Road trippin' in Gran Canaria

Our two days road trip on the streets of Gran Canaria (an island of Spain) was an amazing experience. To rent a small car as I did with a Toyota Yaris is affordable for nearly everyone as the price starts with 20 Euros a day only. The infrastructure is on a high level and people respect the rules more than less. See pictures & videos and the map of the tour through the mountains and the coast line.

Would you like to know more about the island? Read my article Gran Canaria Insights.

Video from the road trip

Tour map

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Through the mountains (blue route)

The first tour started in Bahía Felíz with a first stop in Santa Lucía. The street until there was pretty much easy to drive and wide enough for two cars. Starting from Santa Lucía is where it gets rough a little bit. Even though the roads are almost new and kept well in shape, it is pretty narrow.

Driving through all those endless serpentines might cause your co-passengers to feel sick. For you as a driver it can be a lot of fun, depending on your car of course. It can be a lot of pain as well, if you have a big car. Why? The curves are relatively sharp and many times you can't see what's behind, so you need to slow down and sometimes even to do a complete stop.

Going further through San Bartolomé de Tirajana, La Plata, Roque Bentaiga, Tejeda we ended up being in Altenara which was our temporary destination. It's the highest town in Gran Canaria and very lovely.

Suddendly the weather changes

Altenara is on a meteorological divide, which means that on the way to get to Altenara, the temperature is warm, a lot of sun, there is almost no cloud, dry and you’ll see plenty of plain rocks; but going further to the North the weather changes completely and suddenly it was very humid, much colder and even foggy and the ecosystem looked like a rain forest.

Parking in a rain forest

We had another break in Valleseco and Teror to take some pictures before we went back to our hotel via Las Palmas taking the highway.

Driving in Las Palmas

This trip is about 100 kilometers long. But do not underestimate the time. We stoped several times and couldn't go much faster than 40km/h most of the time, so it lasted four hours.

Along the coast around the island

Starting again in Bahía Felíz taking the highway GC1 direction south, we had our first stop in Puerto de Mogán. A very lovely place I strongly recommend to have a break. We took some pictures there before we continued our journey around the island. The tour through the mountains got a bit rough after Puerto de Mogán: Many serpentines and narrow streets might cause some stress :-)

The trip is worth the stress, after reaching Puerto de Aldea, you will be rewarded with one of the most amazing views you can get on the island. Being in the car and seeing down the cliffs is pure pleasure. You will have many possibilities to take awesome pictures until you reach Agaete.

Agaete was our final destination to take pictures and walk around the city. Starting from Agaete we took the highway GC2 toward to Las Palmas and finally back to highway GC1 where we started our amazing trip.

This trip took us about five hours and was approximate 200 kilometers long.

Conclusion

Driving is your passion? You love to do road trips? Do these trips as mentioned above. It's a rewarding experience and worth some pain and stress in the serpentines, you won't regret it!

Toyota Yaris and his driver