Santa Catalina is the hotel Las Palmas built its social life around. Founded in 1890 to plans by the Scottish architect James M. MacLaren, it stands inside Parque Doramas, the palm park of Ciudad Jardín. The city council took it over in 1923, and the building you sleep in is the Las Palmas architect Miguel Martín-Fernández de la Torre's neo-Canarian rebuild, reopened in 1952 on MacLaren's foundations and enlarged until 1963: pale-pink walls, towers on the main façade and galleries. Maria Callas, Gregory Peck and Ava Gardner are on the guest list. Barceló refurbished it and reopened it as a Royal Hideaway in 2019.
There are 204 rooms, and the entry Deluxe is frank about its size: 23 m², a rain shower, no balcony, and a view of the city, the palm garden or the hotel's galleries. The Deluxe Superior adds a furnished balcony. The real change comes with the Junior Suite: a balcony, a seating area and the hotel's VIP Service, which means daytime use of the rooftop infinity pool at Alis and the outdoor thermal circuit for the whole stay, both adults only. Pricier still, the Deluxe and Premium Suites sit in the towers of the main façade, and the Presidential Suites, on the third floor, have balconies among the palm crowns, facing the harbour.
It is the classic because it still does what a grand hotel was for. Afternoon tea is served in a wood-panelled salon, the Santa Catalina Classics festival of classical music is held here every year, and a jazz brunch is served on the Doramas terrace on Sundays. Two restaurants in the hotel hold a MICHELIN star in the 2026 guide, a pairing no other hotel on Gran Canaria offers: Poemas by Hermanos Padrón, where Adrián García cooks the Tenerife brothers' sea-led menus, and Muxgo, where Borja Marrero cooks from his own farm in Tejeda. The garden pool sits under the palms, the outdoor spa has a heated hydrotherapy pool and saunas, and MICHELIN gives the hotel One Key.
The trade is that this is a city hotel. There is no beach at the gate: Las Alcaravaneras is a 15-minute walk, Las Canteras 34 minutes on foot or a short taxi ride, the Maspalomas dunes 46 minutes by car. The rooftop pool by day and the spa circuit come with the Junior Suites and Suites; everyone else pays for the spa and swims in the garden pool. Book it for a few nights of Las Palmas, with Vegueta, Triana and Las Canteras to explore and a starred table for dinner, or as the city half of a trip that ends in the south. If the budget allows, make it a Junior Suite.
