Some of the Most Beautiful Beaches of Gran Canaria and Tenerife, Canary Islands

While in Gran Canaria and Tenerife in the Canary Islands, we spent time at several beaches, all of which are vastly different from one another. Just a brief intro first, though. The Canary Islands are an archipelago of seven Spanish islands off the coast of Africa. Tenerife is the largest island and Gran Canaria is the third-largest island. The Canary Islands were formed by volcanos and as such have black lava beaches as well as man-made white sand beaches.

Las Canteras Beach is right in Las Palmas and is lined with hotels, apartments, shops and restaurants along the 3.5 km stretch of beach. I ran along the pedestrian area between the beach and shops, and while I had to weave around other people walking, I still enjoyed running there. The golden sand beach is sheltered by a lava reef and swimming here is safe in certain parts, although you often see surfers here.

Las Canteras Beach with too many surfers to count!

Along the southern part of Gran Canaria there are many beaches. Maspalomas beach is adjacent to Playa del Ingles, which together are 6 km long and are nudist-friendly. Maspalomas is famous for the sand dunes that make you feel like you’re in the middle of the Sahara rather than the Canary Islands. This area is so enormous that even though it’s one of the most popular beach areas, I’ve been told it rarely gets crowded, especially in the dunes. There is also a lighthouse at one end of the beach.

Sand dunes at Maspalomas Beach

Restaurants are everywhere in the town of Playa del Ingles, along with hotels, bars, and apartments. Beware that this area is extremely touristy, so if that’s not your thing, you might want to just focus your time on the sand dunes as my family and I did. Other popular beaches in the southern part of Gran Canaria include the busy Puerto Rico and Anfi del Mar as well as quieter Puerto de Mogán, Tauro, and San Agustín.

Las Playas Alguineguin is a smaller, less touristy black sand beach that I thoroughly enjoyed. It also has some restaurants and shops within walking distance. We got some gelato then walked across the street to the beach and spent some time just relaxing and enjoying the scenery. There are other smaller beaches like the one in Alguineguin, such as Tufia, a small beach in Telde; just take the El Goro exit from the GC-1 motorway and follow the signs.

Las Playas Alguineguin

Moving on to the island of Tenerife, I spent quite a bit of time in the Costa Adeje region, which is where El Duque beach is along with nearby Fañabé. Both beaches are within a short walk of many restaurants and shops. Also in the southern part of Tenerife in Cristianos is Las Vistas, coming in at 850 meters long, so it does get crowded during the high season.

One of many elaborate sand sculptures we saw in the Canary Islands

In the northern part of Tenerife are several beaches of note including Las Teresitas, a 10 minute drive from Santa Cruz de Tenerife, and Benijo, a natural beach popular for water sports with the Anaga Mountains providing extra visual interest. Puerto de la Cruz has the beautiful Playa Jardín surrounded by the botanical garden. To get to El Bollullo, another black sand beach from Puerto de la Cruz you can either walk through the banana plantation or take the TF-5 to Rincón.

Two final beaches that are surrounded by the unique nature of the island of Tenerife are Los Gigantes and the beach of Masca. We tried to take a boat tour in Los Gigantes while we were there but a storm had come in, bringing strong winds, so all boat tours were cancelled for several days. Many people don’t realize that the town of Masca also has a beach but there is one about a 3 to 4 hour hike through the gorge. We decided not to go to the beach because it had just rained a lot and I read that the area tends to be muddy to the point of being dangerous after heavy rains. Instead, we just walked around the town of Masca and had a snack there while enjoying the gorgeous views.

Rocky black sand beach where we tried to get a boat tour of Los Gigantes

I have to end this post by saying there’s so much more to the Canary Islands than just beaches. We spent a majority of our time in Gran Canaria and Tenerife hiking, walking around botanical gardens, and exploring the islands in other ways. I’ll get into some more of those things in later posts.

Have any of you been to the Canary Islands? Which island(s) did you visit? What did you think of them?

Happy travels!

Donna