Puerto Rico - Gran Canaria

Puerto Rico is situated on the south west coast of the island; relatively small in comparison to UK resorts, around 9km square, but it's built on and around 2 large hills so is also densely populated for its size. Areas of these hills are so steep in parts that the council have created "walkways of stairs" to make life a bit easier on the legs. These are all marked off with orange coloured railings, any other stairways are privately owned. It's certainly possible to walk anywhere within the resort if you're going either downhill or staying on the level, otherwise look for the local bus service or catch a taxi. Be careful using designated crossings, ensure the traffic is actually going to stop before you walk into the road on one!

Around the commercial centers you are going to meet "promotion" staff. Their job is to tell you about the restaurant, bar or club they work for and persuade you to try it. I must confess, there's quite a lot of them as you'll find out but it's often worth a listen to them to get free drinks! If you're not interested though, treat them like a bad-tempered doberman, stay away from them and don't look into their eyes, then you should be safe - otherwise - they'll attack. We have more promotion staff around the resort plugging various services from excursions to time share but you'll find most of them nowadays are all legal and licensed.

By day everyone is by the pool or on one of the beaches and by night everyone tend to head down to the main commercial center at the bottom of the valley. There's air-conditioned buses that travel from one shopping center to another (there are three main centers here) every 45 minutes or so and cost around 70 cents per journey. A taxi fair for the same distance costs around €2.50 to €3.00

The taxi service on the island is very efficient, reliable and safe. All taxis are white in colour with a green logo on the roof for Puerto Rico. Almost all are Mercedes by make and are licensed by the council with official meters inside. During the day it's advisable to wear a shirt or T-shirt if you're trying to hail/catch one as some drivers won't pick you up if you're "bare-backed" for reasons of hygiene. Every taxi has it's license number displayed on the back and it's a good idea to take a note of this if you travel around with valuables all the time. Should you ever lose anything in a taxi and have this number, the chances of you getting it back, cash included!, are very high. Without the number, the service is still very helpful and I've found by giving details of the journey, they can locate the taxi that was taken and recover any lost property that way too. For more information on this or to have any of your queries answered regarding taxis for this area, the central office telephone number is 928 735949. You should be able to travel anywhere within the resort for less than €4. A taxi from the airport to Puerto Rico will cost around €40. The airport is located more towards the north of the island, near the city of Las Palmas. Tipping is discretionary but usually around 10% of the fare.

From the far (west) side of Puerto Rico beach where the small commercial center is there's a cliff-top walkway that takes you round the hill to Amadores, a newly developed area of Puerto Rico where the newer, more modern hotels and apartments are and also another large beach. There's a great choice of restaurants and bars along the beach open for breakfast, lunch and dinner. At the far side of the beach is a nice "chill-out club" as I like to call it for more secluded sunbathing, relaxing music, drinks by waiter-service and a posh restaurant.

Puerto Rico (and Gran Canaria) is busy all-year-round, especially so in the winter months rather than the summer. All of the services the resort has to offer are there 12 months of the year, nothing closes for "off season" because here, there isn't an off season.