Southern Treasures of Gran Canaria

Really enjoyed this day trip which displayed the amazing diversity of Gran Canaria; its troglodyte houses in the mountains, the mysterious sand dunes, the 1960’s tourist charm of Puerto Rico and the tasteful port of Mogan. All was well organised with an excellent driver and a wonderful tour guide Selena (sp)

The places visited, the description and the story narrated by the guide make this tour really interesting. Our guide Laura speaks a very fluent and clear English, very good at keeping up the attention.

beautiful walk in the exceptional Dunes of Maspalomas It's unmarked and a shame that people don't respect that.

The tour does not cover much. There are basically 3 attractions- Barranco de Guayadeque, Puerto de Mogan and the dunes of Maspalomas. The only place worth visiting is Barranco de Guayadeque, which is a beautiful valley with cave houses and great views. There is a short walk at this stop in which you visit the cave restaurant, cave house and the view points. The next stop is Puerto de Mogan which is basically a small commercial place with souvenir shops and very highly priced restaurants. This was a particularly long lunch stop ( 1 hour 40 min) and all restaurants had items that were triple the price to those in Las Palmas. The only pleasing thing is the appearance of variety coloured bougainvillea in between the white stops. You can swim in the beach if you wish, but the beach is no different than the others on the island. Then there is the optional boat ride from Puerto de Mogan to Puerto Rico. It costs 7.5 Euros and takes you along the coast. The views are not worth paying the price for the boat trip. Puerto Rico is not really a stop. You are just picked up from the boat to head over to Maspalomas. Maspalomas is a 25 min stop. You get time to walk on the dunes. Yes, the dunes are an unusual site and if you haven't been on a desert, it is an experience which you can have. However, the stop is very short and not enough for you to walk to the beach and come back. So, in my opinion the tour does not offer much, especially compared to the tour of peaks or another of the north of the island by the same company. Cave houses in this tour are worth visiting but they are elsewhere on the island also and hence not a special feature of this tour alone. Barbara is an excellent driver. Felt safe in her hands on the twisting roads of the valley. The tour guide Fran did not appear helpful or willing to answer questions. At times he appeared frankly irritated when guests were asking questions. He mentioned about the optional boat trip but gave no description of how and why it was worth doing. When I asked him about the same, he snapped and said he had told about it 3 times in the bus, which in our opinion he hadn't. After a few hours he must have reflected on his reaction and apologised to me. I also saw him scolding an elderly gent in Spanish because he was a few minutes late. The guides on other tours carried maps, photos etc which they distributed to the guests. I feel Fran could carry such material to make the tour interesting and to involve the guests better, especially since there is not much to do on the tour anyway.

The dunes and the small nature reserve in front of them are beautiful. You can admire the birdlife with the naked eye.

In this short trip, we saw very beautiful places with a very friendly tour guide. They arrived on time and they managed the time so good.

Pick up and drop off great. Tour itself was good in parts - the houses in the rocks were very interesting, the village, in the hills, was worth a visit. 10 minutes in Mogan would have been sufficient - an artificial town/harbour where everything was overpriced, and no time, within out time there, to have a meal. The sand dunes at Maspalomas were worth a visit. However, the wind was very strong and it made life very uncomfortable. Very poor availability of somewhere to get refreshments

Nice and cozy area, with plenty to fine dining. And nice people, nice beaches and good hotels

Lovely excursion with several stops. The guide definitely contributes to the given rating. Nice, knowledgeable and enthusiastic.

This is the not the best tour we went on during our visit but was still a very enjoyable day. The highlights included the tour inside the cave house, a coffee stop in the charming village of Aguimes and the photo opportunity at the top of Puerto de Mogan and the sand dunes of Maspalomas.