Discover the island
Dunes the wind redraws every day, a lighthouse lit since 1890, an average of 24 degrees all year round and the Yumbo glowing every night. Gran Canaria is far more than seven days of partying: it is a fragile island that welcomes you best when you look after it.
The south first
Everything the festival needs is a walk or a short bus ride away: the dunes, the Kiosk 7 beach, the lighthouse, the Yumbo and the party pools. Start here.
Special Nature Reserve
A living field of sand, roughly 400 hectares between Playa del Inglés and the lighthouse: dunes the wind reshapes daily, a palm grove and a brackish lagoon where birds rest. It is a Special Nature Reserve and the backdrop to the whole festival. Walk it on the marked trails and along the shore; the moving dunes themselves are off limits.
Historic lighthouse · listed monument
A tower of blue-grey ashlar almost 55 metres tall, marking the southern tip of Gran Canaria since 1 February 1890. Designed by the Telde-born engineer Juan de León y Castillo, it is still a working light, and the keepers' house at its base now holds an ethnographic centre and a tourist office. It is the hinge between Maspalomas beach and the Meloneras promenade.
LGBTQ+ beach · Playa de Maspalomas
Kiosk number 7 on Maspalomas beach is the traditional meeting point of the LGBTQ+ community: a simple beach bar on the sand, between the ocean and the dunes. The Canary Islands tourist board calls this the LGBT beach par excellence. It is a public beach, nudism is customary along this stretch, and the only rule is the usual one: respect, for people and for the reserve.
Shopping and nightlife centre · the LGBTQ+ heart of Playa del Inglés
An open-air shopping centre on four levels, with courtyards, terraces and a big central plaza, opened in October 1982 between Avenida de Tirajana and Avenida de España. By day, shops, cafés and family tourism; by night, bars, cabarets and clubs that make it the LGBTQ+ epicentre of Gran Canaria. The Maspalomas Pride galas happen here, and the parade ends at its door.
Resort beach · 2.7 km of golden sand
Some 2.7 kilometres of golden sand and calm water that begin at the foot of the resort and grow more open and wild towards Punta de Maspalomas, where the dunes begin. Above it runs the Paseo Costa Canaria, five kilometres from San Agustín to the Mirador de las Dunas. It is the beach of the festival's hotels and the starting point of the parade.
Natural beach · 2.7 km from the lighthouse to the Punta
From the lighthouse to Punta de Maspalomas, 2.7 kilometres of golden sand with the dunes at your back and, just behind the shoreline, the Charca: a brackish lagoon that is Gran Canaria's most important wetland and a stopover for migrating birds. A wide, open beach with numbered kiosks, a naturist stretch and kiosk 7 as the LGBTQ+ meeting point.
Seafront promenade and hotels · west of the lighthouse
West of the lighthouse the coast changes register: a wide, flat seafront promenade with terraces, shops and the big Meloneras hotels on one side and the Atlantic on the other, ending at a short sandy cove. Halfway along, almost unannounced, sits a pre-Hispanic settlement more than a thousand years old, Punta Mujeres. This is the area for a quiet dinner and the sunset.
Proud since 2001
Maspalomas and Playa del Inglés were among the first places in Spain to welcome LGBTI travellers. Today their Pride opens the European Pride season every May.
It opened in October 1982 and today holds more than 200 venues on four levels around an open-air plaza. By day it is a shopping centre; by night, gay bars, cabarets and clubs. During Pride its plaza, the Plaza de la Diversidad, becomes the Pride Park: free galas every night in front of the main stage.
Read moreMornings belong to the beach. The stretch by Kiosk 7, between the sea and the dunes, has been the community's meeting point for decades, with the rainbow flag flying. It is a public beach and nudism is customary along it; the rule is the usual one, respect. The dunes behind are a nature reserve: enjoy them from the trail and the shore.
Read more
Maspalomas Pride was born in 2001 and is still both things. On Saturday the parade rolls through the avenues of Playa del Inglés to the Yumbo with floats, banners and flags from half the world: it began as a protest, and it still is one.
See the parade
Responsible travel
It is the motto the Cabildo of Gran Canaria uses to protect the Maspalomas Dunes, and it holds for the whole island. Seven ways to look after it:
The dunes have environmental information officers and patrols; offences are fined from 150 euros.
Local economy
Tourism is almost 38% of the Canary Islands' economy. Every euro you spend in a bar, a shop or a market on the island stays on the island: choose local produce and local businesses.
Potatoes boiled in their skins in very salty water, with red or green mojo sauce.
The only Canarian cheese curdled with thistle flower, harvested in April and May. Protected Designation of Origin.
Flour of toasted grain; on Gran Canaria, made from maize since the 16th century. Protected Geographical Indication.
Vineyards between 200 and 1,300 metres, from the coast to the summit.
Distilled in Arucas, in the north of the island, since 1884.
The almond cream of the uplands, associated with Tejeda.
San Fernando street market (Maspalomas): Wednesdays and Saturdays, at the Municipal Market. San Fernando farmers' market: every other Sunday, 8:00 to 13:30, with island cheese, honey, bread and fruit; check its location before you go.
The whole island
That is what they call Gran Canaria: within an hour you go from a desert of dunes to the pine forests of the summit. For your free days, three routes and six places.
Maspalomas · PrideAirportRoque NubloLas Canteras BeachPuerto de MogánVeguetaAgaete and Puerto de las NievesTerorDunes, a lighthouse and a picture-book harbour along the sunny coast
The easiest route from the festival: start among the Maspalomas dunes, carry on past the lighthouse and the Meloneras promenade and finish in Puerto de Mogán, with its canals and its fresh fish. Half a day by car on the GC-1 heading west, or an unhurried day by bus on Global lines 1 and 32, which leave from the Faro de Maspalomas station and run along the coast.
Maspalomas DunesMaspalomas LighthouseMelonerasPuerto de Mogán
From Roque Nublo to the cliffs of Agaete: the vertical island
A full day by car, and by car only: from Maspalomas you climb the Fataga ravine to the summit, walk to Roque Nublo and descend north-west to Agaete and Puerto de las Nieves, to finish with a swim in the natural pools and fresh fish. The mountain roads are slow and winding: leave early, book the Roque Nublo trail and come back along the north coast and the GC-1.
The capital, its beach and the patron saint's town
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in a day: Vegueta in the morning and Las Canteras in the afternoon; then, with a second day or if it falls on a Sunday, Teror, some 20 km from the capital. It is the route that works best by bus: Global line 30 links Faro de Maspalomas and Playa del Inglés with the city, and line 216 climbs from San Telmo to Teror.
Natural monument
At the geographic centre of Gran Canaria, more than 1,800 metres up, a volcanic monolith some 80 metres tall stands on a bare stone plateau. Roque Nublo is the island's emblem and the most memorable short walk you can make from the coast: pine forest, stone steps and, on clear days, Mount Teide on the horizon.
City beach
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria keeps a beach of more than three kilometres right in the city: Las Canteras, sheltered by La Barra, a reef that turns half the bay into a natural pool. A pedestrian promenade runs its whole length, from the fishermen's corner at La Puntilla to the surf at La Cícer and the Auditorio Alfredo Kraus at the far end.
Harbour village
On the island's south-west coast, Mogán keeps its most photographed harbour: spotless houses smothered in bougainvillea, seawater canals crossed by little bridges, a marina where fishing boats moor beside yachts, and a small, sheltered beach. The official tourist board calls it "the little Venice of the Canaries"; it is also the perfect excuse for a long lunch of fresh fish.
Historic quarter
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria was born here on 24 June 1478, when Juan Rejón pitched the camp of the Real de Las Palmas beside the Guiniguada ravine. Vegueta still holds that memory: cobbled streets, mansions with Canarian balconies, the Cathedral of Santa Ana and its square guarded by iron dogs, the Casa de Colón and a produce market trading since 1858.
North-west town and harbour
In the island's north-west corner, Agaete splits its charm between a town at the foot of a green valley and a fishing harbour, Puerto de las Nieves, tucked beneath the Tamadaba cliffs. Expect natural rock pools, fish restaurants above a pebble beach, the valley's coffee, the last still grown in the Canaries, and the fast ferry that crosses to Tenerife in about 80 minutes.
Pilgrimage town
At 543 metres in the hill country of the north, Teror is Gran Canaria's spiritual heart: home to the Basílica de Nuestra Señora del Pino, the island's patron saint, and to the Calle Real de la Plaza, a parade of old houses with Canarian balconies, the oldest built in tea pine. On Sundays the old town fills with a market two centuries old: chorizo, sweet morcilla, cheese and bread.
Getting around
The airport is 32 kilometres from Playa del Inglés, about 30 minutes, and Global's guaguas (buses) cover the whole island.
You can walk between the Playa del Inglés venues and the Yumbo; for the Ocean Club, the Oasis or the summit, take a bus or a taxi. Check timetables on Global's website before you set off.
Seven days of sun, dunes and parties, and an island waiting for you with open arms.