Playa Del Ingles, Sandy Beach Hotel

We are all regular travellers to Gran Canaria. We go for the sunshine, the beaches, cheap cigarettes and this first class Sandy Beach hotel.

Sandy Beach Hotel is German-owned so you won't find it in any British holiday brochures! And because it's German-owned it is perfectly normal for them to give top quality service. We paid around £80 per night for a double room which includes breakfast and dinner!

Breakfast can be a full-blown English or a straight forward continental. It's buffet style, so help yourself! The choice is tremendous; cereals, ham & cheese, bacon & eggs, omlettes, sausages, potatoes, pastries, toast, etc. And you can eat as much as you like.

Dinner is even better. Normally a choice of 3 meats on the carvery, 2 fish dishes, casseroles, soups, themed dishes every night, potatoes, chips, salad, cold meats and a huge selection of desserts to make your mouth water. The staff are great. This is a four star hotel but the staff are always willing to chat and have a laugh with you.

The pools are heated unlike many other GC hotels, there is a pool bar and nightly cabaret entertainment. The beach is just 300 yards down the road, the shops 300 yards up the road.

The Yumbo Centre is the largest of the shopping centres; great for sitting in a bar and watching the antics of the community having fun. The shops here are pretty tacky. Stay away from the camera/video shops, jewellers and leather shops, they are all rip-off merchants.

Maceys, in the Yumbo Centre is probably the best clothes shop; they also have a branch in Maspalomas, along the Faro Boulevard, which is a great place for shopping.

Most other shopping centres in Playa del Ingles are to be wary of; the Kasbah is a smaller version of the Yumbo. One place we did like was the CITA Shopping Centre. The shops there were of a better class and some the bars and restaurants had cabaret entertainment. Faro 2 Shopping Centre is not too bad. This has a spiral walkway with shops on one side all the way up. There is a restaurant/bar in the middle of this spiral, and all around the outside of the centre.

Playa del Ingles is a lively resort. The gay community (boys & girls) have almost colonised it. In saying that, the Parades and entertainments that happen every weekend are brilliant. When we were there last (May time), they had the International Drag Queen competition - the sights were awsome!

We book Sandy Beach Hotel direct through the Internet and arranged the flights also on-line ourselves. We even booked a minibus to meet us at Las Palmas Airport to drive the 12 of us to the hotel. (Try www.canaryres.com)

If you are looking for guaranteed sunshine within 4 hours of England, then Playa del Ingles is not at all bad. Yes, there are some dirty places, particularly some of the apartments that you get with the British Tour Operators. But if you find a first class hotel like Sandy Beach, you'll love it as much as we do.

Check out their website: www.seaside-hotels.de

But don't tell too many people about it!