Yumbo Centrum

The Yumbo Centre is best looked at in 3 bits, structure, daytime and nighttime.

Structure - The Yumbo Centre was built many years ago out of a quarry. Since we first visited, over 20 years ago, the structure has become tired, but the Centre has made huge improvements, including the main square. It is a rectangular structure with 3 floors. If you are not fit, use the lifts!

The Centre is full of shops, cafes, restaurants, amusement arcades and bars.

In the daytime, it is less busy, mainly focusing on shops, but with a smattering of restaurants, cafes and bars open. Some will find the sales techniques of some shopkeepers a bit overly pushy, but you can find some interesting stuff.

From late afternoon, the Centre wakes up. It has many L, G, B and T (+j venues and I would argue, is the safest and friendliest commercial centre on the Island. The later into the evening, the greater the buzz. There is lots of free entertainment including Sparkles, Funny Boys and Ricky’s.

Though their are normally major free events held in the Yumbo Centre, such as the Carnival and Pride, Covid 19 has hit these hard and for the immediate future, most are being cancelled or restructured, but the organisers are working hard to find imaginative ways to carry on through the pandemic.

The Yumbo Centre was closed completely when Covid 19 lockdown measures were introduced. As the restrictions were slowly lifted, the Centre has begun to wake up. Not all bars and restaurants are open yet but many have decided to bite the bullet, notably Buddies and The English Bakery have to be worth a visit or 2.

Don’t miss out on this friendly Centre, but I would suggest that you really must check out the nighttime economy.

In fairness it was only half open during our visit post lockdown, but even then it wasn’t much to shout about.

The place looks 40 years out of date, and feels like one of those horrible soulless “Brits Abroad “ locations for cheap beer and awful drag acts.

It’s also impossible to walk more than 10 metres without being begged to go into a bar or restaurant and it’s just hassle hassle hassle.

Old and crappy, instead of feeling like wasting some money there, you feel more like holding your wallet.

Crappy shops where i would never go in. You can't even walk around relaxed because employees pursue you telling you come in to my shop my friend.

Only at the lower floor there is a couple of nice restaurants.

There are way better places to go

Wow, a fabulous wee find in the center of Ymubo area. The only restaurant I've found that will offer seafood paella for 1, as opposed to 2, my partner is not a fan of this dish.
Bruschetta with serrano ham and fried octopus for starters - so tasty and filling. Could easily have filled us up as mains, the servings were that generous.
Seafood paella and duck with black tagliatelle for mains - superb! Paella was filled with seafood, couldn't finish it all after large starter but would have loved to. Partner said duck with pasta was one of the best dishes he's ever tried. He loved seeing the lady flambé the duck in front of him.
Drinks for us were Erdinger bottler beer and Sangria - basic but good.
All in, we were €75, or apx £68. Definitely worth it, the service was amazing all round from each member of staff.

Some reviews say that the Yumbo can be a marmite experience. That may be true depending on your preferences etc. but as a Gran Canarian tourist for 20 years now, the Yumbo still hasn’t lost the gay charm that it had on our first visit in 2002!

The centre may be 40 years old in 2022 but still has the allure, pull and intrigue that makes it such a special place. Having just spent over a week here and the Yumbo is as busy as it was years ago with a great crowd and spirit!

A good selection of fantastic restaurants offering a variety of dining options. Some have stood the test of time and others that are new to the scene.

There are also some wonderful independent traders offering local and personalised goods. You have to pick them out from some of the more standard tourist fares.

For sure the bars are firmly catered to the gay market but that has never been hidden away from. The entire area is a gay mecca and long may that continue.

As a couple that have been to most of the main gay centres around the world, we continue to return to GC and to the Yumbo to take advantage of the very safe gay environment that caters to its gay clientele and any specific desires they may want.

The loyal pink pound will continue to support the Yumbo as long as the Yumbo is around to support the gay community. 🏳️‍🌈

Difficult to describe I'm not one for the bright lightsand and party atmosphere which the centre has plenty of but there are also some fantastic restaurants and bars within the centre. Some of the bars offer free shows which are quite entertaining. There are also a range of shops from the cheap tacky tourist stuff to high end

Cruise bar in the Yumbo centre. Great cruise bar, plenty of talent all ages. 12 euros on entry, Due to covid restrictions all bars close at 4am bit gutted about that.

Every year you visit the yumbo centre it feels more and more tired. The key bars all accept cash only which is just unacceptable in this day and age. We don’t carry cash anymore so we’re limited in our choice. We found a couple of bars that accepted credit cards but they were full of smokers making the environment unpleasant.

Radical change is needed to keep this destination relevant especially to a younger and millennial gay crowd

The famous yumbo, aka jumbo sized shopping centre. So much to see and do, but firstly please note it’s not only gay friendly but it’s got lots of gay ran businesses and followers of them, so if you are not gay friendly then you will not enjoy going there. It’s like a small city, everything from banks to bars, restaurants and shops, night clubs, gay saunas, cruising bars, drag queen cabaret bars, oh and Burger King. We loved ricky’s show bar, amazing. Also surprised to see some good quality shops in there too. Great place to go when it’s windy or cloudy, you can find loads to do and see.

Yes it looks dated but this huge shopping centre is quite entertaining in itself and not just in the evening when it really comes alive.
There’s one higher end fashion store and various other stores catering in the main for the gay guys ie swimwear, fashion fetish wear.
The perfume boutiques are good but shop around to get the best deals if they’ve a calculator in their hand they’ll discount.
Only off putting thing about shopping here is the owners/ shop staff are in your face so you have to be a robust sort of person to resist their pushy sales tactics.
Plenty of tat shops that sell all sorts but again the pleasure of looking is spoilt by the pushy sales people.
Restaurants are good and varied offering reasonably priced food and a full English breakfast for less than 5 Euros can be had.
Evening time is when the centre comes alive. There are many gay bars and one in bar in particular Sparkles offers great entertainment if you like drag acts.
Taxis and bus services available outside at reasonable rates.
Would I visit again yeah most definitely.