When I landed at the airport in Las Palmas, the capital city of the island, a few days later, the first impression was the fabulous climate. When I stepped on the tarmac, sunshine and a gentle breeze greeted me, letting me forget about snow and ice that I had left behind just a few hours ago.

There was a shuttle bus available from the airport to my hotel in Playa del Ingles, but I had decided to rent a car so that I could be independent from the start.

Picking up the rental at the airport was easy and soon enough I was off for a taste of Las Palmas traffic. I found a bustling city full of contrast. The old town, Vegueta, holds many historical sites and invites to a leisurely stroll.

Playa del Ingles is located on the other side of the island and I soon left the city behind in order to arrive at my final destination.

It is quite an experience crossing the island. I found the changing scenary astonishing. So many different landscapes on a realtively small island gave me the impression of travelling in a miniature world, where there is a little bit of everything on limited space. The only theme that seems to be omnipresent is bananas. Wherever you go there are bananas growing or being trucked from one place to another.

San Agustin, Playa de Ingles and Maspalomas share the most beautiful sand beach I have ever seen. The Maspalomas dunes at the southernmost tip of the island reminded me of African deserts and the beaches, though crowded, are fabulous for walking.

Gran Canaria offers a unique vacation experience and is well worth a visit.

I have been there in December 2009 and spent at first some time in the island capital Las Palmas. This attracts visitors with its unique cathedral of Santa Ana in the old town. It is the largest and oldest church in Gran Canaria. It was built in 1500 as a sign of the conquest of Gran Canaria by the Spaniards. But it has been finally finished 1781.



The space in front of the Cathedral, the Plaza de Santa Ana, attracts the tourists with its beautiful buildings from different eras that surrounded this place.

Also the home of Christoph Columbus I’ve watched on my journey. It is located directly behind the cathedral. Today this house is a museum. Other buildings associated with Columbus in context are in Las Palmas.

After I have explored Las Palmas, I equipped the nature of the island a visit. Here you can experience the amazing flora and fauna of Gran Canaria, which results of its lush vegetation. Here I have looked at the Caldera de Bandama, a part of Tafira reserve. From here you have got unforgettable views over the beautiful nature of this island.

Not far from this untouched nature is the tourist city Maspalomas. It is always worth a visit to the dunes here. They are so big that you might think you stand in a desert.



I can say that a visit to this varied island is absolutley nice. Here you will find unspoiled nature, great sights and pleasant temparatures at a fair price. You should rent a car to get in more remote parts of the island.

In the heart of the island of Gran Canaria a number of ravines lead down to the coast, which gives it´s special characteristic shape to the island together with the volcanic origin.

The climate in Gran Canaria is generally mild and with a an average of about 21 degrees during the whole year.

The central mountain range divides the climate of the isle into the south and southwest clime. The south is marked by trade winds and more sunny weather while the southwest is more cloudy and therefor more fertile.

Many wonderful beaches invite you to have bathing fun and sun pleasure. Very well known holiday resorts in Gran Canaria are Maspalomas, Playa del Inglés or the capital called Las Palmas.

One of the sights you shall visit is the picturesque old fisherman place Puerto de Mogan or the Palmitos park, an impressive bird and palm park.
As well the dunes of Maspalomas are very remarkable.

The fascination of the island of Gran Canaria for the visitor can hardly be expressed by words.

Who would like to enjoy an individual holiday, can choose from a variety of wonderful holiday cottages and holiday dwellings.

Holiday homes, country houses, villas and fincas on Gran Canaria

…all your holiday wishes will come true here on Gran Canaria, also concerning the immense amount of offered sport and leisure time activities.

On this beautiful island you will sure find a suitable accommodation without any commitment.

Gran Canaria ist adequate for activity holidays and sports.

Today we have two tips for ventures and leisure time activities on Gran Canaria.

Firstly we want to inform you about the website ofv Grancanaria-Excursions.com. On this website you find a huge offer of excursions all over the island. At Grancanariaexcursions.com you can book many kinds of day trips to different places and destinations.

In the range you find a trip to Las Palmas, on wich you can discover the capitol of Gran Canaria, with its famous quarter of La Vegueta full of shops and sights. For those who are interested in the history of Gran Canaria, we recomment the Ancient History Tour, starting in Guadedeque, where you can view some caves from the aborigines of Gran Canaria. This half day trip guides you to different viewpoints and characteristic places of the isle. Another excursion offered, ist the Gran Premium Tour. During this day trip you can view the giant pine of Teror (Pino de Teror) and visit other, interesting villages on Gran Canaria.

On the webpage of Grancanariaexcursions.com you can book day trips and half day trips on the island as well as boat trips on the Atlantic Ocean.

If you are interested at the excursions of Grancanariaexcursions.com, you can have a look on their website below:
Grancanariaexcursions.com

One of the most favorite trips for a holiday is a sport fishing boat trip. Therefore you find at your disposal a modern boat with space for up to six sport fishers. This boat is called Blue Marlin 3 and it is as well available for a private charter. You have the possibility to join a trip on the Blue Marlin 3 without being a sport fisher. A boat trip with Blue Marlin 3 can be a spectacular holiday experience and you can be witness of great fishing.

If you would like to know more about sport fishing trips on Blue Marlin 3 ahead the costs of Gran Canaria, you can join the website below: Blue Marlin 3

It is named after Alfredo Kraus, a famous spanish tenor who died in 1999 and was considered to be one of the last Grandseigneurs of opera. Designed by the architect Oscar Tusquets and the sculptor Juan Bordes it was first opened on December 5th in 1997.

The auditory hosts many cultural and social events like the annual Canary Islands’ Music Festival, wich takes place at each years beginning, or the Las Palmas of Gran Canaria Film Festival, which is organized in corporation with the city council of Las Palmas.

Throughout the year many events are running in the auditory. Many own concerts, as well as the Las Palmas Philharmony Society concerts and the annual Jazz and Guitar Festivals are taking place in here.

But also modern acts can be seen here, as it’s the cutural and social centre of the city.

To improve efficiency, director Francisco Macho confirmed an expandation of Gran Canaria Airport completed by the year 2020. The expandation will effect an increase of flight operations up to 80 flights per hour and is to be realised in three steps.

The first construction phase should be finished in 2011 containing the extension of parking sites. The second period includes the constitution of a third runway.

For this purpose the motorway GC-1 will be diverted. Start of construction is in 2015. Five years later the expandation of the airport should be completed implying the launch of the new runway.

After this the Gran Canaria Airport will be able to handle over 15 million passengers per year.

In this context approximately 20 kilometres (42%) of the altogether 48 kilometres long route will take their course subterrestrial, further 3.7 (7%) kilometres will be made up of crossovers. The remaining distance of about 24,28 kilometres (51%) shall be covered abovegroundly.

Up to now 9 stages are regarded as fix points, such as Parque de San Telmo (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), the hospital Insular, Jinamar, Telde, the airport, Carrizal, Arinaga, Vecindario and finally Playa del Ingles.

Nevertheless, the basically given approval of the isle administration does not state concrete aspects concerning the real start of construction of the train connection because a significant amount of details has to be clarified yet.

With this project idea other communes were also made considering similar ventures. Arranging a study checking the actual feasibility of an additional connection to Agaete in the north of the isle as well as the efficiency and profitability of the “Gran Canaria- Express” is the essential challenge at this time, Román Rodríguez declared at a press conference.

WOMAD festivals take place in over 20 countries, on 4 continents.

The original idea of Peter Gabriel – the founder of the festival, was to evoke interest in celebrating, and first of all, in sharing the world music, arts and dance.

WOMAD in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is a real feast for those who seek for great multicultural atmosphere in a beautiful surrounding. It also gives the opportunity to taste the food and to buy souvenirs from all around the globe.

It is a place, where you can just “taste the world”.

Gran Canaria’s landscape varies from desert, like dunes, over pinewoods to ~2000m high mountains in the centre of the island. The big variety of landscapes available on this relatively small island invites visitors to go hiking or even to discover by backpacking.

In additon, the cathedral of Santa Ana and the boulevard Calle Mayor de Triana in Las Palmas, the capital of the island, are very popular destinations for culture-interested visitors.

The Palmitos Park near Maspalomas is a beautiful botanical garden which also acommodates monkeys, crocodiles, an orchid house, an aquarium with different species of fishes and coral displays, and Europe’s largest butterfly house.

the night of sunday, a pipe which supplies the Unelco Power station with fuel-oil, the one situated at the entrance of Las Palmas, got damaged, causing a yet unknown amount of fuel-oil to get out and affect a shore stretch of 600m at the ‘Las Gaviotas’ beach near ‘Jinamar’. The same night ‘Disa’, the company in charge of the supply, was alerted of this problem aswell as the ‘Guardia Civil’ and the local environment office.

Though, there was barely nothing to do until the next day when the diggers started to clean the sand and the adjacent land, which luckily acted as a ‘sponge’, impeding huge ammounts of fuel-oil getting into the water. The cleaning works still continue today as this last two days the workers have been removing as much as possible with shovels and their bare hands. Tomorrow they will continue but with pressurizee vapor stream guns.

Here are some pictures i managed to take:

Really sad , lets just hope they’re able to clean all that mess up… :S