Gran Canaria fits a desert, a pine ridge and a rainforest into one hour’s drive.
Camel trains on the Maspalomas sand, dolphin boats out of Puerto Rico, buggies grinding up to Roque Nublo, a submarine going down off Mogán quay. Reviews of every tour you can book on the island, with prices and running times.
The dunes, a dolphin boat, the buggy road and the submarine.
Four days out that between them cover the whole island: the south coast, the open Atlantic, a mountain track and the harbour floor. What each costs, and what the people who took it said.
01The dune hourGuided Camel Ride in the Maspalomas Sand DunesA camel train across the Maspalomas sand, early or late while the ridge still throws a shadow. Twenty minutes of it is worth the whole photograph.
02The Atlantic morningDolphin Watching CruiseOut of Puerto Rico into the channel where the bottlenose pods feed. Dolphins most of the year, pilot whales through the winter, no aquarium glass involved.
03The road inlandGran Canaria Guided Buggy TourA buggy up the barranco onto the ridge roads. The south coast is flat and built; twenty minutes uphill it stops being either.
04The harbour floorSubmarine TourA real submarine dive off Mogán quay, down to a wreck and the fish living on it. The one thing here that works just as well under a grey sky.
Gran Canaria’s best hours are spent off the south-west coast.
The water between Puerto Rico, Arguineguín and Mogán stays warm all year and the cliffs drop straight into it. Four kinds of day afloat, what it costs to get aboard each one, and what you actually see.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · Dolphin Watching Cruise
Dolphin and whale boatsResident bottlenose pods; pilot whales through the winter.
Catamaran daysShade, a swim ladder and lunch cooked on board.
Snorkel stopsAnchoring under the cliffs where the water goes clear.
First divesShallow bays, a wreck or two, gear and an instructor included.
Every one of Gran Canaria’s 47 boat days →
Six places on Gran Canaria, and the day you came for in each.
The dune resorts in the south, the capital up on the north coast, a marina cut into cliffs on the west side, the harbour the boats leave from, the rock standing at the centre of the island and the green villages behind it.
Twenty minutes from the beach the road turns to dust.
The middle of Gran Canaria is a collapsed volcano with roads cut round the rim. Buggies and jeeps take the barranco tracks up to the villages, the via ferrata bolts go straight up the rock face, and the canyons drop back down the other side.
Las Palmas is a working port city with a swimming beach down the middle.
Everything in Las Palmas →
Vegueta’s stone streets and the cathedral tower at one end, three kilometres of Las Canteras sand at the other, and Europe’s deepest ocean aquarium on the quay in between. It is an hour up the motorway from the south, and the reason to give the north a whole day.
Poema del Mar, on a timed ticket
Three habitats over four floors, ending at a curved viewing wall with hammerheads and rays behind it. It is the first place the whole south coast drives to when the sky goes grey, so the slot matters more than the ticket.
North coast, caldera, back by dinner
The standard loop climbs from the coast through Teror and Tejeda, stops under Roque Nublo and comes back down the west side. Long, but it is the only way to see both climates without a hire car.
Las Canteras end to end
The promenade runs unbroken from the surf end to the port, which makes it the one part of the island built for two wheels and no hills. Go late afternoon, when the beach bars fill up.
The Gran Canaria days out with the longest queues.
Every Gran Canaria review →Eight tours more travellers take than anything else here, and what each one earns its place with.
1
Poema del Mar Skip-the-Line Ticket
Explore Poema del Mar in Gran Canaria with skip-the-line entry, 35 ecosystems, huge tanks, coral reefs, sharks, rays, and Canary species.
From · $32
Read our review →
2
Submarine Tour
from $45
3
Guided Camel Ride in the Maspalomas Sand Dunes
from $21
4
Guided tour of the Banana World
from $18
5
Dolphin Watching Cruise
from $47
6
Dolphin and Whale Watching Cruise
from $40
7
Gran Canaria Guided Buggy Tour
from $85
8
Horse Riding Adventure with Transfer Options
from $75
The Maspalomas dunes are a nature reserve, not a beach extra.
Four hundred hectares of Saharan sand between Playa del Inglés and the lighthouse, still travelling a few metres a year. Walking in is free at any hour. The tours are for the parts you cannot do on your own: a camel train on the marked route, a photographer who knows where the light lands, a surf school on the flat water at the far end.
Everything in Maspalomas →
Mogán is a fishing harbour with canals cut through it and cliffs behind.
The village sits where a barranco meets the sea on the west coast, painted white, threaded with footbridges and short on cars. The boats leave from the quay — the submarine, the snorkel runs, the sailing days — and the road out of it climbs straight into the mountains.
- 1Submarine Tourfrom $45
- 2Boat and Snorkeling Tripfrom $69
- 3Guided Kayak to Caves and Snorkeling Tourfrom $77
What a day out on Gran Canaria actually costs.
Every tour on the island grouped by price. The cheap end is not the thin end here: a camel ride, an aquarium ticket and a surf class all come in under the price of a paella for two.
Camel rides, park and aquarium tickets, surf classes and the short boat runs out of Mogán.
- 1Poema del Mar Skip-the-Line Ticketfrom $32
- 2Submarine Tourfrom $45
- 3Guided Camel Ride in the Maspalomas Sand Dunesfrom $21
The full days: buggy routes into the barrancos, catamaran sailings, dolphin boats with lunch aboard.
Private drivers, chartered boats and the small-group days that go where the coaches cannot turn round.
Three things Gran Canaria has that the other Canaries do not.
Every island in the group sells volcano trips and boat days. A moving desert on the edge of a resort, an eighty-metre monolith standing in a collapsed crater, and a channel where the dolphins are residents rather than visitors belong to this one.
The Maspalomas Dunes
The sand is Saharan, blown across and dumped on the island’s southern tip, and the field still travels a few metres a year. It is a protected reserve with marked routes through it, which is why the camel trains take the same line every morning and the photographers work the same three ridges at the end of the day. Cross it barefoot at noon once and you will understand why everyone else goes early.
- 1Guided Camel Ride in the Maspalomas Sand Dunes★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 3,690 reviews
- 2Camel Ride Safari w/ Optional Food & Transport★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 1,167 reviews
- 3Camel Riding in Maspalomas Dunes★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 590 reviews
Roque Nublo
An eighty-metre plug of solidified magma left standing on the rim of the caldera that built the island, reached by a half-hour walk up from the Tejeda road. On a clear winter morning Teide sits on the horizon behind it, ninety kilometres away on Tenerife and still the biggest thing in the sky. The cloud usually arrives by early afternoon, which settles what time you leave.
- 1Firgas, Tejeda, Guayadeque – VIP Tour Gran Canaria★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 173 reviews
- 2Arucas, Teror, Viewpoint Roque Nublo – Highlights Gran Canaria★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 170 reviews
- 3Las Palmas, Botanical Gardens and Bandama Volcano Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.1 · 113 reviews
The Atlantic corridor
The water between Gran Canaria and Tenerife is deep, warm and thick with squid, so bottlenose dolphins and short-finned pilot whales live in it all year instead of passing through. Boats out of Puerto Rico and Mogán are among the pods inside half an hour, which is why these run as half-days rather than expeditions.
- 1Dolphin Watching Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 2,520 reviews
- 2Dolphin and Whale Watching Cruise★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 1,855 reviews
- 3Palmitos Park Ticket with Dolphin and Bird Shows★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 1,507 reviews
Four Gran Canaria bookings that will not wait until you land.
Most of this island can be sorted over breakfast at the hotel. These four run on timetables, small cabins and cool hours that take no notice of when your plane gets in.
- 01Submarine TourOne boat, one small cabin and a set run of dives a day off Mogán quay. The middle of the day goes first.
- 02Guided Camel Ride in the Maspalomas Sand DunesThe camel trains only work the cool hours, so the dune rides run early and late and the good slots are short.
- 03Poema del Mar Skip-the-Line TicketEntry is on a timed ticket. Turn up without one on the first grey morning of the week and so has the rest of the south coast.
- 04Dolphin Watching CruiseThe boats leave Puerto Rico and Mogán on a fixed timetable and Atlantic swell cancels them at short notice, so an earlier sailing is the safer booking.
Gran Canaria runs two climates, and the boats only sail in one of them.
The trade wind piles cloud against the northern mountains and leaves the south in the sun, and when the Atlantic swell builds the harbours stop sending anything out at all. Both have the same answer: go inland, or go indoors. The barranco roads do not care about the sea state, and the aquarium, the distillery and the wine cellars do not care about the sky.
Papas arrugadas, red and green mojo, and a cane distillery running since 1884.
The island grows bananas, coffee and wine on volcanic terraces, and Arucas has been turning sugar cane into rum for a hundred and forty years. Book the tasting for the day the wind is up.
By place — coast, capital and the mountains
Maspalomas, Mogán, the caldera and the capital: a first week on Gran Canaria.
The latest Gran Canaria tour reviews.
The rest of this week’s →
Las Palmas Maspalomas Gran Canaria Salsa Lovers Dance Experience
Read our review →
Gran Canaria Private Transfer from Puerto Rico to Las Palmas (LPA) airport
Read our review →
E-Bike Family Tour : Sightseeing in Playa Ingles,Maspalomas Dunes
Read our review →
E-Scooter or E-Bike Tour+Western Town Sioux City
Read our review →
Private Tour from the Port of Las Palmas to Teror Firgas Arucas
Read our review →
e-Scooter Step Kickstart Guided Tour: Sightseeing Maspalomas
Read our review →
