Las Palmas

Las Palmas is the capital of Gran Canaria, occupying a long stretch of the island’s north-eastern coast where the interior gives way to the Atlantic. Its historic core lies in Vegueta, the old town, where narrow streets open onto Catedral Santa Ana and the nearby Casa Colón, a museum whose association with Christopher Columbus reflects the city’s long role as a stopping point between Europe, Africa and the Americas. Just beyond Vegueta, the Triana district continues the old-town character with its own network of pedestrian streets and period façades, forming the historic heart of the capital alongside its neighbour.

To the north, the city meets the sea along Las Canteras Beach, a broad urban strand that has long shaped the rhythm of daily life in Las Palmas, backed by a promenade and sheltered by a natural sandbar. Beyond it, the land narrows towards La Isleta, a rugged natural area and former fishing quarter that gives the city its distinctive northern silhouette, while the wilder El Confital Coast marks the point where urban Las Palmas gives way to open Atlantic swell and undeveloped shoreline.

Together these places give Las Palmas a layered identity: a working capital with colonial-era streets, a long city beach, and a rougher coastal edge at its northern tip, all within a single stretch of Gran Canaria’s northern coastline.