Gran Canaria walking holiday
| country: | Canary Islands, Spain |
| location: | Canary Islands |
| trip type: | Self guided, introductory / moderate walking holidays |
| departures: | Any time between 25 Oct & 30 Apr |
| price: | From £360 (4 days) - £655 (8 days) excluding flights, based on 2 people sharing. Discounts for children and 3-4 people. For parties of 6 more more, one person goes free! Solo traveller prices available |
read 4 travellers reviews
the amazing things you'll be doing
Gran Canaria is just a four hour flight from the UK (in the same time-zone), and the awesome landscapes of its central highlands – with tall towers of volcanic rock, deep valleys filled with exotic vegetation, and woods and meadows between – rise above 1900m. The island is of course well known for its beaches, but the interior remains to be discovered, with its isolated villages, fascinating cave sites, exotic flora and ancient Caminos Reales pathways, and the winter six months between Nov and April provide perfect walking temperatures averaging 20ºC.
Explore the island on foot on an independent break, choose to travel whenever you like, and stay as long as you wish (minimum 3 nights). Holidays include comfortable single-centre accommodation in a traditional village, a hire car (carbon neutral of course!), breakfast and a lavish packed-lunch every day, a Handbook containing masses of local information as well as a wide range of self-guided walks suitable for all abilities and ages (including children), the option to join 3 organised walks per week, and the full support of a knowledgeable locally based manager. There are no fixed itineraries – you are free to walk as much or as little as you like.
Walking
The walking in Gran Canaria’s Highlands is wonderfully diverse for such a compact area. Familiarise yourself with the landscape on some short walks (anything from ½ hour to 2 ½ hours), passing through tiny villages, to important cave-sites, through pine forests, to awesome viewpoints, into a great ravine, down to a hidden beach, or into the crater of an extinct volcano. Take your picnic, and take your time… If you feel like heading out on a few medium length (half-day) walks, you can discover important aboriginal caves, walk through cool Canarian Pine forests in a nature reserve, head into a lush barranco (ravine) with waterfalls, follow the ancient Camino Real pathways, or cross grassland plateaus with wonderful views. If full-day walks are what you want, you can explore extraordinary cave-villages, nature reserves and ravines, cross a great meadow-topped lava plateau, and circle the mighty volcanic tower of Roque Nublo. If you choose to join the 3 organised walks per week you may find yourself following a pilgrim trail from the pretty town of Valleseco, crossing a volcanic crater, following the great central ridge from the island’s highest point (1949m), or circling the holy rock of Bentaiga.
Village and accommodation
Artenara curls around the western end of Gran Canaria's great central ridge - the "Cumbre". At 1270m, the village is the highest on the island and boasts several bar-restaurants and a good shop. The pale facades of its deceptively simple houses look out across the vast bowl of the Tejeda valley. Behind the whitewashed walls and wooden shutters, the majority of Artenara's inhabitants still live, as their ancestors did 5000 years ago, in caves, with all mod-cons of course.
We stay in a lovingly restored traditional cave house in the tiny hamlet of Las Arbejas, five minutes from Artenara. The walls, ceilings, shelves, cupboards, benches, windows and doorways are all cut from the volcanic rock, creating an extraordinary apartment with a double and a twin bedroom, a bathroom with hydro-massage bathtub, and a fully equipped kitchen and indoor living space. A lush garden terrace includes a built-in barbecue, an outdoor shower for really hot days, a small pond and a shady pergola.
If you don’t like the idea of living in a cave we can also offer a charming one-bedroomed 19th C stone cottage on the very edge of Artenara – at a small supplement. Anyone preferring to be based a town with amenities on the doorstep can stay in another attractive cave-house in Artenara itself. Finally, anyone hankering after the luxury of a 3-star hotel, can enjoy a room at the boutique Hotel Rural Fonda de la Tea in nearby Tejeda, at a supplement.
Children under 2 years old - Free. Children aged 2-11 years old – 25% discount.
Family groups and parties of friends – book a group of 6 people or more on an independent break, and one of you will receive a completely FREE holiday! (conditions apply)
Explore the island on foot on an independent break, choose to travel whenever you like, and stay as long as you wish (minimum 3 nights). Holidays include comfortable single-centre accommodation in a traditional village, a hire car (carbon neutral of course!), breakfast and a lavish packed-lunch every day, a Handbook containing masses of local information as well as a wide range of self-guided walks suitable for all abilities and ages (including children), the option to join 3 organised walks per week, and the full support of a knowledgeable locally based manager. There are no fixed itineraries – you are free to walk as much or as little as you like.
Walking
The walking in Gran Canaria’s Highlands is wonderfully diverse for such a compact area. Familiarise yourself with the landscape on some short walks (anything from ½ hour to 2 ½ hours), passing through tiny villages, to important cave-sites, through pine forests, to awesome viewpoints, into a great ravine, down to a hidden beach, or into the crater of an extinct volcano. Take your picnic, and take your time… If you feel like heading out on a few medium length (half-day) walks, you can discover important aboriginal caves, walk through cool Canarian Pine forests in a nature reserve, head into a lush barranco (ravine) with waterfalls, follow the ancient Camino Real pathways, or cross grassland plateaus with wonderful views. If full-day walks are what you want, you can explore extraordinary cave-villages, nature reserves and ravines, cross a great meadow-topped lava plateau, and circle the mighty volcanic tower of Roque Nublo. If you choose to join the 3 organised walks per week you may find yourself following a pilgrim trail from the pretty town of Valleseco, crossing a volcanic crater, following the great central ridge from the island’s highest point (1949m), or circling the holy rock of Bentaiga.
Village and accommodation
Artenara curls around the western end of Gran Canaria's great central ridge - the "Cumbre". At 1270m, the village is the highest on the island and boasts several bar-restaurants and a good shop. The pale facades of its deceptively simple houses look out across the vast bowl of the Tejeda valley. Behind the whitewashed walls and wooden shutters, the majority of Artenara's inhabitants still live, as their ancestors did 5000 years ago, in caves, with all mod-cons of course.
We stay in a lovingly restored traditional cave house in the tiny hamlet of Las Arbejas, five minutes from Artenara. The walls, ceilings, shelves, cupboards, benches, windows and doorways are all cut from the volcanic rock, creating an extraordinary apartment with a double and a twin bedroom, a bathroom with hydro-massage bathtub, and a fully equipped kitchen and indoor living space. A lush garden terrace includes a built-in barbecue, an outdoor shower for really hot days, a small pond and a shady pergola.
If you don’t like the idea of living in a cave we can also offer a charming one-bedroomed 19th C stone cottage on the very edge of Artenara – at a small supplement. Anyone preferring to be based a town with amenities on the doorstep can stay in another attractive cave-house in Artenara itself. Finally, anyone hankering after the luxury of a 3-star hotel, can enjoy a room at the boutique Hotel Rural Fonda de la Tea in nearby Tejeda, at a supplement.
Children under 2 years old - Free. Children aged 2-11 years old – 25% discount.
Family groups and parties of friends – book a group of 6 people or more on an independent break, and one of you will receive a completely FREE holiday! (conditions apply)
travellers' tales
The skies were blue and the walking was superb - far better than we had anticipated. It is difficult to choose just one memorable occasion but I guess for us it was climbing down volcanic rock into the heart of an extinct volcano. (more)
how this holiday makes a difference
|
One of the main factors in choosing the location for our holidays is the village in which we stay. It is our aim to seek out small communities where traditional ways of life survive, although they are often on the retreat. Our intention is to bring new income and impetus to the community – without overwhelming it! Our guests enjoy learning about the environment and culture, and the locals benefit both economically, and from the knowledge that their way of life is valued. Our presence near the mountain village of Artenara brings valuable sustainable tourism to the local inhabitants of this little-known area. We are working closely with the enterprising former mayor of Artenara, Señor José-Antonio Rodriguez Rodriguez, to encourage people into the region to appreciate its unique beauty.
We are also working with the current mayor to apply pressure on the island’s parks service to try to repair a footpath to one of the most extraordinary, and currently "lost" aboriginal caves on the island. The Gran Canarians have a high awareness of environmental responsibility, especially concerning one of their scarcest resources: water. Our Handbook explains this and advises on how to use water responsibly, to conserve energy and recycle waste on the island. One of the best ways in which we do this is by living traditionally as the locals do; in caves hewn out of the soft volcanic rock. These dwellings are extremely energy efficient, being warm in the winter and cool in the summer. The water in our accommodation is solar-heated too. We support the village shop and bar/restaurants in the isolated village of Artenara by purchasing the ingredients for our packed-lunches, and dining in the evening on their delicious locally sourced produce. The interior of Gran Canaria has been declared a World Biosphere Reserve due to the richness of its flora and fauna and its varied landscapes. There are over 100 species of plant which grow only on Gran Canaria and the island has become a unique reference point for botanists worldwide. For those wishing a deeper level of understanding of the importance of the local flora, we recommend a visit to the island’s fascinating Botanical Gardens. We encourage visits to the nearby town of Tejeda, which has several fascinating museums describing the history of the local people and the region, and of the traditional life of a Gran Canarian peasant. And finally, we thoroughly recommend supporting local enterprise by sampling the award-winning wines produced by our host! All our car hire is “carbon-neutral”: carbon emissions are fully offset through a scheme in place with the Carbon Neutral Company. Our brochure production and distribution is also carbon neutral through a similar scheme, and we offer all our clients the opportunity to offset the carbon emissions caused by their flights too. Our brochure and all other literature and correspondence uses recycled paper, and we operate a rigorous recycling and energy saving policy both at our UK office and all our destinations, as well as encouraging our local suppliers to do the same. |
Tourism can be good and bad for destinations & local people. We carefully screen every holiday against our criteria for responsible travel. 'Look behind the brochure' to find how each holiday makes a difference (see left). We don't claim to be perfect - there is no global accreditation - but we've lead the way since 2001 and screened 1000's of holidays. We invite every traveller to write a review about their experiences and responsible tourism. This valuable feedback is sent to the people who run the holidays. We keep a very close eye on it and take off holidays that don't live up to our standards. |