Bull Reina Isabel & Spa

Bull Reina Isabel & Spa is a four-star on the promenade of Las Canteras, the city beach of Las Palmas, with 225 rooms, a pool and sun terrace on the roof and a spa every guest uses free. It is run by Bull Hotels, the Las Palmas group whose head office is in this building, and it sells breakfast or half board only. The beach is the story: 3,100 metres of fine golden sand from La Puntilla to the Auditorio Alfredo Kraus, with La Barra, a natural reef along more than half of it, acting as a breakwater, so that at low tide the water inside lies as still as a pool. Lifeguards are on duty every day of the year, from 10am in summer and 11am otherwise.

The first step up is the view, not the size, and every category has a balcony. The entry Double is not sold with a sea view; the Double Sea View Room is the same size, turned to the beach. The Junior Suite adds a separate sitting room in about 40 m² but is not sold with a sea view either. The Sea View Suite pairs a sitting room with the sea in about 45 m², and the Suite Plus with Sea View runs to about 75 m². Some rooms have been redone in pale wood and white; others keep patterned wallpaper, striped walls and heavier furniture.

The sand is three minutes from the door, and the hotel puts out free loungers and umbrellas for its guests on the beach. Up on the roof, the heated pool and sun terrace look along Las Canteras to the headland of La Isleta. The spa's hydrotherapy pool sits behind floor-to-ceiling glass over the bay, with a sauna and a sea-view gym; treatments cost extra, and under-16s may use the spa with an adult in the first two hours after opening. Breakfast is a buffet with live cooking, and the hotel's terrace bar opens straight onto the promenade.

The trade is that this is a city hotel, not a resort: no grounds, no kids' club, no adapted rooms, and a spa and gym that are not step-free. The free loungers run short in busy weeks, the décor is uneven, and the view costs extra, about €180 for the Double Sea View Room against €145 for the plain Double on a June night with breakfast. The Maspalomas dunes are 49 minutes by car. Book it for a beach holiday with a real city attached: a swim before breakfast, the spa in the afternoon, dinner in Vegueta or by the port. For resort grounds and a week by the pool, stay in the south.