We stayed for a week at the Grand Horizon Luxury Apartments, arriving in Gran Canaria at around 7pm. First impressions weren’t great. We were faced with a keypad-locked gate and no clear way of getting in, as neither my wife nor I had received any email explaining the arrival process. Thankfully, two guests leaving the complex let us through. Check-in then involved speaking to someone via a Ring doorbell at an empty reception desk, which made the whole experience feel rather cold and impersonal. The apartment itself was decent enough: spacious, clean and well laid out. There were, however, a few odd omissions. There was shampoo but no conditioner, and none of the little bathroom extras you might expect from somewhere describing itself as a place to “immerse yourself in a world of opulence”. That felt a bit over-ambitious from the outset. The bed was comfortable and the bedding was clean, but the pillows had a stale smell, seemingly due to the lack of pillow liners. I actually ended up putting them outside to air during the stay. Most staff interaction after check-in was done either through WhatsApp or via the same Ring doorbell. That, it seems, is what “fully automated” really means here. Very modern, perhaps, but when you’re paying luxury prices, some actual human hosting would go a long way. One member of staff who does deserve special praise is Melo, the food and catering manager. Lovely guy, genuinely friendly and helpful, and an excellent cocktail maker. Overall, our stay landed somewhere between average and good. On one Sunday afternoon, a house DJ turned up and played a oud set in the bar area. Fine if you enjoy pounding house music, less appealing if you were hoping for a peaceful afternoon. One final detail stood out. The apartment comes with a limited supply of coffee pods. On the penultimate day, I asked why housekeeping hadn’t topped them up, only to be told I could buy more from a nearby vending machine called “The Market Place”. That would have meant purchasing ten pods the day before we were due to leave, which seemed a bit absurd. To be fair, the person I spoke to eventually agreed to send some extras. Still, it does make you question how well this fits with the advertised “world of opulence”. I don’t want to put prospective guests off entirely, because there is plenty to like here. The complex is clean, the ocean views are excellent, there’s pool access, gym equipment, and the apartments themselves are perfectly decent. My overall impression, though, is that it feels like a hotel operating with the bare minimum of staff. If you’re used to a more traditional hotel experience, that disconnect may be noticeable. A few practical points are worth mentioning. Parking is limited, so you may need to keep a close eye on available spaces. The apartments are also at the top of a long, winding hill, so having a car feels fairly essential. Housekeeping visits every two days and does a decent enough job, although the stale-smelling pillow
