Fun and sun, if there ever was an island you could sum up in these words then it is Gran Canaria.
Gran Canaria lies in a part of the Atlantic known as Macaronesia, which includes the archipelagos of Madeira, Salvajes, Azores, Cape Verde, but in contrary to the Atlantic weather conditions of the others, the weather in Gran Canaria is more mediterranean. The closest point on the African coast lies approximately 210 kilometers away, Fuerteventura at 83 km and Tenerife at 62.
As those other two Canary Islands, it’s geographical situation has blessed it with extraordinary weather conditions, with average temperatures of 20 degrees in winter and 25 in the summer, which makes it an island of eternal spring, especially in the south of the island.
For this reason the islands’ capital Las Palmas de Gran Canaria may be in the north, most visitors head for the south, to the beach life, the parties and disco’s of Playa del Inglès (Beach of the English), or the watersports capital Puerto Rico.
With 741,000 inhabitants it is the crowdiest of the Canary Islands, making the capital Las Palmas de Gran Canaria the most cosmopolitan of all the cities in the archipelago.
You can find excellent gastronomy, the traditional recipes, while the exhuberant beach life and the proximaty of the largest tourist resorts in the world makes that you will find everything you find at home.
Being of volcanic origin, Gran Canaria’s 1,560 square kilometers of surface area and 236 kilometers of coastline encompass a great many of the varied landscapes that are found in the archipelago. It is this characteristic, as well as its diverse climatic conditions, which have earned the island its epithet of “miniature continent”. The most unique geographical characteristic of the island is its round shape. The only irregularity in the roundness of the island is a small peninsula in the North-East, known as La Isleta, which is approximately 12 square kilometers in extent.
The highest point of the of the island is right in the middle of the island, the peak of Pozo de Las Nieves (1,949 meters above sea level). The entire island is gouged by deep ravines that radiate from the highest point in the centre right down to the coast line, these ravines being hos to a completely different landscape.
But the main reason for the popularity of Gran Canaria are of course the beaches. 150 there are of them, clean and wide, and bubbling with energy. |
