We have already written about places worth visiting in the south of the island (including Maspalomas dunes, Fataga ravine, picturesque Puerto de Mogan), as well as about our greatest delight, i.e. Barranco de las Vacas (along with Tobas de Colores) and Barranco de Guayadeque. Hence now it’s time to write about interesting spots in the north of the island. We went to this side of the island twice and were able to experience both the beautiful nature and taste wine as well as rum. It is worth noting that in the north of the island (and especially in the more elevated parts) the weather is usually worse than in the south, so don’t be deceived by the sun of Maspalomas and pack your raincoats into the trunk of your car. They were certainly useful to us 🙂

Tour 1
We started our first trip to the northern part of the island at the Canario Viera y Clavijo Botanical Garden. There are two entrances to the Garden: a lower and an upper one. Unfortunately, the lower entrance is closed at the moment, which makes visiting the garden a bit more difficult. Why? Because the upper entrance is located at the top of a rock, from which you have to go down the narrow and steep steps to the bottom of the garden. It is pretty much impossible to do this with a stroller or if you have reduced mobility. If you manage to enter through the lower gate, you can visit most of the Garden by walking along comfortable, wide alleys. The park covers an area of ​​about 10 hectares and is home to around 500 species of plants specific to the Canary Islands. The whole garden is divided into different parts, eg Cactus and Succulent Garden, Islands Garden, Palm Square, pine forest and others. Adam, who recently discovered the existence of cactae, was very fascinated by them 🙂 Entrance to the Garden is free of charge. It took us about 1.5 hours to stroll around the gardens. At the end we had to climb back up the steep stairs to the top of the garden which was quite challenging. But also beautiful.

The next stop during this trip was the Bandama volcanic crater (Caldera de Bandama). The crater is 216 m deep, 574 m high and 1000 m wide. It is said that at the bottom, volcanic ash in various colors is to be found. Of course, you can go down to the bottom of the crater (it takes about 2.5 hours to walk the circular route), but we didn’t plan to do that (maybe if we didn’t walk so much up the stairs in the Botanical Garden, or in better weather). We only drove to the Pico de Bandama viewpoint and from there we admired the grandour of the crater.

The weather was not the best that day, but it did not stop us from further exploring the island, especially when our next stop was the Bodegas Mondalón vineyard. Unfortunately, we did not call in advance to arrange a tour of the entire vineyard, but luckily we were admitted anyway and invited for wine tasting. Currently, Mondalón has only 2 types of wine on offer: one white and one red (due to the poor harvest in 2020, they could not produce more types). It is a completely family run business, run by an elderly Spanish / English couple and their daughter (who accompanied us during our visit and patiently answered Tomasz’ questions). To accompany the wine tasting, we bought a package of local cheeses and jams, and we left the vineyard not only with wine, but also with shoots of local vines, which we plan to plant in our garden. I wonder what will come of it?
After the wine tasting, we drove to the Mondalón restaurant owned by the same owners and had a delicious dinner.

The last stop on our route was El Bufadero de Garita, a rock formation where ocean water flows in and out at high speed creating an amazing effect. Along the ocean, a promenade has been built, along which you can walk while admiring this amazing show. A few hundred meters to the north is Garita beach with black sand. We were almost blown off from El Bufadero after a short walk and mandatory rock climbing. It’s definitely a place worth visiting on your way to the north of the island.

Tour 2
The next day we headed north again. This time we started with Tilos de Moya, a nature reserve with a beautiful dense laurel forest. About 35 species of the most endangered plants on the island grow in the reserve. The short circular trail that leads through Tilos de Moya is less than 2 km long and can be easily walked with children. The only somehow hard part is at the beginning, where you have to climb the stairs in order to be able to follow the narrow path from which there are beautiful views. The trail starts literally a few dozen meters from the Grill los Tilos restaurant, below the Centro de Interpretación de Los Tilos de Moya. There are only a few parking spaces, so it’s worth arriving as early as possible.
We were lucky in the misfortune, because as soon as we got out of the car, it started to rain. It was raining cats and dogs. We quickly hid in the car again and waited maybe 10 minutes for the sun to come back out. The path was all muddy and slippery, but we were very happy that we didn’t get there a moment earlier and the rain didn’t catch us enroute 🙂

Fortunately, there are toilets at the Information Center (Centro de Interpretación de Los Tilos de Moya) and we could clean off most of the mud before heading to Arehucas.
Arehucas is home to the only rum distillery in Spain. And that’s where we went for sightseeing and rum tasting. A visit to the distillery, including tasting, takes about 45 minutes and costs € 4.20 (children free of charge). At this price, we get to try 4 types of rum or various liqueurs produced in Arehucas. If you want to taste their best (oldest) commercially sold rum, you have to pay a little extra. Our “group” consisted of 6 people (of which we were 4) and of course the guide spoke English. The kids were a bit disappointed that the fermentation and distillation machines weren’t in use at the moment (they only operate once a year for a short time), but luckily the robot that packs bottles into cartons and pallets was super interesting 🙂
After visiting the distillery, we had lunch at Restaurante Cafeteria Ciudad de Arucas (a place evidently very frequented by locals, good food at affordable prices) and we went for a short walk around Arehucas, including the St. John the Baptist Church.

The last point of our trip was Las Palmas. We know that this is the main town on the island and we should probably devote it more time than just 2 hours, but somehow we didn’t feel the need to walk the crowded streets or go shopping. So we limited ourselves to visiting the old town of Vegueta. We parked in a large parking lot next to Mercado de Vegueta and walked towards the square and St. Anne’s Church, visiting the souvenir shop on the way 🙂 We also considered visiting the Columbus Museum, but when we arrived there, it turned out that there was a maximum number of people inside and we would have to wait. And we didn’t really want to wait, so we skipped it.
As the name suggests, there are palm trees at every step in Las Palmas, which our children liked very much (we managed to come across ice cream at the Italian Antico Caffé and a playground as well :))

With this post, we end our story from Gran Canaria and we hope that we were able to show you the island from a slightly different angle. This is what Gran Canaria delighted us with. Full of green nature, beautiful views and less frequented trails. These are the places we want to remember, not the enormous blocks of resorts and noisy streets.