Hotel Catarina Lopesan Reviews

The Hotel was very good, our room was of a good size with a huge balcony. Would recommend asking for room 232 as the balcony is big as the room itself. Cleaned everyday by a very friendly cleaner who always chatted to the children. All the staff in the hotel were friendly and great to the kids. Maintenance quick and good as we did have a problem with a plug sockett and a sunhat dropped onto the roof below!! Only bad points would be the lack of variety at meal times ,it was always good and always something being cooked in front of you ie paella, tortilla etc. Also some evenings it took a while to search for a free table. It has got a lot of Germans but you do have to remember lots of Germans holiday in GC but on the plus side they do demand high standards and generally get it. Not too far from the heart of Playa if you enjoy a stroll.

ovely hotel. Very clean and spacious. Rooms were excellent.

Twin beds, bath c/w shower, hairdryer, shaving mirror, fridge,TV, balcony and air conditioning. Cleaned daily with fresh towels if you need them. Note that the air conditioning switches off if the balcony door is opened. The air conditioning can make the room feel quite cold. A card opens the room door, which is also used to switch power to the lights in the room. You can also put cash on the card and use it as a 'credit' card in the hotel - this will entitle you to a 10% discount. Reception staff are very friendly and efficient and speak good English. They will change traveller's cheques for you. (Barclays Bank on Avenida Tirajana refused point blank to change them, as did a number of other places)
Kids will get cards that they can exchange for a free drink at the poolside bar.

Restaurant is buffet style, plenty of choice, well cooked and presented but obviously German style.
Lovely grounds, plenty of sunbeds (no charge). 3 swimming pools, Jacuzzis
and waterfall. Lifeguard on duty 1000 hrs - 1800 hrs at the main pool. Kiddies playground as well. Good entertainment team and nightly entertainment as well.
Poolside bar serves tea, coffee and alcoholic drinks and lunches.
A small shop sells papers, magazines etc.
Outside the hotel is a wide avenue (Avenida Tirajana). Turn right to get to the beach, and then left at the RIU Palace and right again along the pedestrian path. The hotel runs a free shuttle bus service to the beach (times on the board outside). On the beach it will cost E20 for 4 sunbeds and a parasol. No games, pets, music or watersports allowed. It is a nice walk along the promenade to the beach (about 1Km) past the Maspalomas sand dunes. A pleasant walk in the evening. No drunks, thugs or teenage louts.
Turn left outside the hotel and a short walk will take you up to a roundabout. Cross the road. The traffic will stop for you on the crossing. A short walk to the right will bring you to the CITA centre - restaurants, supermarkets, clothes shops etc all under one roof. You will see an artist offering to do drawings of children. Just be careful as they want a photograph of the child 24 Hrs beforehand so that they can 'study' it. Might be OK but when it comes to children I'm suspicious.
Further up Avenida Tirajana and to the right again is the oddly named 'Yumbo' centre, just a bigger version of the CITA centre.
If you have small children note that many postcards/T shirts/mugs etc can have references to sx on them.

Taxis are cheap, efficient, clean and fast. Easily recognizable - half red/white and kept in very good condition. Nothing like some of the wrecks that pose as taxis in the UK.
If the taxi is free there will be a green light lit on the roof.
Taxis in Puerto Rico/Mogan are half green/half white.
Plenty for the kids to do - Aqualand is not far away. Take a taxi.
Palmitos wildlife park is a bit further away - take the bus (Global No 45)
left outside the hotel and go to the bus stop at the other side of the roundabout. Get tickets from your tour rep and you won't have to queue.

If you are interested in dolphins the Spirit of the Sea trip is worthwhile. Lovely sight. Bear in mind that it is a small boat and it gets thrown about even on a calm day.
The Yellow submarine will amuse them as well.
Island Discovery tour is very good as well. Lovely villages.
Puerto Mogan (Little Venice) is a nice place. The market (Friday) is disappointing. Lots of stalls on the harbour selling the same thing. You can take a tour or take the bus (Global No 32) at Riu Palace.
If you want to hire a car be advised by your tour rep. There's some awful rental agencies everywhere with some dubious cars. Note that if you park your car on the street it must face the same way as the traffic flow otherwise you risk a fine and the traffic police are very efficient. If you are on the mountain roads beware that there are some unbelievable bends. A tour bus will sound its horn as it reaches the bend and it will take the entire road to get round it.

Don't buy ANYTHING at duty free at any British airport before you fly. It's a rip off as usual. Prices in Gran Canaria are much cheaper - cigarettes/tobacco/spirits/perfume/electronics. Nintendo PSP etc games etc are much cheaper as well. Haggle for them. Bear in mind that although the Canaries are in the EU your customs allowance on your return is not the same as the rest of the EU.
The My Travel reps were pretty awful. They never turned up on time and more often than not never turned up at all and their notice board was blank for 3 days. However their local 24 Hr tel no was answered within seconds.
The rep on the bus to/from the airport simply made it plain she wasn't interested. If every other tour operator can provide a proper service it why can't they?

Gran Canaria is a lovely island. You will enjoy every minute.

Firstly lets deal with the Germans! everyone writting a review seems fixated by the Germans.This hotel and EVERY hotel in the world is 70% German so just get on with it and maybe we will all learn to enjoy our holidays more. But then again half of us brits only really go on holiday to moan so just go to Skeggy instead.

Now the hotel,
Situated between the main resort and Maspalomas (althougt its a main road of sorts) its very quiet and peaceful. Try and get a room with a pool view and you can glimpse the sea off your balcony. The walk along the seafront is 2mins away by the rui palace.
The hotel is massive, if you stand at 1 end of it you cant see the other end but this is what makes it work so well. Its one long building with 1 huge garden at the rear.I have yet to see pics to do the gardens justice, at each ends are fantastic shaded garden areas with a pond and loads of trees and toward the middle little pathways lead to covered terraces and the pools are in the centre. So from complete chillout to raving it up in the jacuzzi tubs to reading by the pond its your choice. Oh we never went for a sunbed till 3pm each day and never failed to get 1

The staff are all helpful and the rooms are cleaned daily to a very good standard.
Tip- you need your room card in the slot by the door to work the Aircon so you cant leave it on when you are out, but any credit sized card works (morrisons petrol card)

Food is good quality although a little samey theres loads of choice so you are easily going to please everyone. only thing and i hate to say it Germans dont queue and dont understand why we do so they will just walk up to what they want! but you kinda get the hang. there 2 huge toast machines thay do 10 slices a go and we brits just want our 2 slices in it!

Dont have kids but from what we saw the kids were well entertained and all looked happy, the kids club looked safe and fun plenty of supervision.
Went out every night so dont know about entertainment in evening but most nights looked as if they were doing something with the kids.

Great news the timeshare touts are nearly all gone bad news there are more looki-looki men but i just said NO NOW GO to one real loud and we never got bothered again all week.
taxi's anywhere in the resort are still 3euro so walk down the sea front, drink till you drop then taxi home.

Best places to eat out on the front are Roma (posnosh) and Cactus(simple but tasty)
Drinking -Kasbar the Irish tavern, tip em and they just get stronger and stronger or if your on the front the cactus or dragon pub.Sadly since moving Linekars its gone well downhill

Finally if your tour operator does the evening trip to Mogan on the boat its a must.
You sail for 2 hrs while the sun goes down with pavorotti and champers then go to the quaint harbour for a rooftop BBQ. well romantic.

As a regular to Gran Canaria i really am impressed by this hotel , i have rebooked on my return and i never stay somewhere twice.

After reading some of the reviews for the Catarina we were a bit wary, but it was absolutely perfect in every way. The hotel staff were very friendly, the bar staff were helpful, the food was wonderful - even our fussy 4 year old ate well all week.
The hotel is situated a 15 minute walk from the lively Kasbah centre, where the drinks are fairly expensive, but well worth a visit to people watch.
The Yumbo centre was great for shopping and stopping for a drink afterwards.

All in all I would highly recommend this hotel and resort and cant wait to go back again.

Read a few less than complimentary reviews regarding the accommodation prior to our holiday which were a little off putting. I am pleased to say that in my view these were well wide of the truth. The room was a good size and cleaned to a consistently high standard. The restaurant provided an excellent varied choice and while I'll admit veal regularly featured , it was presented in various guises with some delicious sauces. The staff couldn't have been any more friendly.

Personally I dont normally enjoy sitting around the pool but in thais case I was quite happy as the terrace is very pleasant being surrounded with palm trees and various flowering shrubs. As for the resort we enjoy walking and found once you get your bearings it is easy to get to all the centres while also finding a few small bars along the way, not everything is in the centres which some rewiews seem to infer. An example of this is the British Bulldog, dont let the name put you off, about 15mins walk from the hotel. The atmosphere and the staff here are very friendly and make an effort to get to know everyone on first name terms. The beach is also only about 15mins walk if you cut down by the Cita centre. Getting down to the beach involves a number of steps or you could continue along the road and wind down by Ciao Ciao although this a considerably longer walk.

Overall we enjoyed our holiday and would definitely go back to the Catarina.