Gran Canaria, June 2025
After spending a few days in Sal Island, Gran Canaria was my choice for this year's second period of holidays. As I posted before, I visited las Palmas for a weekend in 2019 and missed the south part of the island where you can find the holiday resorts and la movida. Of course this time, not only the south of the island was explored but also other locations. I stayed in a RIU resort at Playa del Inglés, all inclusive concept, with good food, drinks (including Aperol Spritz!) and lots of sun. Just what I needed!
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Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
One of the days of our stay we went to explore Las Palmas again, using a regular public transport bus to go all the way to the north.
This the urban beach - Playa de Las Canteras:
And again, I went to the old town of Las Palmas - Vegueta neighborhood. Here is a photo of the majestic Cathedral of Santa Ana:
We also went to check Casa de Colón (Cristóbal Colón or Cristóvão Colombo, in Portuguese).
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Dunas de Maspalomas
Back to the place we were staying, something you can't really miss are the Maspalomas Dunes. We went on foot from our resort to the Mirador de las Dunas (viewpoint).
Despite many warnings that the dunes are a protected area, people chose to neglect it. I stayed, as usual, a law abiding citizen and enjoyed the dunes with my eyes only.
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Agüimes
Another day we rented a car and went to explore some other points of the island with the main goal - something I really wanted to do - of going all the way up to Pico de las Nieves. First stop of the day was Agüimes, a small town in the eastern part of the island. The old town (Casco Histórico is cute and dominated by its Church of San Sebastián at Plaza del Rosario.
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Caldera de los Marteles
Close to reaching the highest point of the island, we stopped at Caldera de los Marteles, an old volcano crater to check the views. I'm a volcano enthusiast so I started getting excited.
Also the views from the top of the island were also breathtaking:
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Pico de las Nieves
And finally we reached Pico de las Nieves, the highest point of the whole Gran Canaria. In fact, if we want to be precise, the highest tip is Morro de la Agujereada, which can be seen right in front of us in the next couple of photos:
Next photo shows the end of the road after a very windy road all the way to the top of the mountain.
Amazing view of the island... and first sighting of Roque Nublo...
...Morro de la Agujereada again...
...another view with clear skies...
...Roque Nublo is a very peculiar volcanic rock on top of a hill, the second highest point of Gran Canaria after Pico de las Nieves.
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Puerto de Mógan
The final stop of our journey was Puerto de Mógan, also know as the Little Venice of Gran Canaria. It's a really, really cute fishing village where we had a nice lunch at El Malecón de Mogán restaurant. But there plenty of other options for a meal in the area.
Some views of Playa de Mogán:
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Return Flight
I really enjoyed this holiday in Gran Canaria. I got well rested, sun kissed and in good mood to get back to work. We returned on an Airbus A321neo, tail number CS-TJM, named "Raul Solnado" - one my usual workplaces.
One photo of the winglet while in cruise and the tail after we landed at Lisbon Airport.
I finally reached my GOLD status in RIU's loyalty program :-)
