Las Palmas de Gran Canaria walking tour & city guide

Vegueta and Triana

Vegueta is the city's founding neighbourhood, a quarter of cobbled streets, wooden balconies and colonial houses around the Cathedral of Santa Ana. The Casa de Colón, where Christopher Columbus is said to have stayed on his first voyage to the Americas, is now a museum of the islands' links with the New World.

Across the main road, Triana is the old merchants' district. Its pedestrian Calle Mayor de Triana is lined with modernist façades and shops, and the nearby Gabinete Literario and Parque San Telmo show the elegance of 19th-century Las Palmas.

Las Canteras and the north

Las Canteras is a three-kilometre city beach protected by a natural reef, which keeps the water calm for swimming and snorkelling. Its promenade is one of the most pleasant walks in the city, from the Auditorio Alfredo Kraus at one end to the surfers' area of La Cícer and on to La Puntilla, a fishing corner at the other.

Behind the beach, the Santa Catalina district around the park of the same name is the liveliest part of town, close to the port where cruise ships dock.

Visiting tips

Las Palmas is about 25 minutes by road from the airport, and buses connect it with Maspalomas and the dunes in the south, the mountain villages of the interior and the port of Agaete. The temperature stays between about 18 and 27°C all year, which has made the city popular with remote workers.