Skip to main content

Blog Oficial de Turismo de Gran Canaria

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

Vegueta, a stroll around the New World

The founding neighbourhood of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria offers history, culture, cuisine and the odd enigma.

A stroll around the district of Vegueta begins at a very distinct point, back to a time over five centuries ago. At the foot of Guiniguada Ravine, gigantic palm trees rose up and served as a beacon to guide boats bringing in Spanish troops deployed at this point since 1478. The roots of those first historic palm trees that stood tall in what we now call Vegueta are also the roots to the name of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria.



A craftswoman working in her crafts workshop

Artisan pottery and Gastronomy, a love that shines through in Gran Canaria

They say a recipe itself doesn’t have a soul, rather it is the chef that provides it. Nevertheless, nobody doubts that crockery is a fundamental part of a recipe today: it enhances the dish, while each piece adds a dash of beauty to the end product.

This opinion is shared among critics and gastronomic experts all around the world, so much so that neuroscience has taken it on to study just how the shape of crockery, along with its colour, material and density all influence how, what and how much we eat.


Roque Nublo

Roque Nublo, beyond your wildest imagination

Roque Nublo, the geological wonder and emblem of Gran Canaria, invites you to join it in reaching up to the sky.

Your climb up had provided you with your first glimpses in your mind. But now you are actually here, and you are breathing in the pure mountain air carrying the aroma of pine trees, and local flora including alhelíes, tajinastes, chestnut trees and broom. You look up and there it is. You feel compelled to walk on as far as its base and touch the sky alongside it. It’s the Roque Nublo, the proud son of the volcano and one of the most awe-inspiring stone monoliths in the world. And today you are visiting it in its lair at over 1,800 metres altitude.


Las Canteras beach

All the latest at Las Canteras beach

The knocking down of an old wall has added a further 2,500 metres of surface area to Las Canteras beach, in the area around La Cícer, where there is now a square and a walkway.

Mother Nature has got back what always used to be hers. Las Canteras beach, in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, has gained another 2,500 square metres of surface area following the demolition of an old wall, together with the creation of a new square and a walkway along La Cícer, at the top end of the beach near the Alfredo Kraus Auditorium, and right opposite where surfers glide around some of the finest waves in Europe.


Mercado del Puerto, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria

The Gran Canaria Port Market that arrived from Paris

The Port Market in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is a beautiful modernist structure made from cast iron, which caters for every little whim.

The sheer charm of Parisian architecture shines through at the Port Market, a modernist gem made from cast iron, next to Las Canteras beach in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, was assembled and opened in 1891 following a design process by French company Eiffel. Indeed, you’re not mistaken, they are the same people who raised the emblematic Eiffel Tower in the French capital.


Sancocho

Sancocho, a true date with Easter

Although Sancocho is not regularly made on a daily basis nowadays, it continues to be the most typical dish for Good Friday, and a highly regarded “plate-filler” any time of the year.

Up until the end of the 19th century, fish in Gran Canaria had to be sold daily, and was only consumed at coastal towns, as there were no ways of keeping it fresh. However, around the turn of the 20th century, changes began to creep in to our cuisine: our range of foods began to increase thanks to the technique of salting. Around this time sancocho made its presence felt.