Santa Brigida: Gran Canaria Hill Town With A Pretty Market

Santa Brigida view from the church square Santa Brigida view from the church square

Santa Brigida town was used by the British as their summer Hill Station when they controlled the coal trade in Las Palmas port in the late 19th and early 20th Century. Nowadays it a quiet residential town with a great weekend market (and a great wine stall) and a couple of excellent restaurants.

 

 

 

The main highlights of Santa Brigida are the cobbled streets and old houses surrounding the church and the view up to the cumbres from the church square. The old town only takes about 15 minutes to see but has serious charm and a couple of lovely tapas bars.

If you visit Santa Brigida at the weekend, visit the cute little market. The stalls sell a good range of local fruit and veg and the wine stall is excellent, especially for Gran Canaria wines from the local Monte area. Produce prices at the market are higher than at San Mateo and San Lorenzo as it gets the Las Palmas yuppie crowd.

For local craft beer head into the town's open farm ( entrance in the market car park). There's a restaurant in an old farmhouse that does its own beer as well as traditional food and plenty of animals on the short walk through the farm.

Next door to the market is the Casa del Vino restaurant with its lovely outdoor courtyard. The food here is excellent and it does a good range of local wines by the glass; it's the only restaurant on the island that only serves Gran Canaria wine. The Casa del Vino itelf is a ine museum and shop that stocks many of the island's best wines and also sells several by the glass. 

Otherwise walk into town and stop at Mallow cafe ( a local institution) for churros or the lunchtime paella. From Mallow follow the cobbles to the church and the town's original streets. The palm-studded view up to the Cumbres from the square shows just how Green Gran Canaria is once you get above sea level.

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Tip of the day

  • The Parafarmacia In Gran Canaria Is Not A Chemist!
    The Parafarmacia In Gran Canaria Is Not A Chemist!

    If there is one thing we hate it is visitors being tricked in Gran Canaria. In the past we've warned about overcharging at Gran Canaria chemists, and rip off electronics shops in resorts. 

    In this Tip Of The Day we return to the island's chemists or rather, to the island's fake chemists.

    A chemist in Gran Canaria is called a Farmacia and always has a green cross sign. Farmacias are the only place tobuy medicine in Spain, even basics like paracetamol.

    However, there is another kind of shop in Gran Canaria that looks and sounds like a chemist but doesn't sell medicine. This is the Parafarmacia and it also uses a green cross sign.

    A parafarmacia is a herbal medicine shop that is not allowed to sell any normal medicine such as paracetamol, ibuprofen or antibiotics. 

    Instead, parafarmacias sell herbal alternatives to medicine but don't have to prove that they work and they can charge whatever they want.

    We recently heard from a visitor to Gran Canaria who went into a parafarmacia and was charged 40 euros for a herbal alternative to Ibuprofen. It was only when they read the label that they realised what had happened. 

    To locate a genuine farmacia, see this website and search within your municipio (Puerto Rico is in Mogán, Playa del Inglés is in San Bartolomé de Tirajana). At weekends and on fiesta days many farmacias close but there is always one open, known as the farmacia de guardia, in each municipio.

    Search for the nearest one to you with this tool

    Lex Says: To keep costs down, see this article for the way to ask for generic medicine rather than expensive branded alternatives. 

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