A continent in one island.
Camel tracks over the Maspalomas dunes, catamarans out of Puerto Rico, canyons above Mogán and the switchback road up to Roque Nublo: what each trip is like, what it costs, where to book.
Seven trips that carry a week here.
The boat out of Puerto Rico, the dune ride before the sand gets hot, the 4x4 climb through Fataga. Whatever else the week holds, these are the days people come home talking about.
Puerto de Mogán: Submarine Tour
Golden Shark submarine in Puerto de Mogán to 25 m, shipwrecks and marine life, 40 min, 9-language audio guide.
From $45 per person
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The road that climbs out of summer.
Leave the coast at 26 degrees and forty minutes later you are in pine forest reaching for a jumper, looking at a plug of volcanic rock the size of a cathedral. Roque Nublo, Pico de las Nieves, the Tejeda caldera: this is the half of the island that never makes the brochure.
Sea, sand track or summit?
Most people staying in the south get one clear day away from the beach. Three ways to spend it, each with the trips behind it already priced and timed.
Out of Puerto Rico
The boat day
3.5 hours · from $44 · 4,761 reviews
Catamarans leave Puerto Rico and Mogán mid-morning, run west under the cliffs, cut the engines where the bottlenose pods feed and let everyone swim. Lunch on board, back before the wind gets up. Take the earlier slot: the afternoon sea down here is choppier than the photos suggest.
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Dust and barrancos
The buggy run
from $85 · 1,743 reviews
Two-seat buggies out of Maspalomas, up the dry riverbeds behind the resorts, past goat pens and abandoned terraces to a viewpoint nobody reaches by accident. Loud, filthy, finished by lunch. Bring a scarf for your face and sunglasses you do not love.
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Above the cloud line
The summit day
9 hours · from $82 · 295 reviews
A minibus up through Fataga and Tejeda to Roque Nublo, with the trade-wind cloud lying below you like a floor. Ten degrees cooler, a short walk at the top, almond cake in a mountain village on the way down. Save this one for a clear morning.
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The island keeps going underwater.
The volcano did not stop at the shoreline. Off Mogán there are wrecks sitting at nine metres, angel sharks on the sand through the winter, and turtles that swim over to look at you. Submarine window, snorkel mask or regulator: pick your depth.
Papas, mojo and a bottle from the north.
Canarian cooking is farm cooking: wrinkled potatoes with two sauces, goat stew, cheese out of Guía, wine grown on black grit above the capital. Three ways to eat properly instead of at the hotel buffet.
Learn something in the water.
Pozo Izquierdo gets world-tour windsurfers; Las Canteras has a reef bar that flattens the swell for people standing up for the first time. Schools work both coasts and most lessons include the wetsuit and the board.
Stone balconies and banana money.
Arucas built a neo-gothic cathedral out of blue basalt on rum and sugar. Teror sells almond biscuits under carved pine balconies every Sunday morning. Fataga is six streets of whitewash in a palm ravine. None of it sits more than an hour from the dunes.
Maspalomas, Mogán or the capital?
Maspalomas for the dunes and the dark skies. Puerto de Mogán for canals and boats. Las Palmas for a real city with a surf beach through the middle of it. Playa del Inglés for everything still open at midnight.
Twelve things this island does well.
Wheels, wetsuit, walking boots or a long table under a vine. Every tile opens a priced list with start times and pick-up points.
Days that need an early alarm.
The Fuerteventura ferry leaves before breakfast and the Lanzarote boat is not far behind. Inland, the long ones climb to the caldera rim and drop back down through the villages with the light going.
Three days that show you the whole island.
You will have seven and spend four of them by a pool, which is fine. These are the three worth an alarm, in the order that works around the wind.
Day 1
Sand, first thing
Walk into the dunes from the Playa del Inglés end before nine, while the sand still holds the night and the light is still low. Camels, the lighthouse, a long lunch in Meloneras.
Plan the dune morning →
Day 2
Out on the Atlantic
A catamaran from Puerto Rico or Mogán, swimming off the back in water three hundred metres deep, dolphins if the pods are working the cliffs that morning.
Plan the boat day →
Day 3
Up into the cloud
The climb through Fataga to Tejeda, Roque Nublo on foot, and the cloud sitting over the north side like spilt milk. Take a jacket; nobody ever does.
Plan the mountain day →
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