Playa de Arinaga, in Gran Canaria, is an invitation to enjoy life by the always open stage of blue.

Years ago, the days in Arinaga started with the sound of the depths. Literally. Very early, sometimes just at dawn, fishermen announced their return to the shores blowing their bucios, the big sea shells so abundant on the surrounding sea bed. They did so hours after leaving on their rowing boats to try their luck on the crystal-clear and bountiful waters of this part of the coast of Gran Canaria.

The circular route through Teror’s Álamo Ravine embraces Gran Canaria’s biodiversity and countryside.

The ravines are arteries where Gran Canaria’s life blood flows most intensely. Here, sheltered between stone walls, nature drinks water from the springs, it climbs, flowers, creeps, puts down roots and multiplies. It also lays green blankets over the basalt rock; it squeezes into implausible gaps and offers shelter between light and shade for anyone or anything that requires protection from the hustle and bustle of the world. This all happens on Teror’s Álamo Ravine path.

Purchasing zero km products buys into a way of life, conserving the landscape, health and sustainability.

Roots of the future are sometimes buried in the past. This is common knowledge among those who rise each morning in the midlands and summits of Gran Canaria to till its crop lands. Also, those who take care of livestock so that their milk and cheese taste unmistakably local, capturing the flavour of the landscape all around us.

The spectacular jade green outcrops and ochre and reddish tones laid bare by erosion are the result of the explosive meeting between fire and water as the island was formed.

In Gran Canaria, the winter months radiate a light that help you squeeze every second out of your day on the beach or in the mountains where blossoming flowers demonstrate that the island is a warm and permanent exception to the winter rules.

The rock listened to a murmur of people. Their faces gave away a blur of hopes, fears, courage and uncertainty. It welcomed people into its rocky arms and protected them as best it could, for millennia, like a mother would. This was how the ancient population of Gran Canaria found shelter in amazing spots such as La Fortaleza and managed to develop a unique culture in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean.

The thalassotherapy centre at the Gloria Palace San Agustín Thalasso & Hotel is the largest and one of the most cutting-edge in Europe. This pioneering facility in the Canary Islands is reopening after a full refurbishment.

A trail of dreamy white foam rolls inland along the coast. This marks the Atlantic Ocean’s salty footprint as it returns to its secret sanctuary in the south of Gran Canaria. This marine spirit is captured on the mural welcoming you to the Gloria Palace San Agustín Thalasso & Hotel thalassotherapy centre. Its painter, Félix Juan Bordes, called his work ‘Second Encounter on the Shores of Saint Brendan’s Island’, evoking the mythical, phantom island from Canary legends.

The Tourist Information Office, recently opened in the Maspalomas Lighthouse, uses this emblematic spot to provide all the information you need to enjoy Gran Canaria to the full.

The Maspalomas Lighthouse has been lighting the way for travellers since 1890. The recent opening of the Tourist Information Office in this emblematic tower, declared a Site of Cultural Interest, only goes to emphasise that it is a reference point for making enquiries or getting to know the south of Gran Canaria and the Island as a whole.

There is a place where you can walk on the earth, sky and sea all at the same time. This happens in Las Canteras, particularly at its wildest end, La Cicer, which owes its name to a former electrical power station. Nowadays, the energy is generated purely by the people who come to this spot where the waves round off their trip to Gran Canaria and become a vast mirror.

The Canary Island sage flowers carpet broad swathes of the summit such as Montañón Negro and other areas of the island.

Chameleon-like Gran Canaria is constantly changing colour. Canary Island sage flowers dress ravines and hillsides in a glorious purple. This stunning, long robe begins 1,800 metres above sea level and trails practically down to the coast. Its bright colour stands out against the black background of the volcanic ash on the foothills of Montañón Negro, one of the most recent volcanoes on the island.

The exhibition rooms propose a route around Gran Canaria’s traditional crafts featuring more than a thousand objects and reflecting the island’s social transformations.

Before light, there was stone. Oxen and camels were used to bring basalt blocks down to the coast from the Fataga ravine so that master craftsmen could turn them into the building blocks for the Maspalomas Lighthouse, demonstrating the type of technical perfection that still astounds us today. Their hands crafted the idea captured on paper by the engineer Juan de León y Castillo. On 1st February 1890, the lighthouse projected its first beam that would have been impossible without the knowledge and hard graft of workmen who knew how to transform those million-year-old rocks into pure progress.

This accessible two-kilometre circular route round Los Tilos is the perfect excursion to enjoy this mysterious, leafy laurel forest, which has survived from the Tertiary Period.

You and your family can live out this fairytale in Gran Canaria. This story begins in the sky and draws to a close under the trees, where life has found a place for itself, anchored in time, making this a bastion of the island’s laurel forest. This type of forest existed long before any human beings trod the Earth, and it has found refuge in the Natural Reserve of Los Tilos de Moya.