Canaima Apartments

Puerto Rico very nice place, very clean and safe. Not a lot to do at night with kids my daughter is 11 and wanted to come home at nights.
Canaima apartments clean but only changed our bed once in two weeks. Towels got changed about 3 times a week.
The staff very nice, the owner isn't, lots and lots of cats, look like they could do with a good meal.
Would not go back but I am some one that once you have been, I would go to other places.

We have just returned from staying at the Canaima apartments for the 2nd time, its a great place, but not if you don’t like cats as there are loads.
The staff are really friendly and so too was our Thomson rep.
The apartments are basic and clean with maids coming and cleaning every other day.
A bar to recommend is the Harbour lights and a Restaurant is Oscars.
I would also recommend hiring a car so you can drive round the island, it’s a beautiful place.
We also did a day trip to Tenerife to the Lora Parke, it’s a long day, but well worth it.
Can’t wait to go back and stay at the Canaima again.

Just spent a week at the Canaima Apartments. Our first impression when we arrived was not good as the receptionist/owner was very abrupt and aggressive towards me and fellow members of our party, however, the room we had paid for which was one of the larger family rooms, was clean with a fantastic view. The pool was really good, which catered for adults and children and was very clean. The bar area and staff were fantastic and were very helpful and friendly towards everyone. The cleaning of the rooms was very good but the bed linen was supposed to be changed at least once during the week, but ours was not, and the condition of the some of the sheets were torn! If you require a cushion for your sun bed you will be given a key to enter a room where cat food and cock roaches are in abundance! and told to return it when you have finished with them at the end of the day. There a lot of cats present at these apartments but they tend to stay around the reception area and do not venture near your apartments unless you foolishly feed them. The Canaima Apartments are situated on a hillside with maybe 320 + steps down to the main shopping and eating areas, this is quite a pleasant walk down but depending on your age and fitness and the time of day can be quite tiring to walk back up. A taxi is recommended which you can get near the McDonalds for 2/3 Euros (good value). Overall we did enjoy our stay and found the Canaima very good but think the management did try to skimp on a few things and could do with spending some money and bringing this nice complex upto date.

Great holiday it just went to fast, really friendly at the Canaima apartments.
There are a lot of cats but they really don’t bother you at all, all they do is sleep.
The shop and reception is open till 6am so great if you run out of anything. The food and drinks are cheap there too.
We kept our apartment on because we weren’t leaving till 8.00pm (20euros) but if you didn’t want to there are facilities for you to freshen up before leaving.

Lovely apartment, basic but would stay there again. Pool was really nice, had a separate children’s pool with slide.
Bar serving drinks, meals, ice creams, and snacks. Staff are really friendly, apartments are cleaned 4/5 times a week, which is good.
The only downside was that Puerto Rico is known for stray cats and the staff used to feed them, although they were never around the apartment they were always round the reception area, which some people would have to pass to go to the pool.
Gran Canaria is also well known for steps and steep hills. There are a number of steps to get to these apartments but they are not very steep, but if you didn’t want to climb the steps, a taxi from the main centre to the apartment is only 2 Euros 15. Which is about £1.50.
I would recommend staying at this apartment.

Me and my boyfriend went here for a week on holiday and absolutely loved it.
It was very clean, with friendly staff, and I just adored all the little cats. They don't bother you at all, and most of them are very clean and friendly. I even ended up naming some of them.
The only downside to this hotel is the fact that it is up loads of stairs, so its probably not to great for people with walking difficulties.
However, after the first 2 days of walking up and down these stairs to the town centre, it gets much easier. By the end of the week I was fit as a fiddle, and it kept all the drinking weight off. he he.
We loved it here so much we are hoping to return in April/May 2007. Hopefully some of the same cats will be there.
Oh, the hotel also put on entertainment which is good.

Now where do we start?
The Canaima apartments are a mess, the paint is peeling off the walls, the sheets were stained, there was no enamel on the bath, the shower curtain was moldy and the shower just dribbled. Considering this was a self catering apartment there was only one working electric hob and only one pan with no cooking utensils and no other way to cook food, (that is if you can get the food from the shops which are either about 1000 steps up and down or about a 10 Euro taxi ride away).
The complex was dirty and noisy with builders next door which the very unhelpful reception staff insisted has stopped but which continued on for hours, and started up again the next day, then the extremely unhelpful rep said must be a ‘one off’ although other guests said it had been going on for the last week too!
We can agree with some other comments that the taxis are cheap, it was only 2 – 3 Euros to get down to the town, but then you have to add the 3 Euros the reception charge for calling the taxi, plus another 2 – 3 Euros to get back up the mountain so if you went to and from the apartments only twice a day whilst you are there it would cost around £100 pounds! Of course you don’t have to use the taxi’s there are steps straight down to the town, but unless your main hobby is mountaineering you would not want to do this more than once! (See the other comments on this one)
After being in this dive for only a few minutes we knew we wouldn’t be staying, it took a lot of work and arguing (and more money) but eventually we did move to much nicer apartments in a different area of Gran Canaria which we would highly recommend.
All in all we would not recommend Puerto Rico or the Canaima apartments even to our worst enemy. But if you feel the need to go hiking up and down steps to visit an area we can only compare to Benidorm on a very bad day then please stay here!
P.S. The cats are not a problem. But did I mention the steps.

My friend and I have just returned from the Canaima apartments after a week there. There are cats but they don't bother you. The apartments are clean and tidy, the maid comes in 5 days a week to clean the apartments and change the towels. The staff are nice and friendly. The only off putting thing was all the stairs we had to climb on the way back up to the apartments, I must admit we only did that once!!! A taxi only cost 2.50 euros and it was well worth it.
The San Miguel restaurant was fabulous, there are queues outside it all the time, but you don't have to wait long to be seated. The menu is extensive and the food is very cheap. I would give it 10 out of 10. We went to a bar called Scruffy Murphy’s which was great, the compere is very funny and there are guest acts on every night.
I would recommend the catamaran trip too. It started at 4pm and finished at 8pm. We got a meal and you could drink as much as you wanted. On the way back there was a cool breeze which was fantastic.

Canaima apartments are very good they are on the right side to get the sun on the other side of the valley they don’t get it until midday.
If you have small children then the 300 odd steps may be a problem but the taxis are quite cheap. If walking down to the beach then it can take about 20 minutes. We mostly ate at the San Miguel bar in the shopping centre nice food reasonable price.
The apartments are home to quite a few cats but if left alone they don’t bother you. Overall we had a really good time and cant wait to go back.

The apartment was lovely and clean and the pool was fantastic and so were most of the staff, but be aware do not book these apartments if you do not like cats as it is a cat sanctuary and is the home of around 20 cats! we did not know this when we booked as it doesn’t mention anything about cats in the brochure because if it did we would never have booked as my mother was with us and she is petrified of cats. On one occasion my 2 year old daughter bent down to stroke one of the cats and it attacked her and bit her arm on reporting this to the management we were told to not touch the cats but there are no signs to this affect anywhere on the complex. we will tell you this as Thomson conveniently leaves this out of their brochure!