GRAN CANARIA · CANARY ISLANDS
A whole continent on one small island.
Catamaran cruises and dolphin safaris off the south coast, the golden Maspalomas dunes, buggy trails through the volcanic badlands and the pine road up to Roque Nublo. Every kind of day, and sun the whole year round.
A continent in miniature
Sea level to the summit, in one short drive.
Gran Canaria packs a desert, an ocean, deep green ravines and a pine-forest peak into fifty kilometres of road. You can sail in the morning and stand above the clouds by mid-afternoon, climbing through a different landscape every twenty minutes.
Only here
Three things the package brochures undersell.
Snorkel stops and boat trips turn up on every island holiday. A Saharan dune field rolling into the Atlantic, a sacred volcanic monolith on the island’s roof, and whales that never leave do not.
A desert by the sea
The Maspalomas Dunes
A 400-hectare sweep of dunes rolls straight off the Atlantic and up the south coast, protected since 1987, with the old lighthouse standing where the sand meets the sea. Camel trains cross them at first light, and you can walk the ridgelines down to the water.
- 1 Maspalomas: Guided Camel Ride in the Maspalomas Sand Dunes
- 2 Camel Riding in Maspalomas Dunes
- 3 Gran Canaria : Skydiving over Maspalomas Dunes
The island's roof
Roque Nublo
An eighty-metre rock needle left standing when the volcano around it wore away, sacred to the aboriginal Canarii long before Spain arrived. It rises near Pico de las Nieves at 1,949 metres, over a pine forest that spends much of the year above a sea of cloud.
- 1 From Palmas: Pico de las Nieves & Roque Nublo Full-Day Trip
- 2 Gran Canaria: “Peaks of Gran Canaria” Hiking Tour
- 3 Arucas, Teror, Viewpoint Roque Nublo – Highlights Gran Canaria
Resident all year
Atlantic Dolphins & Whales
Pods of pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins live in the deep water just off the south coast the whole year round. The safaris out of Puerto Rico and Mogán reach them on most sailings, in November as readily as in August.
- 1 Gran Canaria: Catamaran Dolphin Watch Cruise with Snorkeling
- 2 From Puerto Rico de Gran Canaria: Dolphin Watching Cruise
- 3 Gran Canaria: Dolphin and Whale Watching Cruise
Start with the standout
The one experience most people book first.
More visitors build a day around this than anything else on the island.
The classics
Gran Canaria's Most Popular Days Out
Dolphin safaris, dune rides, coast-to-cumbre island drives and the boat trips out of the southern harbours. The days most visitors come for.
Where to begin
The experiences a Gran Canaria trip is built around.
The boat trips off the south coast, the dolphin and whale safaris, the buggy runs through the badlands, the barranco descents, the pine road to Roque Nublo and the full coast-to-cumbre island day. The handful of trips most holidays are planned around, and the best way to do each.
Out on the Atlantic
How to get out on the water.
The southern harbours of Puerto Rico and Mogán launch a whole fleet of day boats. Three ways onto the Atlantic, depending on whether you came for the wildlife, the swimming or the quiet.
The cumbre
Above the clouds in half an hour.
Behind the beaches the land climbs fast to 1,949 metres at Pico de las Nieves. Pine forest, almond villages like Tejeda, cave houses cut into the rock and the great monolith of Roque Nublo, with the trade-wind clouds breaking on the ridges below you and Teide floating on the horizon.
Read the guide: the best peaks and cumbre tours →The southwest corner
Little Venice, on the Atlantic.
Puerto de Mogán is a low-rise fishing port threaded with seawater canals and flower-draped footbridges, which is how it earned its nickname. Boats leave the marina for dolphins and quiet coves, the Friday market fills the lanes, and the whole place turns gold when the sun drops into the sea.
See the Puerto de Mogán trips →The island of eternal spring
Beach weather, all twelve months.
Sitting off the coast of Africa on the same latitude as the Sahara, Gran Canaria barely has a winter. The trade winds hold the south coast around the low twenties all year, so the catamarans sail and the dunes stay warm in February the same as in July. There is no wrong month to come.
Boat trips & cruises →Las Palmas
A capital where Columbus stopped.
The island’s capital is a proper Atlantic city: the cobbled Vegueta old town where Columbus took on water before sailing for the Americas, the buzzing Triana shopping streets, a cathedral and museums, and Las Canteras, a three-kilometre golden beach right in the middle of town. Walking tours and city days set out from the port.
- 1 Las Palmas: Las Canteras Beach Snorkeling Trip
- 2 Walking tour Vegueta Old Town Las Palmas ( only in english)
- 3 Las Palmas: Private Old City Guided Walking Tour with Tapas
By intensity
Pick your day, by how hard it pushes.
The same island answers every gear. Flat-calm on the water when you want to do nothing, dust and effort in the middle, and ropes, cliffs and free-fall when you want to find out what you are made of.
Take it easy
Out on calm water.Dolphin and whale safaris, catamaran cruises with a swim stop, and the glass-bottom and submarine trips off the south coast.
Get the dust going
Off-road and out of breath.Buggy safaris through the volcanic badlands, quad trails into the barrancos, e-bikes along the coast and a first surf lesson on the Atlantic.
Full commitment
Ropes, cliffs and free-fall.Abseiling waterfalls deep in the barrancos, coasteering the volcanic cliffs, via ferrata routes on the rock and skydives over the Maspalomas dunes.
Off the tarmac
A volcano under your wheels.
Behind the resorts the south turns to raw volcanic country: black lava fields, dry ravines and dust roads with no one on them. Buggy and quad convoys head out in a line for the badlands and the mountain villages, goggles down, the whole island rattling past. Messy, loud and the most fun you can have on land here.
See all 20 buggy safaris →By place
One island, six different days.
Las Palmas for the city and the old town. Maspalomas for the dunes and the big beaches. Puerto de Mogán for the canals and the sunset. Puerto Rico for the boats. The peaks for the pine forest and Roque Nublo. The inland villages for the markets and the mountain roads.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
A catamaran if you want the sun deck. A safari boat if you want the dolphins. A buggy if you want the dust, a rope if you want the barranco, a board if you want the surf. Or the whole island in a single drive.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
Never been? Here is a long weekend that hits the essentials without a wasted hour.
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