Gran Canaria is a continent 50 km wide.
Camels on the sand before ten, a crater rim by two, a boat out of Puerto Rico at four. Every tour on the island, reviewed, priced and ranked by the travellers who took it.
The six days most Gran Canaria trips are built around.
The dune crossing, the dolphin boat, the island loop, the buggy track, the parks and the harbour at Mogán. Six decisions carry most of a week here — this is what each one costs and which to book first.
Maspalomas: 400 hectares of sand with a resort on either side.
All dune experiences →
This is a protected nature reserve, not an extension of the beach: no vehicles on the sand, marked crossings, and a light at either end of the day that photographers plan whole trips around. Three ways travellers actually cross it.
- 1Guided Camel Ride in the Maspalomas Sand Dunesfrom $21
- 2Camel Riding in Maspalomas Dunesfrom $21
- 3Skydiving over Maspalomas Dunesfrom $352
A camel train over the first ridge
The green-framed saddles from every Gran Canaria postcard. It leaves the Maspalomas side in a line, climbs the ridge behind the resort and drops back towards the lighthouse.
The sand when the sun is low
Wind keeps the ripples sharp and the low sun turns the whole field copper. Photographers work the hour after sunrise and the hour before sunset, and book the slot rather than the day.
Along the edge, not across it
Two-seat choppers and electric scooters run the promenade from Meloneras to Playa del Inglés with the dune field on one side. No walking in soft sand, and the camel park is on the route.
What travellers on Gran Canaria actually book.
Every review →Ranked by how many travellers came back and left a review — not by what we would pick. A zoo ticket and a submarine both make the top three.
1
Catamaran Dolphin Watch Cruise with Snorkeling
Catamaran cruise off Puerto Rico de Gran Canaria to spot dolphins and whales, then swim and snorkel at Taurito with soft drinks.
From · $44
Read our review →
2
Poema del Mar Skip-the-Line Ticket
from $32
3
Submarine Tour
from $45
4
Guided Camel Ride in the Maspalomas Sand Dunes
from $21
5
Guided tour of the Banana World
from $18
6
Banana World Guided Tour & Tasting
from $17
7
Dolphin Watching Cruise
from $47
8
Dolphin and Whale Watching Cruise
from $40
9
Gran Canaria Guided Buggy Tour
from $85
The water off Mogán is a whale road, all year.
Pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins are resident in the channel between Gran Canaria and Tenerife, which is why these boats run in January as readily as in August. Everything leaves from Puerto Rico, Arguineguín or Mogán — twenty minutes apart along the same coast.
Twenty minutes inland, Gran Canaria stops being a beach.
The road out of the south climbs through dry barrancos into Canary pine, crater rims and villages that keep their own weather. Roque Nublo, the Bandama caldera and the waterfall canyons are all inside a morning of the resorts.
What a day on Gran Canaria costs.
Every reviewed tour on the island, sorted by what it actually charges. The cheapest thing on this page is a zoo ticket; the dearest is a boat with your name on it.
Park and aquarium tickets, camel rides, market mornings and the short boat trips out of Mogán.
- 1Catamaran Dolphin Watch Cruise with Snorkelingfrom $44
- 2Poema del Mar Skip-the-Line Ticketfrom $32
- 3Submarine Tourfrom $45
The island day tours, dolphin boats, buggy tracks, dive courses and the guided hikes with lunch.
- 1Gran Canaria Guided Buggy Tourfrom $85
- 2Gran Canaria Day Tourfrom $52
- 3Horse Riding Adventure with Transfer Optionsfrom $75
Private guides, chartered yachts and the small-group days that keep the numbers down on purpose.
When Las Palmas is under cloud, the south is not.
The trade winds park a low grey lid over the north of the island. Locals call it the panza de burro — the donkey’s belly. It can sit over the capital all morning while Maspalomas, forty kilometres south, is in full sun. That single fact explains why every resort is on the south coast, and it is worth planning around: beach and boat days south, the capital and the north for an afternoon.
Three things Gran Canaria has that the other islands do not.
Every Canary island sells a boat trip and a volcano. These three belong to this one — and each is a short drive from the resorts, which is the part travellers get wrong.
The Maspalomas Dunes
Four hundred hectares of shifting sand sit between two of Europe’s busiest resorts, fenced and protected, with a nineteenth-century lighthouse at the seaward corner. The sand is not desert sand blown in from Africa — it is ground-up shell and coral carried up from the sea floor. Marked paths cross it; vehicles do not.
- 1Guided Camel Ride in the Maspalomas Sand Dunes★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 3,690 reviews
- 2Camel Riding in Maspalomas Dunes★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 590 reviews
- 3Skydiving over Maspalomas Dunes★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 81 reviews
Banana Country
Canary bananas are a different fruit from the supermarket kind: shorter, denser, sweeter, grown on terraces cut into the north coast where the cloud that ruins a beach day is exactly what the plants want. The plantation tours end where you would hope — with a tasting and a rum to follow.
- 1Guided tour of the Banana World★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 3,431 reviews
- 2Banana World Guided Tour & Tasting★★★★★★★★★★ 4.8 · 2,867 reviews
- 3Rum, Wines and Banana Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 261 reviews
Puerto de Mogán
A fishing harbour on the south-west corner rebuilt around canals and footbridges, bougainvillea over every wall, and a Friday market that fills the whole quay. It is also where the island’s tourist submarine goes down to a wreck sitting upright on the sand — the third most-reviewed thing on this entire site.
- 1Submarine Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.4 · 3,792 reviews
- 2Boat and Snorkeling Trip★★★★★★★★★★ 4.9 · 855 reviews
- 33h Boat Trip + Snorkeling in Puerto de Mogan★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 785 reviews
Gran Canaria grows its own drink.
Rum has been distilled at Arucas since the nineteenth century, in a barrel hall you can walk down. The vines are up behind Santa Brígida, the bananas come off the north-coast terraces, and the Sunday markets at Teror and San Mateo sell all three. None of it is more than an hour from Las Palmas.
- 1Guided tour of the Banana Worldfrom $18
- 2Banana World Guided Tour & Tastingfrom $17
- 3Rum, Wines and Banana Tourfrom $81
The lists travellers open first
Island day tours33 tours
Dolphin & whale boats13 tours
Snorkelling trips25 tours
Parks & tickets22 tours
The dunes17 tours
Tapas & food25 tours
Scuba diving23 tours- Every review on the island →
By what kind of day it is
The newest Gran Canaria reviews.
All recent →
Gran Canaria Historic Tour – Yestarday and Today Premium
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E-Bike CitySightseeing: Maspalomas Dunes, Playa Ingles, Meloneras
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Guided Snorkelling Experience in South of Gran Canaria
Read our review →
e-Scooter City Tour + Camel Ride inside Maspalomas Dunes
Read our review →
E-Bike Rental 80 km Battery life: Gran Canaria Mountains or Coast
Read our review →
Rent E-Scooter Kick Start: Exploring Playa del Ingles & Maspalomas
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Rent City Bike 18 gears from 4 hours to 7 days: Visit Maspalomas
Read our review →
