Best Family Hotels in Gran Canaria: Water Park, Mini Club or a Kitchen of Your Own

Every family hotel in Gran Canaria promises a kids' club, so that is not how to choose. What separates the best is the set-up: an all-inclusive resort with its own children's water park, like Maspalomas Princess and Tabaiba Princess, or a bungalow with a kitchen and a supervised mini club, like HD Parque Cristóbal in Playa del Inglés. Decide which of those your children need, then book the hotel that does it best.

Booking for live prices · Review for our take

The Kids' set-up column shows what each hotel actually gives children, not a nightly rate. Family room prices on this island jump hardest in school holidays, so a printed figure would be wrong by next week. Use the Booking link on each row for today's price.

Which family hotel should you book?

Pick the line that matches your children, not your budget alone, and book it while the family rooms are there. Family room stock is limited in school holidays.

Already set on a specific area? Our best hotels in Maspalomas guide compares the Lopesan family resorts there, and the all-inclusive resorts guide is organised by age policy rather than by children's facilities.

Maspalomas Princess

The all-inclusive booking for families with younger children. Maspalomas Princess is a four-star, all-inclusive resort with 389 rooms near the Maspalomas Dunes, and its pool area is built around children: pools with artificial sandy beaches, a children's pool and a children's water park with slides and play areas.

Children are looked after at a mini club with professional monitors, and there is an entertainment programme for all ages with live music and evening shows. Parents get an adults-only zone with a chill-out terrace and its own bar, plus a spa area with hot tubs, saunas and a Turkish bath.

Food runs across a buffet with live cooking and Asian and Italian themed restaurants. For pricing, Princess counts children up to 11 years old; from 12, a child books as an adult. Check current rates for Maspalomas Princess if a water park on the doorstep is what will keep the week easy.

Tabaiba Princess

The booking for families with children of different ages, and parents who want an escape. Tabaiba Princess is a four-star, all-inclusive resort in Maspalomas, partially renovated in 2019, and its pool count is the headline: eight outdoor pools.

Those break down as four pools for adults, one adults-only pool, one children's pool and two in the aquapark, with the children's pool, the aquapark and the adults-only pool all heated in winter. The children's zone has a water park with slides and water games, which gives older children somewhere to go while younger ones stay in the shallow pool.

The adults-only area has a pool with massage jets, sunbeds and Balinese beds, the last at extra cost. It sits about 300 metres from the Maspalomas golf course, so check the distance to the sand before booking if a beach day on foot matters. Check current rates for Tabaiba Princess.

HD Parque Cristóbal Gran Canaria

The self-catering family booking. HD Parque Cristóbal is a complex of 233 bungalows in the centre of Playa del Inglés, and each one opens onto a private terrace with a fully equipped kitchen, which changes the whole rhythm of a week with small children.

Children get their own two swimming pools and a supervised mini club, with daytime and evening entertainment for younger guests. Adults have two large outdoor pools, both heated in winter, an open-air spa bath, a gym and a tennis court, all set in tropical gardens.

Being in the middle of Playa del Inglés puts shops and restaurants close by. Book it if cooking breakfast and some dinners yourself matters more than an all-inclusive wristband. Check current rates for HD Parque Cristóbal.

Hotel LIVVO Koala Garden

The simpler, inland family booking. Hotel LIVVO Koala Garden sits inland in Maspalomas, about 3km from the beach and 2km from Aqualand Maspalomas, and gives children a water-splash playground and a kids' club alongside a year-round outdoor pool.

It is a simpler hotel than the Princess resorts: a buffet restaurant, a bar, a gym and a multi-sports court, with family rooms, including some with a balcony. It is next to shopping centres and the local market.

The trade-off is plain: you will need a bus, a taxi or a car for the beach. Book it if the pool and a kids' club cover your downtime and most days are spent out and about. Check current rates for LIVVO Koala Garden.

What actually differs between family hotels here

Compare these four properly and one pattern decides most bookings: the older your children, the more the pool layout matters and the less the kids' club does. Toddlers need a shallow pool and a mini club; eight- to eleven-year-olds want slides, which is why a hotel with its own water park is worth more to them than any club programme.

Watch the age line. At the Princess resorts, a child counts as a child up to 11, so a 12-year-old books and pays as an adult. That can change the cost of a family room more than the choice of hotel does, so enter real ages when you compare prices.

The second pattern is kitchen versus wristband. All-inclusive saves decisions, but families with fussy eaters or a baby often do better in a bungalow like Parque Cristóbal's, where the fridge and the terrace are yours.

When to book a family hotel in Gran Canaria

Family rooms tend to go first in the Easter holidays, the summer holidays and the October half-term, when many northern European schools break at the same time, and prices rise with them. Book those weeks months ahead, and book the room type before you book the flights.

For days out, from Aqualand and Palmitos Park to the calmest beaches for toddlers, see our Gran Canaria with kids guide. If you have not chosen a resort area yet, the where to stay in Gran Canaria guide explains which bases work best without a car.

FAQ – family hotels in Gran Canaria