Canary Islands
Travel Guide > Europe > Spain > Canary Islands
In this Article
- Introduction
- Geography
- Regions
- Cities
- Sights and Activities
- Events and Festivals
- Weather
- Getting There
- Getting Around
- Eat
- Drink
- Sleep
Join the Hipporoller Challenge
Help the Travel Guide reach 20,000,000 characters and we'll donate 63 hipporollers worth over $6000. Read more.
On Travellerspoint
Contributors
Utrecht (62%)
from http://utrecht.travellerspoint.com
Herr Bert (15%)
from A Dutchman in Madrid
as well as Peter (10%), LeisureZon (8%), HerbieCans (3%), Sam I Am (3%)
Help contribute to this article to share the ad revenue.
Introduction
The Canary Islands are special autonomous community of Spain and are located off the northwest coast of Africa, about 100 kilometer (Lanzarote and Fuerteventura are the closest to the mainland) from Morocco and the Western Sahara. The Canary Islands, although technically coming under Spain and part of the EU, are autonomous with their own government and taxation systems. The total population is roughly 2.1 million with most of them living on the islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria.
Each of the Canary islands (and their satellite isles) are very different in feel. Some people love one island, but hate another. Beauty really is in the eye of the beholder and your island experiences may be totally different to the experiences of another. While some of them are real beach destinations, like Fuerteventura, others combine culture and nature, like Gran canaria and Tenerife. Whereas La Palma is very beautiful with a tropical feeling.
Geography
All the islands of the Canary Islands have a vulcanic history, this explains the black beaches of the islands. All the sandy beaches you will find on the islands are man made. The Islands lie in the Atlantic Ocean, about 200 kilometres from Morocco and Western Sahara. The Teide vulcano on Tenerife is the highest mountain of Spain, topping the Mulhacén in the Sierra Nevada by more than 200 metres.
Regions
The Canaries are split into 2 different communities: Santa Cruz de Tenerife and Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
The following islands are part of Santa Cruz de Tenerife:
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
The following islands are part of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria:
Events and Festivals
Weather
Getting There
By Plane
Most of the islands have direct fligts from Europe, you can check the islands' articles for more information. Here only the busiest airport at Gran Canaria is shown.
Gran Canaria Airport (LPA) is the busiest of the Canary Islands and dozens of airlines serve it.
Ryanair has flights to a number of cities in Europe, while German based Condor and Air Berlin have flights as well. TUIfly, Thomson Airways and Thomas Cook Airlines serve a significant number of destinations as well.
Few cities in Africa are served, though Mauritania Airways start flying to a number of Mauritanian cities from 2009 onwards.
By Train
By Car
By Bus
By Boat
Mainland Spain
Trasmediterránea provides ferries from Cadiz in Spain to and from the Canary Islands.
Portugal/Madeira
Naviera Armas runs weekly services between Portimao in mainland Portugal to Madeira and on to Tenerife, with connections to other Canary Islands, like Gran Canaria and Lanzarote.
Getting Around
By Plane
The Canary Islands are connected by a smaller airline called Binter Canarias, which also has a flight to Marrakech from a couple of the islands.
By Train
By Car
By Bus
By Boat
Trasmediterránea and Fred Olsen, are the main operators between the Canary Islands of Lanzarote, Tenerife, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, El Hierro, La Palma and La Gomera.
Eat
Drink
Sleep
This is version 16. Last edited at 12:37 on Aug 30, 09 by Herr Bert (0). 12 articles link to this page.
Except where otherwise noted, content of this article is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License