Canary Island holidays: the best resort hotels
An expert guide to the best resort hotels in Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Tenerife, Lanzarote, La Gomera and La Palma, including the top places to stay for family-friendly services, infinity pools, golf courses, spas and secluded beaches.
GRAN CANARIA
Forever in the enormous shadow of its neighbour to the west, Tenerife, Gran Canaria is nonetheless never so eclipsed that it cannot provide temperatures around the 20 degrees mark as March makes the rest of Europe shiver. In truth, the third-largest Canary Island is a fabulous destination. The capital Las Palmas offers elegant culture at its Centro Atlantico de Arte Moderno – but saves its best for the beach in the shape of Playa de las Canteras.
Where to stay
Radisson Blu Resort, Gran Canaria
Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain
9Telegraph expert rating
You enter this hotel on the 11th floor, before taking the lift down to the rooms and swimming pools located on the lower floors. You can take advantage of more than 300 sunny days a year at this resort, which is as laid-back as it is luxurious. Read expert review From £246per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Lopesan Villa del Conde
Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain
8Telegraph expert rating
In a move to broaden the appeal of Gran Canaria to more than the bucket and spade brigade, island authorities created Gran Canaria’s newest resort: upmarket Meloneras, with a greater concentration of five-star hotels here than anywhere else on the island. Three of these belong to Lopesan, including Villa del Conde. Read expert review From £285per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Hotel Riu Palace Meloneras
Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain
9Telegraph expert rating
When Gran Canaria wanted to attract a more affluent type of visitor than the package tourist it had become associated with, it reinvented itself. One way it did this was by gentrifying the major tourist areas - another was to create a new high-quality resort at Meloneras, home to two hotels of the exclusive Riu chain. Read expert review From £120per night
Gloria Palace Amadores Thalasso & Hotel
Gran Canaria, Canary Islands, Spain
8Telegraph expert rating
Thanks to its south-west position (Gran Canaria’s sunnier side), Gloria Palace Amadores is a popular choice with families. The fact there’s just two degrees average difference between May and December make it perfect for both summer and winter. So worth booking if you prefer a white hot Christmas to a merely white one. Read expert review From £219per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
FUERTEVENTURA
Golden drifts of sand, like fine-spun silk, ripple towards the sparkling shore. Goats are herded across arid plains dotted with windmills. And long-dead volcanoes, scarred and deformed, pierce the cloudless sky. Just 50 miles from Saharan Africa, the island of Fuerteventura has a breathtaking, barren beauty. Despite the volcanic terrain, it has some of the best beaches in the Canary Islands – miles and miles of largely deserted sand. Guaranteed sunshine and negligible rain make it a great year-round destination, and there is no time difference after the four-hour flight.
Where to stay
Barceló Castillo Beach Resort
Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain
8Telegraph expert rating
This Caleta de Fuste four-star hotel is a resort within a resort. It adds some glitz and glamour to the east of Fuerteventura’s most popular destination, masquerading as an authentic-looking Canarian fishing village in the process. Read expert review From £70per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Sheraton Fuerteventura Beach, Golf & Spa Resort
Caleta De Fuste, Fuerteventura, Spain
8Telegraph expert rating
The distinctive charred orange of this five-star hotel is easy enough to make out heading north along the motorway from the airport. And while the entrance to the Sheraton adjoins the FV-2, once you step inside, you enter a world of welcoming luxury. Read expert review From £128per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Gran Hotel Atlantis Bahía Real
Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain
9Telegraph expert rating
Resembling a sultan’s palace, Fuerteventura’s standout hotel bridges the gap between Corralejo and nearby North Africa. The five-star Grand Luxe rating makes Gran Hotel Atlantis Bahía Real the only superior luxury hotel on the island. It’s also one of the finest on the Canary Islands. Read expert review From £145per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
TENERIFE
The weather is the number one reason why most people flock to Tenerife’s shores, to enjoy almost guaranteed sunshine all year. Family-friendly and just a four-hour flight away, it is consistently one of Britain’s top winter sun destinations. Most holidaymakers head to the south-western resorts of Los Cristianos, Playa de las Americas and Costa Adeje where the bulk of the island’s holiday accommodation is located. Although it’s hard to see the join between the two resorts, Los Cristianos is quieter than its neighbour and attracts a more mature visitor.
Where to stay
The Ritz-Carlton, Abama
Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
8Telegraph expert rating
Generally considered to be the best hotel on Tenerife, The Ritz-Carlton, Abama is a luxurious, Moroccan-styled hotel with its own championship golf course, an indulgent spa, a secluded golden beach and a two Michelin-starred restaurant. Read expert review From £291per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Red Level Gran Meliá Palacio de Isora
Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
9Telegraph expert rating
An adults-only boutique hotel within a hotel, Red Level takes five-star luxury up an exclusivity notch. With its own valet parking, check-in and swimming pool, you get all the facilities of the Palacio de Isora but with those essential little extras like 24/7 butler service and a swimming pool concierge. Read expert review From £276per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Hard Rock Hotel Tenerife
Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
9Telegraph expert rating
Top notch food, state-of-the-art facilities, and peerless amenities for kids and teenagers are combined with the hippest of styles and a classic rock soundtrack at the Hard Rock Hotel on Tenerife's sunny west coast. Read expert review From £177per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Gran Hotel Bahía Del Duque Resort
Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
8Telegraph expert rating
One of Tenerife's most exclusive hotels providing elite pampering and superb spa facilities in a mock Canarian village on a beautiful beach front setting. Read expert review From £434per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
LANZAROTE
This may surprise you, but Lanzarote is turning into a rather upmarket destination. Don’t expect anything glitzy or flashy though; this quiet revolution is all about staying in chic, eco-friendly places and spending your days cycling, walking, surfing or sampling the local wines. All over the island, you see the influence of the visionary artist, architect and environmentalist César Manrique, who saved Lanzarote from the ravages of rampant development. His extraordinary creations accentuate the unique geology of the island and are now its main tourist attractions.
WHERE TO STAY
Seaside Los Jameos Playa
Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain
9Telegraph expert rating
Los Jameos, a collection of charming Spanish haciendas surrounding a palm-strewn pool complex, is timelessly elegant. From free cava on arrival to knockout Iberian feasts, this primly positioned four-star resort ensures a thoroughly Spanish welcome to all its guests. Read expert review From £168per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Jardines del Sol
Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain
9Telegraph expert rating
One of Lanzarote’s best-kept secrets is a hidden garden of 53 villa bungalows strewn around finely manicured grounds. With accommodation this fabulous – read iPod docks, high thread counts and multiple swimming pools – uprooting yourself from your private patio terrace is a monumental effort. Read expert review From £123per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
Nautilus Lanzarote
Lanzarote, Canary Islands, Spain
9Telegraph expert rating
An eco-chic collection of 70 apartments set inside sumptuous seaside grounds. Rare botanical species, a stunning pool and over 700 pieces of original art cast an aura of serenity and sunshine. The clued-up reception can book anything from a diving course to a Slow Food supper. Read expert review From £78per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
LA PALMA
The Spanish know La Palma as La Isla Bonita: “The Pretty Island”. And she is indeed a beauty. Plentiful panoramas represent one good reason to visit: of volcanic cones and rocky barrancos (ravines), lush forests, terraced hillsides studded with rainbow hamlets, craggy coastlines and the limitless, cobalt Atlantic. You’ll find another two at the end of your legs. Because walking is the big draw on the north-westernmost Canary Island: laced with more than 600 miles of waymarked footpaths, it’s a treat for trekkers.
WHERE TO STAY
La Palma & Teneguía Princess
La Palma, Canary Islands, Spain
9Telegraph expert rating
Traditional Canarian style, sub-tropical splendour, and quite possibly the best hotel swimming pool complex in the archipelago, on the sunny, south west coast of Fuencaliente. The ideal choice for quiet couple or family getaways on the most beautiful of the Canary Islands. Read expert review From £60per night
LA GOMERA
The pint-sized La Gomera is one of the archipelago’s best-kept secrets: unspoilt and picture-book perfect, with rough and ready palm-studded beaches, sleepy mountain villages of marzipan-coloured houses, banana plantations, eye-watering ravines and a stunning rainforest of ancient laurel trees. With its own microclimate, it’s a walkers’ paradise.
WHERE TO STAY
Hotel Jardín Tecina
La Gomera, Canary Islands, Spain
8Telegraph expert rating
Poised atop a clifftop on the pristine island of La Gomera, with bracing views of the ocean and Mount Teide on Tenerife, this is a little cracker of a property: five swimming pools, an 18-hole golf course, sea-view rooms, and very decent half-board dining options. There's even a mini disco for the children. Read expert review From £140per night Check availability Rates provided by Booking.com
