Best things to do in Gran Canaria: beaches, nature, villages and food

Gran Canaria has the rare ability to suit almost any type of traveller. You can arrive thinking only of the beach and end up falling in love with its mountains, or plan a city break and end up watching the sunset among the dunes. Its best experiences are not limited to the coast: they are also on the inland roads, in the markets, in the ravines and in the villages where time passes more slowly.

Getting lost in the Maspalomas dunes

The Maspalomas dune is pure contrast: sand that shifts with the wind, light that changes by the hour and an unexpected silence a few minutes from the hotels. Walking through it early in the morning or just as the sun goes down multiplies the effect, almost like a film set.

Experiencing Las Canteras like a local

Las Canteras beach is much more than a beach: it is one of the great meeting points of the Canary Islands. Here you swim, stroll, have breakfast looking out to sea, exercise and have dinner with the Atlantic as a backdrop. It's the best way to understand the daily pulse of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.

Heading up to the summit

The climb towards Roque Nublo, Tejeda or Artenara reveals a side of Gran Canaria far removed from the beaches of the south: green slopes, dense pine forests and ravines cutting their way between mountains. It's an excursion that especially delights those who enjoy walking and taking photos along the way.

Sitting down to eat well

A trip to Gran Canaria is also remembered for what you eat. Cheeses, wrinkled potatoes with mojo, fresh fish, homemade sweets and products from the mid-altitude farmland appear in markets, restaurants and eateries all over the island. Eating inland after a mountain hike is often one of the best moments of the trip.

Discovering charming villages

Each village tells a different part of the island: Teror with its devotion and wooden balconies, Tejeda leaning over the ravine, Agaete right by the sea and Puerto de Mogán among canals and bougainvillea. Visiting them is the fastest way to understand that Gran Canaria doesn't fit on a single postcard.

The trips that work best in Gran Canaria are those that combine extremes: swimming in the sea before lunch, heading up to the mountains in the afternoon, wandering through a city the next day and finding, without looking for it, a sunset that changes everything.