Gran Canaria: The Map
Gran Canaria: The information
Gran Canaria offers
- A spring climate all year
- Beautiful beaches
- High-class resorts and facilities
- Holidays to suit all clients - family and gay, couples and singles, young and elderly, beach-loungers and nature lovers, outdoors addicts and night owls
- Two-week holidays and short breaks
- A full range of activities year round
- A stunning but accessible landscape
- A breathtaking variety of trees, plants, flowers and ecosystems
- Distinctive food and culture
- International cuisine and English-speaking for those seeking a home from home
- Historic Las talmas, Spanish colonial architecture and fascinating archeological sites
- Thumping nightlife in Playa del Ingles
Climate
Winter temperatures average 22C (sea temperature 18C) in the south, 18C in the north. Cool trade winds keep summers a pleasant 24C despite the nearness of the Sahara. The lack of rainfall is compensated by the use of desalinated sea water.
Location
Just 130 miles from the coast of Africa.
Gran Canaria is at the centre of the Canary
Islands and home to half their population.
Beaches
There are almost 40 miles of beaches, concentrated in the south of the island. Fifty of the total of 150 have full amenities. Expect clear waters and clean sands from Las Canteras in the capital to the sand dunes of Maspalomas and the isolated beach of Giii-Gui.
Accommodation
There are plenty of rooms and a range of accommodation, from self-catering apartments and villas to four and five-star resorts and outstanding rural hotels (casa rurales).
Activities
At sea - scuba diving, snorkelling, surfing, windsurfing, fishing, sailing, cruising.
On land - golf, cycling, mountain biking, walking, trekking, climbing, paragliding.
Environment
The variety of scenery makes Gran Canaria a mini-continent - with warm coasts, temperate uplands, subtropical forests, mountain peaks and volcanoes, cliffs and dunes.
Nature
Almost half the island is protected against development and has been declared a UNESCO biosphere reserve. Oranges, bananas, lemons, dates, figs and other fruits grow everywhere, along with almost 500 plants peculiar to the Canary Islands.
History
There are extensive remains of the people who inhabited the island from the fourth century BC until conquest by Spain in the 1480s, together with 500-year-old Spanish architecture.
Getting there
A direct flight from the UK takes four hours, with charters from many UK airports and scheduled services from
Gatwick, Luton, Manchester, Glasgow and Doncaster-Sheffield, as well as flights via Madrid and Barcelona (taking about seven hours). The airport is ten miles south of Las Palmas. Maspalomas and Playa del Ingles are 25 minutes from the airport and Puerto de Mogan 40 minutes.
Driving
Car hire is cheaper than in mainland Europe, and cheaper still in advance.
At a glance
Currency: euro (€)
Language: Spanish
Tel: country code 34, island code 928
Time: same as UK
Restaurants open: 1pm-4pm & 6pm-late in resorts (open 9pm in the evening around the rest of the island)
Banks shut: 2pm Mon-Fri, 1pm Sat
Supermarkets open: 9am-9pm Mon-Sat
CONTACT
Spanish Tourist Office, Gran Canaria representative
Alma Perez 020 7317 2024 alma.perez@tourspain.es
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
34 928 219 600 (fax 601) dpromoc@grancanaria.com
Playa del Ingles
34 928 771 550 (fax 767 848) cit@grancanaria.com
Maspalomas
34 928 769 585 (fax 723 444) infomirador@maspalomas.com
MORE INFORMATION www.grancanaria.com
