Quiet in Gran Canaria is mostly a matter of where. Playa del Inglés is the south's night-time hub, with nightlife all year and the Yumbo Centre at its heart, and around the Maspalomas lighthouse the evenings belong to the Meloneras promenade. Las Palmas is a working port city, with a city's traffic beyond the pedestrian streets of its old quarter. These four sit just off all of that, or well above it.
Seaside Grand Hotel Residencia is in the Maspalomas palm grove, 10 minutes' walk from the lighthouse. Hotel Veintiuno is on a pedestrian street in Vegueta, the old quarter of Las Palmas. Salobre Hotel Resort & Serenity stands on a golf estate in the dry hills above Maspalomas, and the Parador de Cruz de Tejeda about 1,500 metres up at the centre of the island. Choose by what you want around the quiet: the beach, a city, golf or the mountains.
Seaside Grand Hotel Residencia keeps its evenings calm by design. Its 94 rooms and suites are in two-storey villas around the gardens and the pool, at the end of the hotel's own short drive in the palm grove, and every one has a screened balcony or terrace. The pool closes at 9pm, live music on the Piano Bar terrace stops at 11pm, and the hotel asks for quiet in its public areas from 10.30pm to 7am. Guests are asked not to use their phones at the pool, the pool bar or the restaurant, and there is no kids' club on site.
The beach is close without being next door: the sand of Playa de Maspalomas is 8 minutes' walk away and the lighthouse 10, so a quiet day can still start with a swim in the sea.
The room to book
Superior Room
37 m²€583 a night
The same 37 m² room and walk-in whirlpool bath as the Deluxe, facing the gardens or on the dunes side rather than over the pool, where the loungers and the breakfast terrace are.
Hotel Veintiuno is the quiet way to stay in a city. It has seventeen rooms, takes guests of 16 and over and no groups, and stands on Calle Espíritu Santo, a pedestrian street of old houses about 50 metres from the cathedral of Santa Ana. Three of its six double categories open onto the courtyard or a light well, with no outlook onto the street, and they are the quietest rooms in the house. There is no restaurant and no room service; the roof has a small plunge pool and an honesty bar, open to residents from 9am to 11pm, with no loud music.
The evening is still a short walk away: Calle Armas, Calle Pelota and Calle Mendizábal, the eating streets of Vegueta, are three or four minutes from the door.
The room to book
Deluxe Interior
about 27 m²€108 a night
The largest inward-facing room, about 27 m² with a king bed, on the courtyard or the light well, which the hotel says guarantees quiet, and cheaper than the Deluxe Exterior.
The Parador de Cruz de Tejeda is quiet because of where it is: on the Cruz de Tejeda pass at the centre of the island, about 1,500 metres up, with 43 rooms, most of them facing the Tejeda caldera. After dark there is the Parador's own restaurant, cooking Canarian dishes from 7 to 10pm; Tajinaste, four minutes away on foot; and a guests' lounge with fireplaces for cool evenings. Beyond that, Tejeda village is 12 minutes by car off-peak, on mountain bends.
Days start on the trails that leave from the door, and end in the spa, open until 8pm, whose outdoor pool looks across the caldera. Stay two or three nights: the pass can sit in cloud, and a second morning gives the view its chance.
The room to book
Standard Double
€101 a night
Most face the caldera, and the hotel pictures one with a terrace looking towards the Roque Nublo, so the entry category can already buy the view; dearer rooms add space, not outlook.
Salobre Hotel Resort & Serenity stands inside the Salobre Golf estate in the hills north-west of Maspalomas, about 7 km in a straight line from the lighthouse, and there is no street life up here. On foot you can reach a supermarket at the estate entrance, 19 minutes from the door, and the hotel's Italian restaurant a minute beyond it; that is all, so the nights are quiet. The Sunset infinity pool at the resort's highest point is for guests of 16 and over, and the Be Aloe spa limits under-16s, so the two places made for unwinding stay grown-up.
Most rooms look over the golf course to the mountains. The price of the peace is the car: there is no practical bus, and the beach is the hotel's daily shuttle or a 15-minute drive off-peak.
The room to book
Double Deluxe Superior
about 42 m²€243 a night
The 42 m² room fixed on the 6th to 10th floors, with a furnished terrace or balcony above the golf course and the mountains; the entry Double Deluxe promises no floor.
Which is the quietest area to stay in Gran Canaria?
Inland. Salobre Hotel Resort & Serenity is on a golf estate in the hills above Maspalomas, with only a supermarket and an Italian restaurant within walking distance, and the Parador de Cruz de Tejeda stands on a mountain pass about 1,500 metres up; both need a car. On the coast, Seaside Grand Hotel Residencia sits in the Maspalomas palm grove, at the end of its own short drive, a walk from the sand. In Las Palmas, choose the pedestrian streets of Vegueta, where Hotel Veintiuno's courtyard rooms face inwards.
Is Playa del Inglés noisy at night?
It is where the south goes out. The tourist board says its nightlife runs all year, and the Yumbo Centre, shops by day, is the night-time hub, so light sleepers should check where a room sits. None of our ten is in Playa del Inglés. Our three on the same beach are at its Maspalomas end, by the lighthouse, 11 minutes from the Yumbo by road off-peak, and one of them, Seaside Grand Hotel Residencia, in the palm grove, asks for quiet in its public areas from 10.30pm.
Are there adults-only hotels for a quiet stay in Gran Canaria?
Hotel Veintiuno takes guests of 16 and over only, and no groups, in seventeen rooms in Vegueta. Salobre Hotel Resort & Serenity takes families, but its Sunset infinity pool is for 16 and over and its spa limits under-16s. Seaside Grand Hotel Residencia welcomes children but has no kids' club of its own, and asks guests not to use their phones at the pool or in the restaurant. Hotel Faro, a Lopesan Collection Hotel, is adults only, 18 and over, beside the lighthouse plaza where the Meloneras promenade begins: it suits couples who want an adults-only crowd and an evening out.
What is there to do in the evening at the Parador de Cruz de Tejeda?
Very little, which is the point. The Parador's restaurant serves dinner from 7 to 10pm, Canarian dishes from watercress stew to bienmesabe, the almond sweet of Tejeda; the cafeteria by the viewpoint stays open until 11pm; and Tajinaste, four minutes away on foot, cooks dinner every evening. The guests' lounge has fireplaces for cool nights. Everything else is 11 minutes or more by car on mountain roads, so book your first night's table before you drive up.
How far are the quiet hotels from the airport?
By car from the taxi rank, off-peak: Hotel Veintiuno 20 minutes, Seaside Grand Hotel Residencia 31, Salobre Hotel Resort & Serenity 34 and the Parador de Cruz de Tejeda 52, on mountain roads. Residencia and Veintiuno work without a car: Global's line 66 runs from the airport to the Faro de Maspalomas bus station, 3 minutes from Residencia, and line 60 to Teatro Pérez Galdós, 8 minutes' walk from Veintiuno. For Salobre and the Parador, hire a car.
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.
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