Banana World, rum and coffee on Gran Canaria: which tasting tour is worth it?
Updated October 3, 2026 · 9 min read
The short answer: if you have a car, take the Banana World Guided Tour & Tasting at €15 — forty minutes, a guided walk through the plantation, a tasting afterwards, and 4.8 stars from 3,389 reviews, more than any other food experience on the island. If you have no car and want the whole day, take the banana, rum and coffee route at €69, which collects you from the south and visits a rum distillery, a banana museum and a finca in the Agaete valley. If you only care about the coffee, the tour at Finca Los Castaños costs €16.
See availability and prices for the Banana World tour
Between the cheapest and the most expensive of these there is a factor of four and a half, and almost all of it is transport. The €15 ticket buys forty minutes at one estate and nothing else — you get yourself there. The €69 ticket buys a coach, a guide, three estates and a workshop. Neither is better value than the other; they answer different questions.
The five compared
| Tour | Duration | From | Rating | best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Banana World Guided Tour & Tasting | 40 minutes | €15 | 4.8 (3,389) | a short stop on a day you are driving anyway |
| Premium Tour: the banana, rum and coffee route | 8 hours | €69 | 4.7 (363) | a full day with pickup, three estates, a mojo workshop |
| Coffee Route: Moya, Gáldar and Valle de Agaete | 9 hours | €49.60 | 4.7 (20) | seeing the north-west, with one tasting stop |
| Finca Los Castaños: Agaete Valley Coffee Tour & Tasting | not stated | €16 | 4.5 (106) | coffee only, on the plantation itself |
| Spanish Tapas and Wine Tasting Tour in Mogán | 2 hours | €59.40 | 4.5 (33) | food and wine without leaving the south |
What you actually taste at Banana World
The operator is Mundo del Plátano, and the meeting point is Hacienda La ReKompensa: park in the large car park by the estate, follow the signs marked “Banana Museum”, and meet the guide inside the museum. Included are the entry ticket to the estate, the guided tour and the tastings. The estate advises comfortable shoes, and says the tour runs rain or shine.
Here is the thing the title does not tell you, and the operator’s own review summary does: what you taste are products made with Canarian bananas — jams, wines and the like — not a flight of different bananas. Several reviewers say they would have preferred tastings of the varieties themselves. If that is what you are picturing, adjust the picture before you book; if it is not, the rating speaks for itself.
The booking page also contradicts itself on one number, and it is worth knowing which claim you are reading. The highlights promise thirteen different types of banana on the walk; the description, two paragraphs further down, calls the plantation one with over 50 varieties of banana tree. The guided walk takes forty minutes either way.
Two limits are stated plainly. The estate lists the tour as not suitable for people with mobility impairments — if that affects you, get the conditions confirmed in writing before you travel rather than relying on this page. And there is no pickup: you arrive under your own steam. For most visitors staying in the south that means a hire car, and a car comparison for the island is the cheapest way to find out what that costs on your dates. Forty minutes is also short enough that the drive north only makes sense combined with something else — Arucas, Firgas and Teror are the obvious neighbours.
See availability and prices for Banana World
The eight-hour day: rum first, then bananas, then coffee
The premium route run by Low Cost Tours Gran Canaria is the one most people mean when they say “the tasting tour”. It starts at the Arehucas rum production line in Arucas, goes on to a banana museum, and ends in Agaete with coffee, wine at a finca and a workshop on making Canarian mojo. The guide works in Spanish, German and English, and the booking page adds one restriction worth reading twice: the guided tour inside the rum distillery is in English and German only. On public holidays, the page says, the distillery is not visited at all.
Included are the distillery tour and tasting, the wine tour and tasting, the coffee tour and tasting, the banana farm tour and tasting, an air-conditioned coach, pickup from the tourist areas and liability insurance. Lunch is not included, on an eight-hour day — that is the single most useful line on the page, and it is in the exclusions where nobody looks. Budget for a meal, or eat properly before pickup.
The operator asks you to confirm your exact pickup point and time over WhatsApp, and will not accept pickup changes less than 24 hours before departure. It lists the tour as not suitable for people with mobility impairments or wheelchair users, and separately bans mobility scooters, non-folding wheelchairs and electric wheelchairs. The review summary is positive about the guides and the range of tastings, and notes that some travellers found the schedule rushed.
See availability and prices for the banana, rum and coffee route
The coffee route, and where its nine hours go
The Coffee Route by Alsa is the cheaper long day at €49.60, and its booking page is unusually honest because it publishes the timings. The named stages are: 75 minutes on the coach to Moya, 30 minutes in Moya, 30 minutes on the coach, 45 minutes in Gáldar, 15 minutes on the coach, 75 minutes in Puerto de las Nieves, 15 minutes on the coach, one hour at Bodega Los Berrazales for the visit, food tasting and coffee tasting, and an hour back. That adds up to six and three quarter hours inside a day sold as nine — three and a quarter of them in the vehicle, one of them tasting. The rest is not broken down on the page, so ask what time your pickup is before you plan the evening.
Which is not a criticism — it is a sightseeing day through the north-west with a tasting at the end, and the stop at Puerto de las Nieves with the view of the Dedo de Dios is the longest one. But if you came for the coffee, the tasting is a sixth of the day. Food and drink are not included. The operator lists the tour as unsuitable for people with mobility impairments and for people who suffer from motion sickness — the roads to Moya and Agaete are the winding kind, and it is the operator’s own warning, not ours. With 20 reviews the rating rests on a much thinner basis than the others here.
If the drive is the problem
Two offers solve the same wish without a coach day. The tour at Finca Los Castaños in the Agaete valley costs €16 and covers the plantation, the process and a tasting; we have written about it separately in the Agaete coffee tour at Finca Los Castaños. It still means getting to Agaete. And the tapas and wine tasting in the Mogán valley at €59.40 for two hours takes place in an old house in the south, which is the only one of the five you can reach from the resorts without crossing the island.
One overlap is worth a question before you book two things. The eight-hour premium route lists a banana museum in Arucas among its stops, and Mundo del Plátano’s own meeting point is signposted “Banana Museum”. Neither page says whether that is the same estate. If you plan to do both, ask the operator first — it would be a shame to pay twice for the same walk.
Who these are not for
Anyone with limited mobility: three of the five state outright that they are not suitable, and the fourth is a plantation path. Anyone expecting a restaurant: the only one of the five that includes a sit-down meal is none of them, and the longest day explicitly excludes lunch. And anyone travelling with small children who need a short day — forty minutes at Banana World works, nine hours on a coach through the north-west does not. What does work with children is in Gran Canaria with kids.
Our recommendation
For most people: the Banana World Guided Tour & Tasting at €15. Forty minutes, 4.8 stars from 3,389 reviews, and the cheapest guided anything on this island. Combine it with Arucas or Teror and the drive north pays for itself.
If you have no car: the banana, rum and coffee route at €69, with pickup from the tourist areas, four tastings and the mojo workshop. Take money for lunch and check which language the distillery tour runs in on your date.
If coffee is the point: Finca Los Castaños at €16 — the plantation, the process, the tasting, and no day on a coach.
If you want to stay in the south: the tapas and wine tasting in Mogán at €59.40 for two hours. It is the most expensive per hour in this comparison and the only one that does not cost you the crossing.
