Gran Canaria gets called a miniature continent, and for once the cliché holds up. Within 1,560 square kilometres you get dunes, laurel forest, sea cliffs, a summit at 1,949 metres and a city of almost 400,000 people with a beach in the middle of it. Between two landscapes that look nothing alike there is rarely more than half an hour of driving. Nearly half the island has been a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2005.
Start with the thing that shapes the whole trip: here, the north and the south are two different islands.
The north and the south are two different islands
The trade wind comes in from the north-east and dumps its moisture on the mountains. So the north is green, humid and often overcast, while the south gets the same air already dry, with the sun behind it. It can be grey in Las Palmas and 26 degrees without a cloud in Maspalomas, fifty kilometres apart.
In practice: sleep in the south for more reliable beach weather, go north for the food and for more of the island. And if a day starts closed in over the south, the GC-1 puts you in the other climate in three quarters of an hour. The airport sits right in the middle, twenty minutes from Las Palmas and not much more from the southern resorts.
The beaches, and what each one is for
- Playa de las Canteras, in Las Palmas: nearly three kilometres of beach inside the city. In front of it lies La Barra, a volcanic reef that breaks the swell and turns most of the beach into a calm lagoon. That is why you can snorkel at low tide and have lunch three streets away.
- Maspalomas and its dune field, some 400 hectares of protected nature reserve. It is not blown-in Sahara sand: it comes from the sea, and wind and currents have been piling it up there for centuries. The marked path from the lighthouse to La Charca takes about an hour, and the light is best early. What is on offer nearby is under Maspalomas and Playa del Inglés.
- Amadores and Puerto Rico, in the south-west: sheltered coves with still water, built for comfortable swimming days with children.
- Güigüí, in the west, the exact opposite. You get there on a mountain path that takes several hours, or by boat. There is nothing at all when you arrive, and that is precisely the point.
If you prefer rock to sand, Agaete has the natural pools of Las Salinas right beside the village, with still water and, on clear days, Mount Teide across the water.
The high country, where hardly anyone goes
The biggest mistake on Gran Canaria is staying down at sea level. An hour inland, the holiday island turns into something else entirely.
Roque Nublo, at 1,813 metres, is the volcanic plug left standing when everything around it eroded away. The climb is short, a kilometre and a half from the car park, and at the top you are on the roof of the island with Teide on the horizon. Go early: from midday the car park fills and the summit is often buried in the cloud sea.
Around it are the villages that make the island. Tejeda is one of the officially prettiest villages in Spain and lives off almonds; in February the blossom turns the whole valley white. Artenara is the highest village on the island and partly carved into the rock. In the Guayadeque ravine people still live in caves, and you can eat in one too.
Up there is also what earned Gran Canaria its place on the UNESCO World Heritage list in 2019: Risco Caído and the Sacred Mountains, the cultural landscape of the pre-Hispanic islanders, with cave sanctuaries and granaries cut into the cliff face.
The island’s true summit, though, is not the Roque Nublo but the Pico de las Nieves, at 1,949 metres. The exact top is military ground and off limits, but the viewpoint beside it opens over the whole Tejeda caldera, with the Roque Nublo and the Roque Bentayga in the foreground and the Teide on the horizon on clear days. You can drive all the way up, so it is one of the few places here where the view costs no walking.
Nearby, on the Agüimes road, is the Barranco de las Vacas, a short stretch of volcanic tuff eroded into wavy walls that has earned the nickname of a small Antelope Canyon. Two things to know before you turn off: you see it in a quarter of an hour, and there is no car park, only the verge. Go early or late, because very few people fit in at once.
The northern villages
Teror has the basilica of the island’s patron saint and a Sunday market where locals buy chorizo, sweet black pudding and bread. It is the Sunday plan, and it works best in the morning.
Arucas has a neo-Gothic church built from the blue stone quarried in the town itself, far grander than the place seems to warrant, and a rum distillery that has been running since 1884.
And the Agaete valley holds a genuine oddity: coffee is grown here, the only commercially produced coffee in Europe, on smallholdings that also give mango and avocado.
The other major pre-Hispanic site sits on the north coast: the Cenobio de Valerón, in Santa María de Guía, almost three hundred cavities cut into the tuff beneath a natural arch. For centuries it was said to be a convent of maidens, which is where the name comes from, but it was a communal granary: a whole village’s food store, hung on the cliff so that neither damp nor anyone without permission could reach it.
Down on the coast is Puerto de las Nieves, where the ferry to Tenerife leaves and where you eat the best fish in the north, in a row of white houses facing the quay. Offshore stood the Dedo de Dios, the finger-shaped rock that tropical storm Delta snapped in 2005; what is left is still the village postcard.
Things to do in Gran Canaria: what works better here than on the other islands
Canyoning in the laurel forest. You abseil beside clear waterfalls and slide down chutes worn into the rock, inside a forest that is a remnant of the vegetation which covered the Mediterranean basin millions of years ago. No experience needed: the guide provides the kit and the safety. See canyoning in Gran Canaria.
Gran Canaria: canyoning with hotel pickup
Experience the thrill of Canyoning in Rainforest in Gran Canaria! Canyoning Experience in Gran Canaria is an exhilarating activity within the realm of adventure sports, perfect for enjoying with a group or family, suitable for both adults and children. Gran Canaria’s stunning nature offers...
- Gran Canaria
4.9(139) reviews
Rock climbing. The wall in front of you, the Atlantic behind. There are routes for every level and always an experienced guide on the other end of the rope: rock climbing in Gran Canaria. Both disciplines sit together under hiking and climbing.
Gran Canaria: rock climbing for all levels
Rock climbing in Gran Canaria is an outdoor lesson on natural rock, suitable whether you have never climbed before or already know your way up a wall. You don't need any prior experience: your guide teaches the technique as you go. The session lasts...
- Gran Canaria
- 4.9(139) reviews
Cycling. The argument is the elevation: in a single day you go from the coast to the pine forest. On a private bike tour the route is set to your level, and how cycling works across the islands is covered in the Canary Islands by bike. More options under MTB and cycling.
Gran Canaria: private bike tour
The Private Bike Tour in Gran Canaria follows safe paths across the island's volcanic landscape, suitable for both beginners and experienced cyclists. If you enjoy cycling and want a sporting activity on your holiday, this mountain bike route fits the bill. It lasts around...
- Agaete
- 4.9(139) reviews
Diving. The El Cabrón marine reserve, next to Arinaga on the east coast, is one of the best dive sites in the Canaries: arches, caves and visibility that often passes twenty metres.
Whales and dolphins. Boats leave from Puerto Rico and Mogán. Puerto de Mogán itself, with its canals and little bridges, did not get the nickname Little Venice by accident.
When to come and how to get around
On the coast the temperature stays between 18 and 26 degrees all year, so there is no bad month. What changes is the cloud in the north: from June to August it sits under a low grey layer that locals call the panza de burro, the donkey’s belly, which covers the sky without raining. In the high country expect ten degrees less than at sea level, and take a jacket even in summer.
The GC-1 links Las Palmas with the south, and the Global buses cover the coast well. For the mountains you need a car or a guided trip: Artenara and the Guayadeque ravine are not reachable by public transport in any sensible time, and the bends are tight enough that plenty of people would rather someone else drove.
How to split the days
- Three days. One in the mountains with Roque Nublo and Tejeda, one in Las Palmas between Las Canteras and the old quarter of Vegueta, one on a beach in the south.
- Five days. Add the north-west with Agaete and its coffee valley, plus one activity that sticks: canyoning, diving at El Cabrón or a boat trip from Mogán.
- A week. Add Güigüí, the Guayadeque ravine and a Sunday in Teror. And leave one day with nothing planned, because you will want it.
All the excursions in Gran Canaria
To see the options side by side and filter by area or activity type, they are under excursions in Gran Canaria, with separate pages for Las Palmas, Maspalomas, Mogán and outdoor activities.
