2 min summary Map & highlights Gran Canaria

Walking in Gran Canaria

Walking vacations to Gran Canaria swap party-hard playas and high-rise hotels for volcanic canyons and wave-sculpted coastlines. Along the way, you’ll get to stay in some of the prettiest villages in the Canaries, where you can finish off the day with a restorative glass of Malvasia. Read our guide to find out which routes are made for walking in Gran Canaria.

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Gran Canaria walking vacations

Calling all hill hikers, volcano viewers and scenery seekers – walking vacations to Gran Canaria take you to an island with eruptive origins. Don’t let the snoozing towns fool you. You might start out in hilltop Aguimes, where green-shuttered houses slouch along skinny streets, or dawdling, cathedral-capped Arucas. But the footpaths beyond are exhilarating stuff, twisting and turning along mountain slopes, clifftop forests and deep-cut gorges.

There’s the wild, wave-swept west, the mountainous middle, the villages like pearls, the fern forests. A vista for every occasion.

Most Gran Canaria walking vacations head up (and up and up) into the mountainous center of the island. In the Guayadeque Canyon, you’ll ramble along the echoes of ancient lava eruptions and past abandoned Stone Age cave dwellings. Or peer up at the pinstriped rock walls of Fuente de Los Azulejos and wind through pines, lavender and rock roses in the Inagua Forest. You’ll be hard-pressed to miss the Roque Nublo, too – a towering crag that was once a sacred spot for the precolonial Guanche people.

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What do Gran Canaria walking vacations entail?

There are two types of walking vacations in Gran Canaria: small group tours and self guided trips. Small group vacations place you with a bunch of 10-16 hikers of a similar ability. You’ll take each hike together in the wake of a guide who knows every crag and crack on the island. Accommodation is included; you’ll stay in one or two towns across the span of a week or so. Most meals and transfers are also rolled into the package. Organised tours tend to run from October to March, when the heat retreats to a walkable 18°C.

All walks are meticulously designed, using ultra-local knowledge. And they always take the most interesting route.

Tailor made vacations leave the guiding to you. Half board accommodation is usually included, along with airport transfers and a handy pack of maps and trip notes (wining and dining recommendations included). You’ve got the freedom to pick and choose the walks that suit you, and swap out challenging hikes for easier ones. Accommodation will be basic in the mountains, but if you fancy laying your weary head somewhere cushier at night then tailor made tours will give you the chance to upgrade your hotel. Luggage transfers are the cherry on top, so you just have to take a day pack with you.

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Gran Canaria walking vacation tips

You’ll need about a week to get to grips with Gran Canaria. You usually won’t need a rucksack bigger than a day pack for the actual hikes. Small group tours base you in one or two towns over the course of the week, while self guided trips include luggage transfers. Perfect for that bottle of Malvasia you might’ve hooked along the way. There’s nothing flat about this island, so expect plenty of hill climbs and descents that require a good level of fitness. You’ll probably walk 12-16km a day; that’s around four to six hours daily. The best time to walk in Gran Canaria is between October and June. In fact, most small group vacations only run from October to March, when temperatures fall below 25°C and a spritz of rain perks up the dry landscape.

Tailor made trips run all year round, so you can take your pick from celebrating Christmas like a Canarian (with mass, grilled seafood and ukulele-like timples), wandering through blossoming almond trees around January and February, or celebrating newly harvested wines in August. Even in winter you’ll need strong sunscreen and plenty of water. Tap water is perfectly drinkable in the Canary Islands; remember to bring a refillable bottle. The paths are generally great quality, so a sturdy pair of hiking boots (and perhaps hiking poles for the mountains) is all that’s needed. Gran Canaria being Gran Canaria, most walks are within a half-hour drive of the coast. Avoid Maspalomas and stick to the little sand-cupped coves of the north instead. Fair warning, though: canarios are partial to a nudist beach.

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Written by Catherine Roberts

Walking in Gran Canaria