the Seventies, not less. Hotel Veintiuno is an 18th-century house on a pedestrian street in Vegueta, the quarter where Las Palmas began in 1478, restored and opened in 2018 with its courtyard, stone walls and 19th-century tiles kept.

At Seaside Palm Beach the design runs through the bar, the restaurant and the pool terrace, so every guest gets it, and each room is in one of Pinto's colour schemes. At Hotel Veintiuno the house is the design, and the choice is inside or outside: rooms on the courtyard or a light well are silent, street rooms have the balconies. One is a beach week with style, the other a few nights in the old town.

Seaside Palm Beach: A sitting room in coral and blueThe design one

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Seaside Palm Beach

Maspalomas, Gran Canaria

This is a resort where the design is the reason to book. The building is a curved, Miami-style 1970s block whose balconies sweep round a large freshwater pool in the palm garden. Alberto Pinto, the Paris interior designer, refitted it throughout and played up the Seventies instead of hiding them. It is a Design Hotels member and in the MICHELIN Guide's hotel selection.

The look starts in the shared rooms. In Bar Salón, red tub chairs stand against striped wood panelling under a pink-lit ceiling, with live music in the evenings, and the Main Restaurant serves dinner in warm reds and yellows against floodlit palms. Each of the 328 rooms is done in one of Pinto's colour schemes, among them Beige & Brown, Yellow & Turquoise, Violet & Green and Coral & Blue, with Seventies-style furniture and lamps, bold graphic art and a furnished balcony.

Superior Room at Seaside Palm Beach: twin beds in a lilac room with wire chairs, a desk and a glass door to a furnished balcony

The room to book

Superior Room

about 25 m², plus an 8 m² balcony€287 a night

It comes in all four of Pinto's colour schemes, and its balcony looks inland over the palm garden and pool, or to the sea from a high floor on the street side.

Every room, and why

Ask for your favourite colour scheme when you book, and keep an evening for Bar Salón, open from 6pm to 1am.

€€From about €245 a night

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Hotel Veintiuno: The rooftop plunge pool facing the cathedralThe smart money

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Hotel Veintiuno

Las Palmas, Vegueta, Gran Canaria

Hotel Veintiuno is design by restoration. Its founders, Alexandra Adeler and Paco Monzón, came home from Norway to restore an 18th-century house on Calle Espíritu Santo, a pedestrian street of old houses in Vegueta, and opened it in 2018. It is registered as a hotel emblemático, the Canary Islands' category for hotels in historic buildings.

The house keeps its courtyard and light well, old stone walls, wooden shutters, wrought-iron balconies on the street and 19th-century encaustic tiles. In every one of the seventeen rooms the old house shows through, in a stone wall, a beam or a tiled floor, with contemporary furniture and natural fabrics around it. The roof is the set piece: a small plunge pool, loungers and an honesty bar, with the towers and dome of the cathedral of Santa Ana about 50 metres away across the rooftops.

Premium at Hotel Veintiuno: a king bed with a terracotta headboard between two black pendant lamps, with glass bedside tables and a cushioned bench on a wooden floor

The room to book

Premium

about 35 m²€137 a night

About 35 m² on the first floor at the front, with original materials from the 18th-century building, a sitting area apart from the bed and the cathedral seen at an angle.

Every room, and why

If the Premium is taken, a Classic Exterior has the 19th-century floors; ask for one on the first floor.

€From about €85 a night

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How to choose

Your tripBook
Seventies colour and the dunes beach on footSeaside Palm Beach
An old house in the heart of Las PalmasHotel Veintiuno
Design with a kids' club for 4 to 12sSeaside Palm Beach

Also worth a look

Questions people ask

Good questions about Gran Canaria

Who designed the interiors of Seaside Palm Beach?

Alberto Pinto, the Paris interior designer, who refitted the whole hotel; MICHELIN dates the redesign to 2002. He kept the building's 1970s character and turned it up: rooms in colour schemes such as Beige & Brown, Yellow & Turquoise, Violet & Green and Coral & Blue, Seventies-style furniture and lamps, and Bar Salón's red tub chairs under a pink-lit ceiling. The hotel belongs to Design Hotels and is in the MICHELIN Guide's selection of hotels. Pinto also did the interiors of Seaside Grand Hotel Residencia, the sister hotel nearby.

Is there a boutique hotel in the old town of Las Palmas?

Hotel Veintiuno, in Vegueta: seventeen rooms for guests of 16 and over in an 18th-century house about 50 metres from the cathedral of Santa Ana, with a rooftop plunge pool and honesty bar facing its towers and dome. The Casa de Colón is two minutes from the door and Calle Mayor de Triana five. Rooms typically start from about €85 a night, and breakfast, made to order, depends on the rate. There is no restaurant and no parking, so plan to eat out and arrive by taxi.

Which rooms at Seaside Palm Beach look at the sea?

The building is a long curve with two faces. The pool side looks inland over the palm garden and the main pool. The other side stands over the street, and from its higher floors the view runs across the rooftops to the dunes and the sea. The Superior Room is sold on the garden, the pool or the sea, so say which side you want when you book; the Deluxe Room is the category sold on the fifth to seventh floors, the surer route to the sea.

Do the design hotels in Gran Canaria have pools?

Both of ours do, of different kinds. Seaside Palm Beach has five pools in its palm garden, the main one heated in the cooler months, and two of them, a 30°C saltwater wellness pool and a brine pool, are for adults only and included in the room price with the spa's saunas and salt cave. Hotel Veintiuno has a small, unheated plunge pool on the roof, made for cooling off, with loungers and an honesty bar facing the cathedral.

Is Seaside Palm Beach good for families?

Yes. Pepe's Club takes children from 4 to 12, there are two children's pools, one with a slide, and Playa de Maspalomas is four minutes' walk from the door. Parents get the adults-only spa pools for the afternoons. Rooms typically start from about €245 a night with breakfast, and half board and all-inclusive are also sold. Pack long trousers for dinner, when the dress code is smart casual.

How did you choose these hotels?

Independently, through extensive research, trusted sources and first-hand visits. Hotels cannot pay to be included, and every one of the ten has to exist for a different reason.

More ways to choose in Gran Canaria

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Prices are a guide from our last check, not live rates.