Gran Canaria Princess
By Daniel Hart
Europe & Mediterranean Writer · June 2026 · How we review
Gran Canaria Princess is the most sensible mid-range adults-only all-inclusive in Playa del Inglés. It does the fundamentals right — a genuine 8am-to-midnight AI board, a free wellness area that punches above the price, and a central location that puts the dunes, the beach and the Yumbo Centre within walking distance. Just go in clear-eyed about two things: the included spirits are national brands rather than premium imports, and you walk to the beach rather than step onto it. For couples and solo travelers who want a calm, grown-up base in the busiest part of southern Gran Canaria without paying five-star money, it is exactly the right call.
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Gran Canaria Princess Review: The Best-Value Adults-Only All-Inclusive in Playa del Inglés
If you have been searching for an adults-only all-inclusive in Gran Canaria and kept running into the same problem — the island’s all-inclusive scene skews heavily family, and the genuinely adults-only properties are either luxury-priced or quietly serve a half-board “meal plan” dressed up as AI — then Gran Canaria Princess deserves your attention. This is a 4-star, strictly 16-and-over hotel in the heart of Playa del Inglés that runs a real all-inclusive board from 8am to midnight, sits within a short walk of one of the island’s best beaches, and charges true mid-range money for it.
I want to be precise about what you get here, because the gap between “all-inclusive” and “all-inclusive” can be enormous on this island. Gran Canaria Princess (you may also see it sold under the SENTIDO banner on some booking sites) runs the Princess Hotels own-brand AI programme: all meals, all snacks, and unlimited drinks across the bars and restaurants between 8am and midnight. That is the genuine article — not dining credits, not a daytime-only drinks window. The honest catch, and I’ll come back to it more than once, is that the included spirits are national brands, not premium imports. If that distinction matters to you, the AI Plus upgrade exists for exactly that reason.
For American and British travelers weighing up Europe’s all-inclusive options, this is a property that makes sense when you want a calm, grown-up base in winter sun without the luxury price tag.
Quick Verdict
Who it is for: Couples who want a quiet, central adults-only base in southern Gran Canaria; solo travelers who appreciate that single-use rooms here don’t carry a punishing supplement; and anyone prioritizing winter sun, a good wellness area, and walkable access to the beach and the Yumbo Centre over beachfront luxury.
Worth it? Yes, for the right traveler. As a mid-range adults-only all-inclusive it is one of the smartest-value picks in Playa del Inglés. Just book it understanding that the standard AI pours national-brand spirits and that you walk to the beach rather than wake up on it.
Score: 8.2 / 10
Pros and Cons
| Pros | Cons |
|---|---|
| Genuine adults-only (16+) at a true mid-range price | Standard AI spirits are national-brand, not premium imports |
| Walkable to beach, Maspalomas dunes and Yumbo Centre | Not beachfront — a 10-15 minute walk to the sand |
| Confirmed 8am-to-midnight all-inclusive board | Evening buffet thins out late; grill can run dry |
| Free wellness area: Turkish bath, sauna, Balinese beds | Elevators are a recurring guest complaint |
| Biosphere Certified 2025; HolidayCheck Recommended 2025 & 2026 | Functional 4-star decor, not a design hotel |
| Strong, fairly priced single-use rooms for solos | No nightlife of its own — relies on the nearby strip |
The Resort at a Glance
| Detail | Info |
|---|---|
| Location | Central Playa del Inglés, San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Gran Canaria |
| Adults-only | Yes — 16+ |
| Rooms | Approximately 400 (standard category, sea-view and single-use variants) |
| Restaurants | Main buffet with live cooking + Bohío à la carte |
| Bars | Lobby bar, pool/terrace and chill-out bars |
| Pool | Main outdoor pool (partially heated 24-26°C Nov-Apr) plus hydromassage pools |
| Wellness | Free outdoor area: Turkish bath, sauna, steam, Balinese beds, jacuzzis |
| Beach | Playa del Inglés / Maspalomas, approx. 10-15 min walk |
| Airport | Approx. 30-35 min from Gran Canaria Airport (LPA) |
| Chain | Princess Hotels |
| Certification | Biosphere Sustainable Certified 2025 |
Rooms and Suites
Standard Rooms
Gran Canaria Princess keeps its room range refreshingly simple: this is a Standard Room hotel, with the meaningful choices being view and occupancy rather than a tiered suite ladder. The base Standard Room is a comfortable, contemporary double — clean lines, good air-conditioning (which matters in summer), a balcony or terrace, and the practical fittings you expect at a well-run 4-star. Reviewers consistently rate the rooms as clean and well-maintained, with the decor best described as functional and fresh rather than design-led. You are not booking this hotel for the room styling, and that is fine.
The honest knock on the standard rooms is twofold. First, the building’s elevators are a genuine and recurring complaint in guest reviews — slow, and prone to queues at peak in-and-out times — so if you are mobility-sensitive, request a lower floor. Second, this is a city-block hotel rather than a sprawling resort, so views split between the pool/interior and the surrounding Playa del Inglés townscape rather than open sea for every room.
Sea-View and Single-Use Rooms
The upgrade that actually changes your stay is the Standard Room Sea View. From the higher floors on the right side of the building you get genuine views toward the coast and the Maspalomas area, which lifts the whole experience and is worth the modest premium for a winter-sun trip where you’ll spend time on the balcony.
Where Gran Canaria Princess quietly excels is solo travel. There are dedicated Standard Room Single Use and Standard Room Single Use Sea View categories — purpose-allocated single rooms rather than a double sold at a steep single supplement. For solo travelers, who are routinely penalized by all-inclusive pricing, this is a real and unusually fair advantage. The hotel also has four wheelchair-accessible rooms with walk-in showers.
Our Pick
For couples, the Standard Room Sea View on a high floor is the sweet spot — the view is the single biggest quality-of-life upgrade available and it costs far less than jumping resort tiers elsewhere on the island. Solo travelers should book the Single Use Sea View with confidence; it is one of the best-value adults-only single rooms in Playa del Inglés.
Food and Dining
The Buffet
The heart of the all-inclusive operation is the main buffet restaurant, which runs breakfast, lunch and dinner with live cooking stations. Breakfast and lunch earn solid marks — good spread, fresh cooked-to-order items, and enough variety to keep a week interesting. This is a competent, high-volume buffet that does the fundamentals well.
Dinner is where I have to be straight with you, because it is the most common complaint in recent guest reviews. The evening buffet is perfectly good if you arrive early; the issue is that the grill and carved-meat stations can run dry and thin out toward the later sittings, leaving previously cooked, drier options. Over a long stay the rotation also starts to repeat. None of this is a dealbreaker for a 4-star AI at this price — it is a “go to dinner early” situation, not a “the food is bad” situation. Eat at the start of service and you will eat well.
Bohío À la Carte
The à la carte option, Bohío, gives you a sit-down alternative to the buffet for a change of pace — a welcome reset midweek when buffet fatigue sets in. Check current reservation policy and any cover specifics on arrival, as à la carte availability at AI properties can be limited to a set number of visits per stay.
Bars and Drinks — the National-Brand Reality
Here is the single most important thing to understand before you book. The standard all-inclusive board includes a wide selection of national-brand beverages — soft drinks, beer, wine, water, and spirits, all of local/national brands — served across the bars and restaurants from 8am until midnight. That is a genuine, generous AI window for a mid-range hotel.
What it is not: a premium-import open bar. The included gin, rum, vodka and whisky are Spanish national brands rather than the recognizable global labels you might assume. Princess Hotels is completely transparent about this — they offer an All-Inclusive Plus upgrade specifically to add a selection of branded beverages and reduced prices on certain drinks. If brand-name spirits are part of your idea of a good all-inclusive, budget for AI Plus. If you mainly drink beer, wine, soft drinks and cocktails and don’t mind the house spirit, the standard board is more than fine. I would rather you know this now than discover it at the bar on night one.
Food Quality Verdict
For a mid-range, 4-star, adults-only all-inclusive, the food operation is genuinely solid — strong breakfasts and lunches, a capable buffet, and an à la carte escape valve in Bohío. Manage two things and you’ll be happy: go to dinner early, and set your expectations on the drinks to “national brand” unless you upgrade. Judged against its actual price bracket, this is good value, not a compromise.
Beach and Pools
The Beach
Let’s be clear about geography, because it is the other thing people get wrong about this hotel. Gran Canaria Princess is not beachfront. It sits in the central grid of Playa del Inglés, roughly a 10-15 minute walk from the sand. The upside is that the beach you’re walking to is the famous Playa del Inglés, which runs into the extraordinary Maspalomas dunes — one of the most spectacular beach landscapes in all of Spain, a vast Saharan-style dunescape running down to the lighthouse at Maspalomas.
So you trade direct beach access for an unbeatable central position: the beach, the dunes, the promenade, and the Yumbo Centre are all within a short stroll. For many adults-only travelers, who plan to combine pool-and-wellness days with walks on the dunes and evenings out, that walkable central location is a better deal than being stranded on a remote beachfront. But if you specifically want to step from your room onto the sand, this is the wrong hotel — look at a Meloneras or Maspalomas beachfront property instead.
Pools and Wellness
The main outdoor pool is the social center of the resort, partially heated to a comfortable 24-26°C from November through April, which genuinely matters for winter-sun trips when an unheated pool would be too cold to use. Alongside it sit hydromassage pools and ample sun terrace space — and because the whole property is adults-only, the pool deck stays calm and grown-up, with no cannonballs or kids’ splash zones.
The standout is the free outdoor wellness area, which is more generous than the price suggests. It includes a Turkish bath, sauna, steam bath, jacuzzis and — the detail that gives the hotel its relaxed, grown-up signature — Balinese beds for lounging. All of this is included for guests; only treatments and massages carry a fee. For a couple wanting a quiet, spa-leaning winter break, this wellness offer is a real reason to book.
Activities and Entertainment
Daytime
This is a relaxation-first hotel rather than an activities resort, and it knows it. On-site you’ll find a fully equipped gym (complimentary for guests), a multi-sports court for basketball, volleyball and mini-football, plus billiards and table tennis for downtime. The wellness area doubles as the main daytime “activity” for most guests — long, slow sessions between the sauna, the hydromassage pools and the Balinese beds.
The real daytime program, though, is the location. You can walk to the Maspalomas dunes for a morning hike across the sand, stroll the seafront promenade, or head into Playa del Inglés for shopping and cafés. Active travelers use the hotel as a comfortable adults-only base and get their variety from the surroundings rather than from a packed animation schedule.
Evening
Evenings are low-key on-property — expect relaxed bar atmosphere and light entertainment rather than big-production nightly shows. The hotel does not run nightlife of its own, and frankly it doesn’t need to: the Yumbo Centre, a short walk away, is the nightlife and dining hub of Playa del Inglés (and a long-standing center of the area’s LGBTQ+ scene), with bars, restaurants and shows to suit every taste. If you want a buzzy night out, it’s on your doorstep; if you want quiet, the hotel delivers that too.
Spa and Wellness
The wellness offer is one of Gran Canaria Princess’s strongest cards. The outdoor wellness area — Turkish bath, sauna, steam bath, jacuzzis, hydromassage pools and Balinese beds — is free for all guests, which is unusual at this price point where thermal circuits are often a paid add-on. Treatments and massages are available for a fee, and booking ahead is sensible in peak winter weeks. Combined with the adults-only calm of the pool deck, this gives the hotel a genuinely restful, grown-up wellness identity that suits couples and solo travelers looking to decompress.
What Is Included vs. Extra
| Included | Costs Extra |
|---|---|
| All meals: buffet breakfast, lunch, dinner + snacks | All-Inclusive Plus (branded spirits) upgrade |
| National-brand drinks 8am-midnight (soft, beer, wine, spirits) | Premium/imported brand spirits |
| Wellness area: Turkish bath, sauna, steam, jacuzzis, Balinese beds | Spa treatments and massages |
| Main pool (partially heated Nov-Apr) + hydromassage pools | À la carte beyond included allowance (verify on arrival) |
| Gym, multi-sports court, billiards, table tennis | Excursions and car hire |
| Free WiFi | Premium room-service / minibar items |
Pricing and How to Book
Price Ranges by Season
| Season | Standard Room (per night) | Sea View (per night) |
|---|---|---|
| Low (May-Jun, Sep) | $120-160 | $140-180 |
| Shoulder (Apr, Oct-Nov) | $150-190 | $170-210 |
| Peak (Dec-Mar winter sun, Jul-Aug) | $180-240+ | $200-260+ |
All prices are approximate, per night, all-inclusive, based on double occupancy, and converted from EUR. Recent booking-site data showed nightly rates commonly around $137-188, with off-peak deals dipping lower and Christmas/New Year and the deep-winter sun season pushing higher. Prices change constantly — always confirm the current rate, board basis and adults-only policy at the time of booking.
Note that southern Gran Canaria inverts the typical European pattern: winter (December-March) is peak season because it is Europe’s most reliable winter-sun destination, while late spring and early autumn can be the value sweet spot with warm weather and lower rates.
Best Time to Book
For winter-sun stays (the busiest period), book two to four months ahead to lock in a sea-view room. Princess Hotels frequently runs early-booking discounts on its own site, and booking direct typically carries a small additional discount — worth checking against the OTA price before you commit.
Where to Book
Direct (princess-hotels.com): Best for the AI Plus upgrade, early-booking discounts, and confirming the exact board basis. Booking.com: Strong rating (around 8.4 from thousands of reviews) with flexible cancellation — good for price comparison. Expedia / Hotels.com: Useful for bundling with flights and for US-market booking. UK tour operators (TUI, Jet2, easyJet Holidays): Often the best total value with flights included from UK airports.
Compared to Nearby Resorts
Paradisus Gran Canaria is the step up in price and polish — a Meliá-run resort with a more premium all-inclusive, more dining variety and a more resort-like setting. If your budget stretches and you want a higher-tier experience on the island, it’s the comparison to make. Gran Canaria Princess wins on price, on its strict adults-only calm, and on walkable central location; Paradisus wins on overall luxury and inclusions.
Secrets Lanzarote, one island north, is the natural cross-shop for couples set on an adults-only escape with a more upscale, romance-focused Hyatt Inclusive Collection AI (premium drinks included as standard). It is a more expensive, more luxurious proposition on a quieter island. If premium-brand drinks and a higher-end feel are priorities, Secrets answers the national-brand limitation that defines the Princess’s standard board — but you’ll pay for it, and you’ll be on Lanzarote rather than in the buzz of Playa del Inglés.
On Gran Canaria itself, the main alternatives in Playa del Inglés and Maspalomas tend to be either family-oriented all-inclusives or beachfront properties at higher rates. Within the specific niche of mid-range, genuinely adults-only, genuinely all-inclusive, walkable to the dunes, Gran Canaria Princess has remarkably little direct competition — which is exactly why it earns its place.
Insider Tips
- Go to dinner early. The single most useful tip for this hotel — the grill and carved stations are at their best at the start of evening service and thin out later.
- Book a high-floor sea-view room. It’s the cheapest meaningful upgrade and the biggest jump in everyday enjoyment.
- Decide on AI Plus before you arrive. If brand-name spirits matter to you, add the upgrade at booking rather than paying per-drink at the bar.
- Walk the dunes at sunrise or sunset. The Maspalomas dunes are a 10-15 minute walk and genuinely world-class — don’t spend the whole trip on the sun deck.
- Use the free wellness area daily. The Turkish bath, sauna and Balinese beds are included — at this price that’s a gift, so actually use them.
- Request a lower floor if elevators worry you. The lifts are the hotel’s weakest practical point.
FAQ
Is Gran Canaria Princess really adults-only?
Yes. Gran Canaria Princess is strictly adults-only with a minimum age of 16. The pool deck, restaurants and wellness areas are all child-free, which gives the whole property a calm, grown-up atmosphere — the main reason couples and solo travelers choose it over the island’s many family resorts.
Is the all-inclusive genuine, and what hours does it run?
It is genuine. The Princess Hotels all-inclusive board covers all meals and snacks plus unlimited drinks across the bars and restaurants from 8am to midnight — it is an own-brand AI programme, not a meal-plan with dining credits. The one honest caveat is that the included spirits are national brands, not premium imports.
What’s the difference between All-Inclusive and All-Inclusive Plus?
The standard All-Inclusive board pours national/local-brand drinks. All-Inclusive Plus adds a selection of recognizable branded beverages and reduced prices on certain premium drinks. If brand-name spirits are important to you, book AI Plus; if you’re happy with beer, wine, soft drinks, cocktails and the house spirit, the standard board is plenty.
Is the hotel on the beach?
No. It sits in central Playa del Inglés, roughly a 10-15 minute walk from the beach and the Maspalomas dunes. You trade direct beach access for an excellent central location near the seafront, the promenade and the Yumbo Centre. If beachfront is essential, choose a Meloneras or Maspalomas property instead.
When is the best time to visit?
Southern Gran Canaria is Europe’s premier winter-sun destination, so December through March is reliably warm and also the busiest, priciest period. For the best balance of warm weather and lower rates, target late spring (May-June) or early autumn (September-October).
How far is it from the airport?
Gran Canaria Airport (LPA) is approximately a 30-35 minute drive from Playa del Inglés — one of the shorter resort transfers on the island, which is a real plus for short winter-sun breaks.
Final Verdict
Score: 8.2 / 10
Gran Canaria Princess is the answer to a very specific question: where do you find a genuinely adults-only, genuinely all-inclusive hotel in the heart of Playa del Inglés without paying luxury prices? It does the things that matter at this level genuinely well — a real 8am-to-midnight AI board, a free wellness area with Turkish bath, sauna and Balinese beds that punches well above its price, a calm child-free pool deck, and a walkable central location that puts the beach, the spectacular Maspalomas dunes and the Yumbo Centre within easy reach. Add Biosphere certification and back-to-back HolidayCheck Recommended awards in 2025 and 2026, and you have a property that consistently delivers on its promise.
Two honest caveats keep it from scoring higher, and you should weigh both. The standard all-inclusive pours national-brand spirits, not premium imports — fine for most, but worth the AI Plus upgrade if brand-name liquor matters to you. And it is not beachfront: you walk to the sand rather than wake up on it. Neither is a flaw so much as a trade-off, and for the right traveler both are easy to accept.
For couples wanting a relaxed, grown-up winter-sun base, and especially for solo travelers who’ll appreciate the fairly priced single-use rooms, this is one of the smartest-value picks in southern Gran Canaria and Spain. Book a high-floor sea-view room, go to dinner early, use the wellness area every day, and you’ll get genuinely good value for money.
Prices and inclusions change — always confirm current rates, the all-inclusive board basis, and the adults-only policy directly with the hotel or your booking provider before you book.