The city of Las Palmas is located in the north eastern extremity of Gran Canaria. The city is rather cramped and spills over into  La Isleta – a tiny island to the north. Las Palmas is a visitor's delight with historic relics, theme parks, beaches, shopping opportunities, a long chain of boulevards and walks along the coastline!

The Playa de las Canteras – a 3 km (1. 8mile) beach is the nerve centre of tourism in the Canaries. It’s got the tourist office, innumerable hotels, bars and curio shops.

Playa del Inglés & Maspalomas, located on the southern tip of Gran Canaria, is only 40km (24mi) to the south of Las Palmas. A favourite with visitors from Europe, it is a splendid beach for basking and bathing.

When you want to get away from the miles of beaches, take a trip to the theme parks. Here you can see what the Guanches used to look like originally. For gazing at birds and botanical beauty, go to Palmitos Park, a subtropical sanctuary packed with 230 varieties of birds and exotic plant species. La Laguna Grande, a park just off the highway is a wonderful place to relax and stroll through in the evening. It lies 13km (8mi) west of San Sebastian de la Gomera.

The Catedral de Santa Ana is the religious core of the city. This amazing cathedral took three and a half centuries to complete. The neighbouring Museo Diocesano has an interesting collection of religious mementos – art, sculpture, manuscripts and the like. The Museo Canario compiles some interesting and thorough research on Gran Canaria’s pre – colonial history. The museum contains implements and objects d' art which are remanants of the Guanche civilization.

While in Las Palmas, do visit the Casa, also known by the names Museo de Colón and Columbus House. It’s a terrific example of Canarian architecture. No one’s quite sure, though, if Columbus ever inhabited the house. It is also something of a cultural museum with an assortment of artefacts from Latin America, portraits, navigational charts and miniature ships.

Visiting the Parque Nacional de Garajonay  is like stepping into a page in a children’s storybook. The national park is the star attraction of the island of La Gomera, which is accessible by ferry or hydrofoil from Las Palmas. It is spread over 4000 hectares (9880 acres).

Cool Atlantic trade winds mingle with the warm breeze and create frequent ripples of mist in this ancient laurel forest. The floor of the forest is thickly covered with moss and lichen as hardly any sunlight squeezes past the dense foliage.

Forests like this are not common any more in the Mediterranean region because they died out in the last Ice Age. Most visitors make a beeline for the island’s tallest peak the Alto de Garajonay. The view from up there is stunning!

The Yumbo Centrum –located in the very heart of Playa del Inglés & Maspalomas – is a four-storeyed food fest and shopping bonanza. Traditional European breakfasts, international goods and an assortment of merchandise are on sale. Right round the corner from Yumbo Centrum you’ll locate doctors, banks, laundrettes, communication centres and superstores. That’s in the daytime. Come darkness and this place transmogrifies into a gay Mecca.

The bus service is a good way to get around the city and Las Palmas is very well connected to the other islands by hydrofoil and ferry. 

For further country and visitor details, see Canary Islands.