Best Excursions in Gran Canaria

Gran Canaria packs an unusual amount of variety into one island — you can watch whales from a boat in the morning, stand on a 1,800-metre volcanic summit by early afternoon, and dive to an artificial reef the same week without ever leaving the south coast. That range is exactly what makes choosing excursions here harder than it should be: search any activities platform and you'll find dozens of near-identical "highlights" tours competing for the same booking. Rather than list everything available, this guide narrows it down to the seven excursions we'd actually recommend booking, each chosen for a specific kind of experience — wildlife, landscape, adrenaline, culture or pure family fun — with the real price, duration and difficulty level you need to decide before you book. If you're still deciding where to stay before planning your excursions around it, our best hotels in Gran Canaria guide and our best hotels in Gran Canaria South guide cover every budget and area.

One thing worth understanding before you book anything: where you're staying genuinely changes which excursions make sense. Most tour operators run free or low-cost hotel pickup from the main resort belt in the south — Meloneras, Maspalomas, Playa del Inglés and Puerto Rico — which is covered in detail in our Gran Canaria South vs North comparison. If you're based in the capital instead, our Las Palmas de Gran Canaria city guide covers what's realistically walkable versus what needs a tour pickup or a hire car, and our full getting around Gran Canaria guide breaks down exactly when a rental car pays for itself versus booking guided transport instead.

Quick Decision Guide

Short on time? Match what you're after on the left to our pick on the right, then scroll down for the full review, prices and booking links.

Quick Comparison: All 7 Excursions in This Guide

Prices are approximate per-adult starting rates for low-to-mid season. Always confirm current pricing and availability directly with the operator before travelling.

1. Whale & Dolphin Watching from Puerto de Mogán

The stretch of water between Gran Canaria and Tenerife is one of the most reliable places in Europe to see cetaceans in the wild, thanks to a resident population of short-finned pilot whales that lives in the deep channel year-round, joined seasonally by Atlantic spotted dolphins, common dolphins and, less predictably, sperm whales. Boats depart from Puerto de Mogán or nearby Puerto Rico and head out into the channel, typically finding pilot whales within the first 30-45 minutes thanks to the pod's small home range — sighting rates on a good operator regularly run above 95%, which is unusually high for wildlife tourism anywhere in the world.

Most trips run on a catamaran or a smaller rigid-hull boat, with a marine biologist or trained guide on board explaining behaviour and identification as sightings happen, and a swim stop in open water is often included once whales have been located and the boat moves off to a respectful distance. Reputable operators follow strict distance and approach protocols around the whales, which matters both for the animals' welfare and for a genuinely good sighting — boats that crowd pods tend to see them dive and disappear faster. Browse whale watching trips on WeGoTrip to compare morning and afternoon departure times, since early trips tend to have calmer water and better visibility.

This is one of the easiest excursions on this list to fit around small children, since most of the trip is spent seated on a stable boat rather than moving around, and the excitement of a genuine whale sighting tends to hold even short attention spans. That said, anyone prone to seasickness should take precautions in advance, since the open channel can have noticeable swell even on calm days. If whale watching is the highlight of your trip to the south coast, it pairs naturally with a stay near Puerto de Mogán itself, covered in full in our dedicated guide to the harbour and its "Little Venice" canals.

2. Full-Day Excursion to Mount Teide (via Tenerife)

This is the single most ambitious excursion on this list, and the only realistic way to see Mount Teide — Spain's highest peak — without booking a separate stay on Tenerife. A coach collects you early from hotels across the south, Las Palmas or Agaete, then transfers to a high-speed Fred Olsen ferry for the roughly 70-80 minute crossing to Santa Cruz de Tenerife. From there, a guided coach continues through La Laguna and La Esperanza, climbing steadily through pine forest before the landscape shifts abruptly to the bare volcanic terrain of Teide National Park, with a stop at the "La Tarta" viewpoint on the way up.

The tour typically includes a stop at the Teide visitor centre, time at the Roques de García viewpoint, a traditional Canarian lunch, and a final stop in the historic town of La Orotava before the return ferry departs in the early evening — total time on Tenerife itself runs to around 8 hours. Because the itinerary is fixed and includes the ferry crossing, this is the one excursion in this guide genuinely worth booking a few days ahead rather than the morning of; check availability for the Teide day trip on WeGoTrip and confirm your specific pickup point in the south, since not every hotel zone is covered on every departure day.

Worth knowing before you commit: this is a long day by any standard, with an early start and a late return, so pack layers regardless of how hot it is at sea level — temperatures at 2,350 metres near the visitor centre run 15-20°C cooler than the coast, and wind at the viewpoints can be sharp even in summer. If a full-day round trip feels like too much and you'd rather structure your own pace across the islands, our guide to choosing the best island in the Canaries and our Canary Islands holiday cost guide both cover what island-hopping realistically adds to a trip budget.

3. Jeep Safari Through the Interior

Most visitors experience Gran Canaria's south coast and never see the island's genuinely dramatic interior — a landscape of pine forest, deep barrancos and mountain villages that feels closer to a small continent than a beach destination. A jeep safari is the most direct way to cover a lot of that terrain in half a day, with convoys of open-top 4x4s driven by local guides climbing dirt tracks toward viewpoints that a standard rental car couldn't reach, often passing close to Roque Nublo and the Caldera de Bandama en route.

Typical routes include stops at a mountain village for a coffee or a taste of local produce, a viewpoint over the Tejeda basin or the Caldera de Bandama crater, and a scenic return through pine forest as the light softens in late afternoon — guides generally weave in commentary on the island's volcanic geology, agriculture and history along the way, which adds a genuine cultural layer beyond the off-road thrill itself. Browse jeep safari departures on WeGoTrip to compare morning and afternoon routes, since some cover the northern barrancos while others focus on the Tejeda-Roque Nublo side of the interior.

Be realistic about who this suits: the tracks are genuinely bumpy by design, which is part of the appeal for most travellers but a real consideration for very young children, anyone with back problems, or pregnant travellers, who should check with the operator before booking. It's an excellent complement to a beach-based stay in the south — our Gran Canaria South vs North comparison covers exactly how different the island's interior feels from the resort coast, and if you'd rather explore independently at your own pace, a hire car opens up the paved mountain roads without the off-road bumps.

4. Boat Trip to Playa de Mogán

For a lower-key day on the water than whale watching, catamarans running between Puerto Rico or Puerto de Mogán and Playa de Mogán offer an easy, scenic run along the south-west coastline, with music, a bar on board and usually a stop for swimming or paddleboarding before reaching the beach itself. It's a noticeably gentler pace than the wildlife-focused trips further along this list — the goal here is coastal scenery and beach time rather than a specific sighting, which makes timing far less weather-dependent.

Playa de Mogán itself is one of the calmer, less developed beaches on this stretch of coast, backed by the fishing harbour and canals covered in our Puerto de Mogán guide, and it's a genuinely relaxing contrast to the busier sands further east around Maspalomas and Playa del Inglés — our full best beaches in Gran Canaria guide covers exactly how it compares. Most operators build in an hour or more of free time on the beach itself before the return sail, and catamaran trips to Playa de Mogán can be booked directly through WeGoTrip, with morning departures generally offering the calmest water.

This is consistently one of the easiest excursions on this list for families with a wide age range — there's no strict itinerary to hold small children to, plenty of shaded deck space, and the beach stop gives everyone a chance to burn off energy that a purely seated boat trip doesn't. It also works well as a lower-cost complement to whale watching if your trip includes both.

5. Roque Nublo Guided Hike

Roque Nublo is Gran Canaria's single most photographed natural landmark — an 80-metre volcanic monolith standing at nearly 1,800 metres above sea level, roughly at the geographic centre of the island. A guided hike typically starts from the La Degollada car park, following a well-marked but genuinely uneven volcanic trail that climbs steadily for around 45-60 minutes to the base of the rock, with a short, slightly exposed scramble for those wanting to get right up beside it.

Going with a guide rather than independently adds real value here beyond just navigation — local guides typically cover the rock's geological formation, its significance to the island's indigenous Guanche population, who considered it a sacred site, and the surrounding pine forest ecology, turning what could be a straightforward there-and-back walk into a genuinely informative half-day. On a clear day, the summit views stretch across the island's interior and, remarkably, all the way to Mount Teide on Tenerife. Book a guided Roque Nublo hike through WeGoTrip, ideally an early morning departure — cloud tends to build over the interior by midday, and the light for photography is considerably better before 11am.

Be honest with yourself about fitness and footwear before booking: the volcanic terrain is loose and uneven in places, there's real elevation gain, and there's minimal shade for most of the route, so sun protection and proper walking shoes matter regardless of how short the distance looks on paper. It's a poor fit for very young children, strollers or anyone with mobility concerns, but a genuinely rewarding half-day for active families with children from around 8 upward. For more routes across the island at every difficulty level, see our full best hikes in Gran Canaria guide, and if you're building hiking into a short trip, our 3 days in Gran Canaria itinerary shows how to fit it in alongside beach time.

6. Maspalomas Dunes Sunset Guided Tour

The Maspalomas dunes are Gran Canaria's most recognisable natural landmark, a genuine Saharan-style dune system protected as a nature reserve since 1987, and a guided sunset walk is by far the easiest, most reward-per-effort excursion in this entire guide. A naturalist guide leads small groups along the reserve's marked, low-impact paths, explaining the reserve's unusual desert ecology, its resident wildlife and how the dunes themselves slowly migrate with the prevailing wind over time.

Timing the walk for sunset is the single best decision most travellers make here: the low golden light throws long shadows across the dune ridges and turns the sand a deep amber, producing some of the most photogenic scenery anywhere on the island for very little physical effort. The walk covers flat, sandy terrain with no real elevation change, making it genuinely accessible for a wide range of ages and fitness levels — check sunset dune tour times on WeGoTrip, since the exact departure shifts through the year to match the sunset.

This is consistently the excursion on this list best suited to families with a very wide age range, from toddlers to grandparents, since there's no strict pace to maintain and the walk itself is short. It pairs naturally with a stay near Maspalomas or Meloneras — several of the hotels covered in our best hotels in Gran Canaria South guide are within walking distance of the dune boardwalk.

7. Atlantis Submarine Tour, Puerto de Mogán

Worth a quick correction before booking: this excursion is based in Puerto de Mogán, on the south-west coast — the "Golden Shark" submarine departs directly from the harbour's south dock several times a day. It's still one of the most genuinely unusual excursions on the island: a real passenger submarine, not a glass-bottom boat, descending to around 25 metres to explore "La Atlántida," Gran Canaria's first artificial reef, where more than 300 submerged concrete structures recreate the ruins of an ancient civilisation and now host a thriving marine ecosystem of shoaling fish, rays and the occasional turtle.

Cabin pressure and atmosphere are fully regulated throughout the dive, so passengers experience no pressure change at all — a detail that makes this one of the very few underwater experiences on the island suitable for people who can't dive or snorkel, including most pregnant travellers and those with ear problems, subject to the operator's standard health checks at booking. Large viewing portholes and individual screens explaining the reef in multiple languages make the roughly 40-minute dive easy to follow for children too young to read a dive briefing themselves. Book the Atlantis submarine tour through WeGoTrip a few days ahead in high season — capacity per dive is limited and popular time slots do sell out.

Access to the submarine itself is via a fairly steep, narrow ladder, so it isn't accessible to wheelchair users or anyone with significant mobility limitations, but for most families it's one of the simplest, most reliably enjoyable bookings on this entire list. Combine it with lunch and a stroll around Puerto de Mogán's canals and "Little Venice" harbour for an easy, low-stress half-day that needs no car and very little planning.

How to Choose Your Gran Canaria Excursions

Frequently Asked Questions

Our Honest Verdict

Gran Canaria's excursion scene rewards a bit of planning rather than booking whatever's advertised outside your hotel. If we had to pick just three: whale watching from Puerto de Mogán is the single best wildlife experience on the island and works for almost any traveller; the Maspalomas dunes sunset tour delivers the most reward for the least effort, and belongs on every itinerary regardless of which hotel you're staying at; and the full-day Teide excursion, while genuinely tiring, is the one experience on this list you'll still be talking about years later.

For families with young children, lean toward whale watching, the Atlantis submarine and the dunes tour, and save the jeep safari and Roque Nublo hike for a trip with older kids or a couples-only getaway. If you're still deciding where to base yourself for easy access to the south coast excursions on this list, our best hotels in Gran Canaria South guide covers the resort belt in Meloneras and Maspalomas, and our full Las Palmas city guide is worth reading if you'd rather base yourself in the capital and add day trips south from there.

For everything else you need to plan the rest of your trip — from where to stay to what to pack for a day at altitude on Teide — our practical grid above links out to every guide you'll need, and our 3 days in Gran Canaria itinerary shows how to structure a short stay around two or three of these excursions without overloading your schedule.