Arriving in Gran Canary
Why did I go to Gran Canary Island in the first place, well you have to blame Ryan Airlines and their notices of great fairs. From Malaga, Spain to Gran Canary Island was €13 each way. Of course, by the time I paid for my seat and carry on it ended up being €34.80 each way. How could I not go? Also, through Booking.com I got a great apartment for about €50 a night including the cleaning fee (I always check now since Airbnb burned me on this), it was also walking distance to the beach and most of Maspalomas. I went even knowing this was to be a working vacation, I figured why not?
One thing you note as you are landing on Gran Canary Island (and on the bus ride from the airport) is how many windmills and solar panels you see. Makes sense being an island that they are as energy-independent as possible; I read they are between 20-25% self-supplying their energy. Gran Canary airport is also so much bigger than I thought it would be, a very modern airport. In the last year before COVID, they had over 13 million passengers, and I would not be surprised if they now exceed that number.
Most of Gran Canary looks very arid, with the volcano in the center of the island and the population mostly on the edges closer to the sea, especially east and south sides. The northern part of the island has Las Palmas, the largest city as its anchor. It is a great city, and feels very much like a locals’ city, though I am sure it gets its fair share of tourists. It is the southern end of the island, with Maspalomas as its anchor that seems entirely designed for tourists.
And yes, Maspalomas was indeed where this tourist was heading. I read that the island has a great bus system and that it is easy to catch at the airport. You simply follow the signs in the airport to the bus transportation area, though you do need to go back upstairs and cross the road.
Use the Bus System
As you can see from the photos the buses are great and they are a mixture of locals and tourists. It takes a dead head for about 25 minutes until it begins a series of stops. I followed along on my phone’s Google Maps until I saw we were within walking distance of the apartment I rented for the week. I used the buses several times during the week, including going all the way north to Las Palmas (€6,25) where a cab ride would have been over €100.
First Day/Night
Settled into my place, see the photos, and went to the grocery store for food and basics. As I eat all my breakfasts at home, I bought those items, wine and cheese for the cocktail hour, and enough other food for a mixture of lunches and dinners. As you may have read in another article, I do this because I like to splurge when I do go out to dinner or lunch and can’t afford to do that every day. Besides some days I have too much work that needs to be accomplished or I just don’t feel like getting ready to go out to eat and finding a restaurant. I do research a few restaurants before my trip, so I can have some to rely upon, but I prefer asking locals where they like to go for a casual lunch or a special dinner. This is where you get the best recommendations.
The restaurant I went to that night was recommended to me by my landlord as his favorite restaurant, La Bolognese. It was a 13-minute cab ride away, but up a hill so I’m glad I didn’t try and walk. It is just west of Parque del Sur on Calle Einstein. The view had the sea in the distance but also most of the southern part of the island, including the amusement park, in the vista. There was even a huge full moon that night. The food was great (I mean come on Italian??) and for an appetizer, entrée, bread, dessert, and two glasses of wine (stop judging) it was €53; I thought very reasonable.
What did I do during the week?
Well, lots of walking, especially along the dunes and the beaches. As you can see, the island has some impressive dunes and quite a few trails that go through them. You must stick to the trails as marked, but there are miles/kilometers of trails. Walking along the ocean side of the dunes will bring you to El Faro, the Maspalomas Lighthouse. Not only does it help ships at sea (for over 130 years), but it also is a marker for those getting around the southern part of the island, either east or west of El Faro. East is Playa del Ingles, yes “English Beach,” where I stayed, and the dunes.
To the west of El Faro the neighborhood (Meloneras) gets quite posh with private resorts and expensive shopping, though it is still quite enjoyable. My vacation was in the middle of a Calima (Kalima), a time when the weather and breezes came from Africa. Thus, it was over 90 degrees in the shade, so I took a taxi back to my place for €8. It also caused the air quality to be bad, though I couldn’t tell, each day the weather app said the air was “mediocre,” and I took them at their word.
Calimas
Calimas bring sand from the Sahara in the air, which I didn’t notice at first, except that it was hazy out in the distance. This was not a bad Calima for sand, I was told, though it did raise the temperature a lot. Before I left the weather report said for the first week of October: mid-80s during the day and 70’s at night. Ended up being mid to high 90s in the day, and one night it never got cooler than 88! Of course, did I tell you that I got a place with no air conditioning? Yep, that was because of what I saw when I looked up the weather, note to self: don’t trust the weather reports, spend more, and get AC just in case. Though the place had a great saltwater pool which I put my big butt in whenever the heat got too much.
As this was a working vacation, I spent a lot of it in my apartment, which had strong internet as I had three important conference calls that week. I did venture out each day for kicks to different parts of Maspalomas. There is a lively beach scene with restaurants and shopping and the obligatory Maspalomas sign.
Yumbo Center
I was surprised to hear German more than anything among the tourists, followed by Spanish and English, with a little Italian every so often. German beer houses were quite plentiful throughout Maspalomas as were German restaurants. A lot of the nightlife centers around the Yumbo Shopping Center in the middle of the city. It is strange to happen across it as I did because I knew it was four or five stories tall, yet I did not realize that all the stories go down into the ground. It is five stories but more like an inverted pyramid, though it still has over 200 stores. In the center is a large mezzanine where apparently fairs and festivals take place, and all around are restaurants, bars, shopping, and nightclubs. During the day it isn’t too impressive or busy, but once the sun starts to set, it is hopping.
I am told that it has three distinct personalities: the first part of the late afternoon or evening it has a bunch of people meeting for drinks, very laidback. Then locals and tourists come and walk the area to shop and eat dinner up until 11 pm. After 11 pm, the nightclubs start opening up and the third, much wilder personality takes over. Some clubs don’t open until after 1 am, and sorry I can’t tell you at all about these as I couldn’t even make the 11 pm shift much less the wild night after midnight. Still, it was interesting to walk around even at my boring 9 or 10 at night.
Las Palmas
One day I took the bus up to Las Palmas to see that area of the island. It is a great city with a large pedestrian zone centered on Calle Tiana near the cathedral. This is a working city, and you can tell that it is mostly locals, or at least it felt that way, on the streets. Las Palmas has about half the island’s population within its area, and the metro area probably kicks that up to 75%. The city feels much bigger than 400k people, probably as it is the capital of Gran Canary and all the Canary Islands. Also, the difference compared to Maspalomas, which has a population of under 40k, is stark, because of the thousands of tourists staying in Maspalomas.
The bus ride took about an hour and wasn’t that much longer than a taxi would have been, just a little less direct, but for €94 more? No thank you, that’s two more dinners for me. I did have a great burger for lunch in Las Palmas at Hamburguesa Nostra with great sweet potato fries and a dozen different sauces for dipping. Of the restaurants that were recommended to me, more than half were burger joints, so there must be some serious competition going on here. I spent half a day walking through Las Palmas without much of an agenda, as I wanted to just get a feel for the city. I would have liked to spend more time here.
One of the things on my list I did not get to do was visit Neptune in Melenara, which sits in the ocean just off the dock. It was calm waters while I was there and all the great photos I have seen of him have waves crashing around him. I am glad the weather was good during my week, but if I heard it was going to be bad weather, I would have to deadhead it there to take photos. If you get hit by bad weather in Gran Canary, go see Neptune for me, please.
Tour More of Gran Canary
As my first day was waylaid by losing my backpack during my first two hours on the island, I did not have time to take my general tour, which I like to do on the first or second day. (For the story on the backpack head to my Being Safe In Travel article for the whole story). So, I decided to do a different general tour with a concentration on the center of the island. THIS tour drove north from Maspalomas, past Las Palmas, and went to the small city of Arucas to start.
Here the most striking thing is the cathedral the locals built out of volcanic stone. It is unique and inspiring. Though not very ornate inside, the outside spires and stonework details more than makeup for that. Though not technically a cathedral as it has no sitting bishop, everyone calls it the Cathedral de San Juan de Bautista, or St. John the Baptist. For a town this small, the cathedral is impressive. You might even say it stands head and shoulders above the rest. (Anyone? Anyone?)
The tour proceeded to Firgas for a quick stop and then lunch at Balcon de Zamora in Barranquillo. For €13 you got soup or salad, entrée (I got veal stew), dessert, and drinks, and it was a good quality. Plus, the views were amazing. After lunch, the tour took you through the “wet” side of the volcano that gets all the moisture that comes from the north, thus it is truly verdant here compared to the rest of the island. Most of the agriculture is here as well with bananas, corn, almonds, oranges, sugar cane, and other foods. There are even parks here for camping.
A few miles over the crest and suddenly you are on the dry side of the volcano, in fact, the caldera. You can even see the tree line on some cliffs that stop right at the top. This area is famous for the monoliths, or rock formations along the edge of the cliffs. The most famous is Roque Nublo, which is two monoliths close to one another. Another one is called the priest, and it looks like an old man standing. Another is called the chicken, see if you can pick that one out.
It is at this point that the roads become a challenge for anyone, much less a 90-foot bus. So, travel from here back to Maspalomas was slow and a little interesting, shall we say. Often, the bus would have to maneuver a hairpin turn, or around bikers, or ask a car to back up. But I have to say, I was so impressed with the driver’s skills, though I realize he must drive this route a lot. I am glad I didn’t rent a car and try the route myself.
The last stop was to an aloe vera farm which was quite interesting, though drinking aloe vera is like being punished for something you didn’t do. It leaves a bad taste in your mouth, and it sticks with you. Others didn’t mind it as much, but I could have gone the rest of my life without that experience and still been very happy.
One thing I wish I accomplished was an art tour of the island, or just Maspalomas or Las Palmas. There is a lot of public art along the highways, and in parks and intersections, and I would have loved to see more of it. A tour would also give you more background on the pieces and the artists. If you get the chance, take this tour, and let me know how it was.
Costs
OK, you will see the chart below, but I had to work a lot during this trip, so I didn’t go out to lunch or dinner as much as I liked. I also didn’t get to do as many activities or tours.
| Gran Canary Island | All in € | |||||||||||
| Day 1 | Day 2 | Day 3 | Day 4 | Day 5 | Day 6 | Day 7 | Day 8 | Total | Per Day | |||
| Air | 69.59 | 69.59 | ||||||||||
| Train/Bus | 8.10 | 1.40 | 12.37 | 21.87 | ||||||||
| Food | 117.11 | 60.50 | 23.89 | 17.10 | 53.00 | 24.90 | 52.80 | 349.30 | 58.22 | |||
| Taxi | *65.48 | 20.00 | 85.48 | |||||||||
| Auto | 176.94 | |||||||||||
| Gas | – | |||||||||||
| Lodging | 382.94 | 382.94 | 54.71 | |||||||||
| Activities | 46.10 | 46.10 | ||||||||||
| 260.28 | 60.50 | 25.29 | 29.47 | 53.00 | 24.90 | 98.90 | 402.94 | 955.28 | 136.47 | |||
* Includes €51.48 in unexpected taxi and bus fare to go back to the airport for my backpack, duh.
As I said in the beginning, this was an unplanned (ok I planned, I am neurotic about planning, but let’s just say, unscheduled) trip which usually end up costing more than planned, but this was not the case. I already told you the airfare was less than €70 in total (evil temptress Ryan Air). The apartment was €383 for the week including the cleaning fee. The food total was €350 including four dinners (two at the great Lola’s) four lunches eaten out, and breakfast each morning on the balcony of my place overlooking the pool (and if I stood on my tiptoes, I could see the ocean). So overall not that bad on the pocketbook.
Recommendations
Lodging:
Dunas Apartment, Maspalomas, Playa del Inglés area, great location, great host, wonderful pool, but needs AC desperately, ADDRESS Booking.com
Food:
La Bolognese, Maspalomas, good Italian food with a view. ADDRESS
Lola’s, Maspalomas, great food, great service, decent prices (liked it so much went back again) ADDRESS
Allende 22, Maspalomas, good food, great prices, family-friendly, all outdoors. ADDRESS
Hamburguesa Nostra, Las Palmas, good burger, great sweet potato fries with a dozen dipping sauces. ADDRESS
Tours
Discover Gran Canary Day Tour, $49, great guide and driver, was a little long, 8+ hours once everyone is dropped off, well worth it. Get Your Guide link
Finally
Almost forgot to add that the lounge at the airport is one of the best lounges I’ve seen in the 15 years or so using airport lounges. It is so much bigger than many lounges I’ve been to and beautiful, but the best part is that it has an outdoor deck! Not sure how loud it is, being at an airport and all that, but I loved the idea of it for that last minute of sunshine.
Am I glad I went? Yes, absolutely. I didn’t get island fever at all like I got during a week on Maui. (More than likely because my bosses wouldn’t let me work during the Hawaii vacation.) If you love beaches (especially with huge dunes to run on), hiking, and good food, then come to Gran Canary Island. It prides itself on a mini continent with diverse climate zones, and that is the case. The airline fares outside of season are affordable and so are the lodging offers. Just be aware of the party set there that rules the night, and don’t stay too close to the Yumbo Center or another large bar or nightclub if you are like me and a light sleeper. Also, in spring for AC, it would have been great to shut my windows when the noise levels went up.
Thank you for reading my article. If you would like to read about other travel posts you can go to Articles to see all posts, or to Destinations to see them grouped by location. General travel tips can be found here.
