Last month I had the chance to visit probably one of the most beautiful islands I’ve ever been. While looking for a break away from the city’s noisy reality, I booked a trip to Gran Canaria, the island of the permanent sunshine.
Gran Canaria gets an average of 320 sunny days every year while the average temperature even in winter reaches the 24-25 degrees. The island is located about 200 kilometers from the coasts of Africa at the border between Morocco and Western Sahara, so yes, it is fairly called the island of the eternal summer and yes the temperatures are normally that high! With a dramatic variation of terrain, ranging from the green and leafy north to the mountainous interior and desert south, Gran Canaria is a place definitely worth-visiting.
Explore the island by bike
Upon our arrival, we headed to the rental offices willing to rent a car to explore the island. Since the rental cost was quite high and since we had read in advance about the extremely beautiful & flat naturalistic scenes of the island, we decided to rent mountain bikes and explore the island in an alternative way!
Starting a bicycle trip was a great idea for two reasons: the minimum distances - which allow you to explore the island in a few days - and the great variety of the contradicting landscapes with sea and mountains , woods and desert dunes.
The itinerary;
Starting from Las Palmas, the capital of the island which is located on the northern coast, after crossing a long and barren mountain, we ended up in the extreme south and specifically in the Maspalomas area, where the ocean meets the Sahara sand dunes and the views are just fantastic.
The distance from the north to south is about 90 kilometers long, equally distributed between ascent and descent. With a few stops for swimming, food and sleep, we more or less spent 3 days on the road but the experience was indeed rewarding. We crossed colourful villages & blue-skied small cities, till we finally reached the totally african landscape, the dunes of Maspalomas.
Las Palmas, Gran Canaria
Av. Escaleritas, 12, 35011 Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Las Palmas, Spain
The Maspalomas Dunes, Gran Canaria
35100 San Bartolomé de Tirajana, Las Palmas, ΙσπανίαRenting a bike
A bike like the one we used for our trip, can be found at any rental office at Las Palmas and it will more or less cost you 10-12 euros per day (depends on how many days you’ll need it for, they usually make offers). Helmets, pumps, spare bladder, hoppers, multi tools are of course supplied upon renting. During your trip, it is necessary to always carry a supply of water because there are no sources along the way (furthermore, the water in the house is strictly not drinkable).
Gran Canaria can keep the adrenalin pumping, with a scope for hiking, cycling and watersports! Cycling through the island was just the best decision that we could have ever taken!
As you can understand, all in all it is a definitely recommended experience. After all why renting a car when you love biking and you’re in such an island?
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The author
Chrisa Lepida
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