There was a pang of guilt when we were lying on a beach in the sunshine while just about everyone else in the UK was cold, flooded and miserable. This feeling passed really quickly as the beach in Las Palmas, on Gran Canaria, in the middle of the Canary Islands, is immaculate and the rolling waves of the Atlantic are stunning.
Off the coast of west Africa, Gran Canaria pretty much guarantees beach weather in winter when people in the UK are shivering and damp. They tend to have a a couple of big rainstorms in February but that's about it. We stayed in an airbnb in Las Palmas in the north of the island which is easy and cheap to get to on the bus from the airport.
We had gone for winter sun but got loads more into the bargain. Gran Canaria has tonnes of interesting stuff to do. In Las Palmas in the north east of the island, there's a giant aquarium with sharks and rays and piranhas and all manner of exotic marine life. There's a science and technology museum with lots of buttons to press and a jet fighter you can sit in. Cool.
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There are regular flights from Bristol to Gran Canaria via Jet2.com, TUI and Ryanair if you want to escape the cold and rain in the UK for some guaranteed sunshine. We were a two-minute walk from the Las Canteras beach which the locals take a real pride in. There were always people playing volleyball late into the evening, nice bars and restaurant terraces looking out over the Atlantic and the water was lovely to swim in. There's lots to do for kids apart from the beach but we went during term time so there were hardly children which was nice.
What is there to see and do in Las Palmas?
Where we were, near the Las Canteras beach, in Las Palmas is, broadly speaking, split into two bits, the port side and the seaside. The port side has a modern shopping centre, the aquarium, the science and technology museum and, obviously, the port, if you like looking at massive ships. There's also a naval base and one evening we were out, the Spanish sailors in their dazzling white dress uniforms were all out on the town. They were either sailors from the naval base or there was a stripper convention in town. We didn't like to ask.
By the seaside, there's well over a mile of beautiful sand. Of the six days we were there, there was maybe only one day too cool and windy to sit on the beach and then only if you're a bit nesh. There are lots of nice places to eat and drink and the promenade was recently refurbished and they are rightfully proud of it.
If you walk north along the coast there are more secluded rocky and volcanic areas from where you can watch gorgeous sunsets. Towards the south-west end of the beach there was a lot of surfing action and the waves looked great. The place has a lot more to offer than just sand though.
Aquarium, science museum and bananas at the banana museum
The Poema del Mar aquarium was not cheap at 27 euros for adults or 18.50 euros for children and journalists with the good sense to bring their press pass and ask for a discount but we spent a good three hours there and it was genuinely fascinating and impressive. It is huge and mesmerising and a massive variety of sea life to ogle from behind thick glass. You can stand inside the megalodon jawbone too. Good value for money in the end.
The Museo del Platano, or banana museum to you and me, was really great too and hasn't been open long. You get to walk around the plantation and find out about different types of banana and, of course, get to eat bananas as well. There are great views from the plantation across the north side of the island. There was banana liquor to try which was really nice, as well as banana wine which in all honesty tasted really weird.
I wanted a t-shirt with a banana on that said 'I went bananas at the Gran Canaria banana museum' but there wasn't one so I got some banana soap instead. There are buses that stop close to the banana museum but we got the wrong one and ended up walking a couple of miles along the road to get there but it was still well worth the effort.
The Elder Museum of Science and Technology near the Port in Las Palmas was impressive too. It's a very hands-on experience and there's plenty for kids, even a ball pit for really young kids. You can sit in a real fighter jet and press all the switches and buttons, including, somewhat chillingly, the one clearly marked 'bombs and napalm', as the Northrop F-5 was developed in the US and used extensively in Vietnam. Of course, we went to Las Palmas during term time so there were hardly any kids around and, like the aquarium, it wasn't that busy and we could mess about with stuff and be a bit silly without feeling self-conscious.
What we ate and drank in Gran Canaria
The new potatoes in their skins with the lightly spicy mojo sauce are great. The simple fried fish dishes were great and fresh as you'd expect by the seaside. I ate a paella for two at a seafood restaurant, heroically.
In Las Palmas a lot of the restaurants are situated along the seafront but there are a few interesting ones away from the shoreline. We ate at a Venezuelan and Uruguayan restaurant, Gran Canaria having links to the Americas as Christopher Columbus set sail from the island on his most famous voyages. There is the Casa de Colón Christopher Columbus museum a short bus ride away from where we were staying.
Cocktails and wine were reasonably priced. The two of us went for a flashy three-course meal with wine one night at a posh-looking restaurant and it came in at around the £100 mark if memory serves. The Canary Islands have two famous beers, Tropical and Dorada. For my money, Dorada edges it on flavour but it's worth trying them both, obviously.
Coach tour around Gran Canaria
There are lots of things to see in Gran Canaria but not all of them are worth half a day of your time so we booked a coach tour to see some of the island's more interesting bits. We ate traditional Canarian food at a small restaurant that the tour guide pre-ordered for us on the coach which meant no faffing around.
The tour guide was great, knew the history of the port and what all the giant container ships and oil tankers were doing there. We looked down into the crater of an old volcano where there's a house where a guy in his 80s lives, having never left the crater. We visited some of the highest points of the island with great views and learnt lots about what makes it tick.
Gran Canaria was formed by volcanos so the roads were often steep and narrow and the tour, at times, was like a slow rollercoaster. The island is a haven for surfers down by the coast, and up in the hills, people go camping. At the airport, we bumped into a couple of friends who were heading to Gran Canaria to run along the countless miles of trails the island has to offer.
Our last stop was the Maspalomas Dunes on the south side of the island which are an impressive sight but it was so windy, it was a struggle to stand up. The tour guide said that if we wanted to stay that was an option but we got back onto the bus and headed back to Las Palmas.
At one point, the tour guide held up a little bag of powder in it and explained that the people of Gran Canaria love the contents. This got a laugh from the people on the coach. He said that he'd pass it round the bus for us to take a sniff, adding that it was not cocaine, even though it looked a little bit like cocaine.
It's called gofio and is made from roasted wheat and maize. I bought a 500g bag of it at the airport for 2.5 euros. It's nice mixed into warm milk and, surprisingly, very filling. It doesn't look that much like cocaine though. It's a bit brownish so it looks more like heroin. I'm glad it didn't burst in my bag in the airport.
A full-cavity body search would've taken the shine off what was a lovely holiday in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
