So…. we have just returned from a week long holiday at Occidental Margaritas Barcelo hotel in Gran Canaria.
Last year we stayed at a Barcelo hotel in Fuertuventura so thought we would try another as we had a lovely time last year. We bundled our girls up to go to Nana’s and headed to London Luton for our flight. We arrived at our hotel and were told there were two parts to the hotel the standard hotel rooms and the apartments. We were sent over to the premium reception.
We paid for premium plus at the hotel which meant we had access to an exclusive A La Carte restaurant daily, a separate relaxed area for breakfast, unlimited access to the Balinese bed area including jacuzzis with waitress service & all premium brand alcohols. We feel the extra £400 we paid for the upgrade was well worth the money, we enjoyed great tasting cocktails, lovely steak meals, relaxation with few people around us. We had fresh water in our rooms daily, clean beach towels & also had a voucher to spend in the hotel which be bought a bottle of Moet to take home with us. We often saw standard all inclusive guests trying to sneak in to the beds and the staff had to remind them that they had to pay extra to go in those areas.
We stayed in a superior suite which was lovely with 2 balconies, a lounge, kitchen, shower room with views and a lovely large bedroom. The hotel was very clean and tidy.
The entertainment wasn’t overly exciting a few performers singers/bands, a bird show (which the birds didn’t seem to happy about) & some wonderful dancers. OK for a week but any longer we would have headed offsite nightly to find alternative entertainment.
For anyone interested in finding out more about our hotel here’s the link :
We spent a few days lounging around but we went for long walk and did lots of exploring too. We explored the magnificent sand dunes of Maspalomas and even partook in a spot of nude swimming at the nudist beach. (Hubbys idea and we felt rather stupid in clothes amongst hundreds of naked bodies)
We rode camels on the dunes of Maspolomas – poor things didn’t look overly happy! They were a bit shaggy and grumpy! The camel behind me kept roaring and showing us his dodgy teeth. The ride took us along the sand dunes and was fun but probably wouldn’t bother if I was to visit again, there wasn’t anything spectacular to see that you couldn’t see by foot.
We went paragliding on the beach of Playa de Ingles, this was a fabulous experience – totally out of my comfort zone but you only live once so we went for it and wow what a view! Highly recommend looking at the various combos the company offer which we only read about on our last day they offered boat trips, jet ski, quad rides plus lots more. The company was situated on the beach front to the left of Playa de Ingles beach.
We went on a dolphin and whale search trip from Puerto Rico which was great fun and we actually saw a mother and baby whale and lots of dolphins leaping in the sea. This was a beautiful trip and lasted 3 hours we didn’t want a full day trip so this was perfect for us.
We found an amazing little bar called the Tipsy Hammock – great music & a massive menu of cocktails. We were a little bit addicted to returning to this bar on a daily basis. They had live Saxophone or a DJ each evening and are situated on the beach front. I even enjoyed a Popcorn Mojito! Check out their page – https://www.facebook.com/tipsyhammockbar/
Thank you for reading and feel free to follow/comment/share.
Bex x
Adventures of the Allum family 
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