Playa del Ingles in Maspalomas Gran Canaria is one of the most popular gay destinations in Europe. Why? Because the sun is shining mostly all year round, the dunes are more crowded than a shopping street at Saturday afternoon and the Yumbo Center offers you more gay fun per square meter than any big city!
Gay nightlife
The gay part of Gran Canaria is in the south of the Island, in Playa del Ingles. Which is part of the Maspalomas municipality.
A gay holiday in Gran Canaria is all about the gay beach during the day, or the hotel pool of one of the many gay resorts. And party at night, in one of the many bars and clubs in the Yumbo entertainment center.
Layout of Maspalomas
On this map you see the basic layout of Maspalomas. The Yumbo, where all the gay night life is, is situated in the middle of Playa del Ingles. The gay beach is at the south end. Most buildings in Playa del Ingles are hotels and resorts.
The centre of gay nightlife is the Yumbo Centrum. The Yumbo is an outdoor entertainment and shopping center in Play del Ingles. It's an open space on 4 levels with a small park in the middle.
The ground floor is all terraces, most focused on the LGBT community. The upper floors are occupied with restaurants, several shops and more gay bars and clubs.
The gay beach is very popular on nice days with not too much wind. There are sunbeds to rent, and a small kiosk sells drinks and snacks.
The beach can be reached by a 20 minute walk from Faro lighthouse.The other route is via a 30 minute walk via red route through the dunes from the Riu hotel in Playa del Ingles. That walk is entertaining (but more about that later).
The gay beach is easy recognizable at the the rainbow flag at the little kiosk (number 7) near the water. If you want to be comfortable, you can hire a chair. You can also lay down between the men near the water on the dune at the right. The beach is clothing optional.
Dinner
For dinner, Yumbo offers a scale of gay owned restaurants, where you can have cheap and rather decent food. And mostly, the menu is there for you in your native language! Dinner time is the Spanish one, so quite late around 21:00.
Where to stay?
If you come for the gay nightlife, take a hotel or resort near the Yumbo. We prefer to stay in a range of max 500m. See our map for best available options.
Staying closer to the gay beach at Maspalomas can also be a good option, as it is only a few minutes by cheap taxi.
We do not advise to stay any further away. Some flight+hotel packages put their guests in the middle of nowhere, with long taxi rides to Yumbo or gay beach. It might be cheaper, but most regret this and book closer to Yumbo a next time.
During high season (October/November) and the pride and event weeks, often everything gets fully booked. So plan ahead.
You can take a taxi to the lighthouse in Faro. From there it's about a 20 minute walk to the gay beach. It's an easy flat walk if you follow the coastline.
How far is the walk to the gay beach?
The starting point is the Riu hotel on Av. de Tirajana. From there it's about a 30 minute walk. In summer heat it can be quite hot. On the way back it's a more relaxing walk.
Hotels
Combine Gran Canaria with:
Madrid
Spain
Madrid is the capital of Spain and is a very beautiful city. Their gay pride is one of the biggest in Europe. The gay night-life is concentrated in the area Chueca, which is right in the center of the city. There are many gay bars, clubs and gay saunas. The night-life is happening on Fridays and Saturdays mostly.1780 km from Gran Canaria
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