Canary Islands

Canary Islands is best for...

Couples: Nicknamed the “La Isla Bonita” or the beautiful island, La Palma is the ideal holiday destination for a romantic getaway. Eat at one of the seafood restaurants overlooking clear waters, or go on a romantic stargazing tour with your partner. With its national parks offering quiet walks, hushed pine groves and steep rain-forested hills, the island is full of intimate spots to visit with your special person.

Families: Tenerife is home to some of the best waterparks, including Europe’s biggest Siam Park. Popular for its family-friendly activities, Tenerife is also ripe with unique natural beauties like the 4-mile Barranco del Infierno and many charismatic parks in small villages where you can take the whole family to see unforgettable sights.

Night owls: Gran Canaria is the most populous of the island and is closest to what a mainland Spanish city feels like. It is the livelier sister of the islands where you can enjoy the calming quiet of the beaches during the day, and lose yourself to the excitement once the sun sets. The soulful capital of Las Palmas is Spain’s ninth-largest city with distinctive Canarian architecture, perfect for a night owl looking for local sights to discover.

Getting around Canary Islands

By bus: While there are buses available, they aren’t frequent. Most of the attractions will be too far from the bus stops.

By air: Each of the eight main islands have an airport with a domestic flying time of less than 1 hour.

By ferry: The most frequent option, ferries operate all throughout the year.

By car hire: Traveling on your own pace and taking in all the sights in Canary Islands is best done via car hire.

Fast facts for Canary Islands

Language: Spanish is the official language of the islands. English is the second most spoken language, especially in the big resorts and hotspots. If you are considering heading off the usual visitor trails, make sure you pack a phrasebook or download a translation app.

Currency: Euro (EUR)

Local time: GMT+0

Fly to

· Arrecife Airport: For visits to Costa Teguise, Matagorda, Playa Blanca, Puerto Del Carmen

· Fuerteventura Airport: For visits to Caleta De Fuste, Corralejo

· Las Palmas: For visits to Maspalimas, Puerto Mogan, Playa Del Ingles, Puerto Rico

· Tenerife South Airport: For visits to Golf Del Sur, Playa De Las Americas, Los Cristianos, Los Gigantes

Flight time from the UK: It takes around 4 and a half hours of flight from the UK.

Tourist Information: For more information on all Canary Islands locations, please visit the official tourism website here.

Visa/health: If you are a UK citizen and have a valid passport, you do not need a visa for Canary Islands and Spain holiday visits for up to 90 days. Visit the official UK travels website for restrictions, travel advice, visa requirements and health advice here.

Your Guide to Canary Islands holidays

Food & Drinks
Beaches
We Love
At a Glance

Food & Drinks

The diversity of the Canary Islands has seeped into their cuisine as well, with each island having its style of traditions and unique dishes that come with it. Made of local and fresh ingredients, they all tell a story of the island’s past fused with its present.

Gran Canaria is the best spot to experience the eco-fusion of the unique cuisine, a mixture of the island air and a Spanish mainland-style city. Farmers’ and fish markets line the streets, and the local ingredients are used to create combinations that you will keep coming back for.
La Palma’s two distinctive natural sights can be seen in its cuisine as well. With a variety of international and local dishes side by side, your options range from tapas restaurants against the backdrop of the volcanic hills and fresh seafood overlooking the clearest waters of the sapphire sea.
Lanzarote is a painting made of ever-changing colours across the island, the shades reflected onto its cuisine in unique ways. One unique dish, papas arrugadas or “wrinkled potatoes” is paired with the colourful mojo, a sauce that is either spicy red (mojo rojo) or forest green (mojo verde).

Beaches

Home to 500 beaches, the Canary Islands boasts beautiful weather all year, allowing you to dip into warm water under the bright sun no matter the season. Each island has amazing waters and sandy beaches for you to relax and enjoy the scenery, or go for a dive under the sapphire waters.

Fuerteventura, the UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2009, is the second largest Canary Island with honey-coloured sand dunes against the clear sea. It is best for sunbathing as well as surfing, sailing and diving, indulging in the best comforts of the beach side. Playa Dorada beach is the go-to for a relaxing day at the beach, especially with its accessible location with wheelchair access and plenty of sunbeds perfect for getting some of that tan back.
Tenerife is filled with popular beaches thanks to its windy nature, especially at Playa de la Tejita. As Tenerife’s largest sand beach, it’s the perfect mixture of quiet and adventurous, giving you the perfect opportunity to go for windsurfing whether you’re a beginner or an expert.

We Love

The history and art of the islands are the ever-beating heart of the Canaries, making each trip a surreal visit full of its unique culture. The most prominent of all islands is Lanzarote, where you can see the influence of Cesar Manrique, a 20th-century artist and environmental campaigner, in every corner you turn. The whitewashed homes with windows as blue as the sky fill the coastal villages of La Caleta de Famara, Arrieta and El Golfo. The lava-field house at the Fundacion Cesar Manrique is another unique sight to see.

Gran Canaria is full of history, where such sights as Galdar’s pre-Hispanic Cueva Pintada transport you right into the past to the islands’ original inhabitants, the Guanches. Another incredible man-made sight to see is the cave village Artenara, tucked away on top of a mountain with incredible views and the Tamadaba Pine Forest Natural Park is right around the corner.
Home to Spain’s tallest peak the UNESCO-listed Parque Nacional del Teide, with its amazing volcanic moonscape, Tenerife offers amazing hiking routes for everyone. There is a limit to how many walkers can go up the route, but it’s worth booking online for stunning views up the mountains. For views way down, a visit to the plunging valley Barranco del Infierno will give you unforgettable natural scenery and numerous endemic species to see such as the booted eagle, the kestrel and Scopoli’s shearwater.

At a Glance

The average flight time from the UK to the Canary Islands is approximately 4 and a half hours.

You can fly from a majority of UK Airports to almost all islands.

Canary Islands offer a pleasant climate all year.

travel advice

Get advice about travelling abroad, including the latest information on coronavirus, safety and security, entry requirements and travel warnings on the

FCDO website.