7 days in Gran Canaria

In June 2021, I went to Gran Canaria with a friend for seven days. In this blog post I will share what we did.

Teror

We arrived on Saturday night. So Sunday we started our activities. We found out that there was a weekly market in Teror, so we went there. This market was incredibly fun with lots of different kinds of stalls. There were stalls with local food, jewelry, clothing and there was live music. Besides the weekly market, there were also nice stores (mainly souvenir stores) with local stuff. Moreover, in Teror there are beautiful views of the surrounding mountains, so you can also take nice Instagram photos. So Teror is definitely worth a visit.

Botanical garden

On Monday we decided to go to the botanical garden in the north of the island. This one is also called Botanical Garden Entrada Superior. At the beginning there is an incredibly beautiful viewpoint of the garden itself and the mountains around it. After that, you can take several paths to walk down. Also from these paths there are beautiful views and enough moments to take nice instagram pictures. Down below you can marvel at the beautiful nature and with a little luck you will meet some lizards along the way. We enjoyed ourselves there for about a morning (including the trip there and back). Despite the fact that I didn't like the garden itself, I really enjoyed the view and therefore I recommend this botanical garden..

Dolphin spotting

Tuesday was the day I had been looking forward to since the day we booked. We went dolphin spotting on a boat. We had booked this trip through TUI. We were picked up at a pickup point near our apartment by a bus that took us to Puerto Rico. We had rented beds at the front of the boat for only €20 and because of this we had a good view. After spotting some dolphins far away, they finally swam underneath our boat, which was really super nice!

After we spotted dolphins, people who came just for the spotting were taken back to the harbor and then we sailed on and stopped somewhere where we could go swimming in the sea. In addition, we could go on a banana ride across the water and if you paid for it you could also get on the back of a jet ski. In the meantime we had also been given lunch and there was nice music on. After a while it was time to go back to the harbor. From there we took the bus back and spent the rest of the day in the shade since we were pretty badly sunburned. Despite that, I had an incredibly fun day and I think you should go dolphin watching in Gran Canaria!

Las Palmas

Las Palmas is the capital of Gran Canaria and of course you can't miss it. So after a whole day of sitting in the sun, we thought it would be handy to seek out the shadows of the city. Las Palmas is very easy to reach by bus, many buses pass through here. The city has many beautiful buildings and in addition to a kind of main street with the largest chains of stores, there are also many nice side streets with boutiques and terraces. I personally found Las Palmas a bit disappointing, so if you doubt whether you should put Las Palmas in your planning, I would not do it, but if you have a day to spare it is nice to visit.

Puerto de Mogán

On Thursday we decided to go to Puerto de Mogán. We had some trouble finding the right bus, but this was purely because we had not listened to the woman who told us where to go. So after a long drive we were finally in Puerto de Mogán, we arrived there around lunch time and therefore decided to sit down at one of the first terraces we saw. This turned out to be a very touristy, but nice place. We had a great meal here, but when we walked further into town, we saw some nicer places. So a tip: do not sit on the first terrace. So after dinner we walked into town and soon we passed the famous streets with flowers. I expected it to be just one street with flowers, but it turned out to be many more.

We walked on to the harbor and looked at the colonial architecture and the clear blue water. Then we went to the beach and rented a bed for 15,- euro and had a nice swim in the sea. Puerto de Mogán also has a lot of nice souvenir stores. Puerto de Mogán is the perfect place if you want to combine discovering new places with a day at the beach. This is especially useful if one of you wants to discover as much as possible on your vacation and the other is more of a beach vacation, as this was our case.

Telde

On Friday we went to Telde. This was not really a success for us. Besides the fact that the bus ride made us feel unwell, we got off at the wrong bus stop, which meant we had to walk more than five kilometers along a scary, remote road with very large lizards. This didn't do much good to our mood, so once we got to Telde, we were completely done and took the first bus back. Actually, our plan was to go to the Cueva De La Reina Mora. This is a natural pool in a cave and seems to be really worthwhile. When everything had gone well and we had visited this cave I think Telde was worthwhile, because there were some nice bakeries and stores. Still, I wouldn't recommend Telde.

Maspalomas

On Saturday we were picked up by the transfer at five o'clock to fly back to the Netherlands. Before that we had plenty of time to do something and since we stayed in the town of Maspalomas, we thought it would be a good idea to visit the famous dunes in the morning. It was just a short walk away from us. I would definitely recommend visiting the dunes. I did not expect much of it, because I always liked the pictures, but that was it, but the pictures do not do the dunes justice. It is so much more beautiful in real life! You really don't get to see how beautiful it really is. So it is definitely a must to visit. I would go earlier in the morning, because then there are not too many people and it is even more beautiful, otherwise you have to share the dunes with many people and the beautiful images are not there. Maspalomas also has a very nice boulevard. They have an ice cream store with very good ice cream and many souvenir stores. Moreover, you can lie on the beach and various water activities are organized on the beach. Maspalomas is therefore definitely a place you should visit.