The Canary Islands have seven major islands and Gran Canaria is one of the most visited. The island is mainly known for all its beaches, more specifically 70. The beaches are called San Augustin, Puerto Rico, Playa del Ingles and many more. The best beach for surfers is Pozo Izquierdo.
Gran Canaria can also boast the capital Las Palmas, which is also the capital of the entire Canary Islands together with Santa Cruz in Tenerife, which may be the Canary Islands’ largest shared resort.
Get to Gran Canaria
From Sweden, it is mainly easy to take a flight and end up directly on Las Palmas. There are direct flights from both Skavsta, Stockholm and Gothenburg and you can choose to go by charter or regularly. From Gothenburg, however, only charter flights currently run if you want to go directly.
Low cost airlines such as Ryanair and Norwegian also offer direct flights to Las Palmas from Arlanda or Skavsta. It is also possible to book package tours with charter companies such as Wing or Apollo and it’s up to everyone if you like to travel that way. However, it tends to be significantly cheaper.
Travel around Gran Canaria and look around
In Gran Canaria, it is easy to get to all the island’s beaches and villages by bus from Estación San Telm train station in northern Las Palmas. The buses are not particularly expensive and getting from the south to the north of the island is very easy as there are buses every half hour, until 4.30 in the morning. Remember to buy a bus pass which will then be 30% cheaper if you travel often and otherwise a rental car is recommended. But it is worth noting that Spanish car rental companies usually charge a service fee depending on whether the staff has to refuel the car on return or not.
Shopping in Las Palmas
The largest city in the Canary Islands and also in Gran Canaria, is called Las Palmas. According to allpubliclibraries, it has a large selection of both culture, shopping and food and here you can really make bargains. Alcohol, clothes, electrical gadgets, yes most things here are cheap and if you are good at bargaining, prices can be pushed even more.
The city has both small shops and a number of shopping centers where you can botanize until late. Do not forget the holy siesta in Spain which prevails between 13-17. After that, you can continue until 20.00 in most places before closing time.
Along the pedestrian street Triana, most of the shopping is in branded clothing and even down by the harbor you can find fun shops. Here is also the brand department store Il Corte Ingles outlet, which means that you can really benefit from your money.
To do
In addition to swimming, sunbathing, surfing and shopping, Gran Canaria offers excellent nature and a lot of areas where you can play golf, go to the market in the fishing villages of San Mateo or Puerto de Mogan or go to the annual carnival in Maspalomas. The carnival, which is considered the world’s second largest carnival after Rio in Brazil, runs from February until mid-March. The festivities go from city to city but end big in Maspalomas with parade and party all night long. The Maspalomas Desert is also very close to Maspalomas and hiking is one of the most popular activities for tourists in Gran Canaria.
