The one Gran Canaria drive worth hiring a car for: Maspalomas to Tejeda

If you hire a car on Gran Canaria for one day only, make it this drive: from the dunes at Maspalomas up through the Fataga ravine to San Bartolomé de Tirajana, over Ayacata to the roof of the island, and down into Tejeda at 1,050 metres. The reason is not access — Global’s line 18 bus runs the same route for €6.15. The hire car buys you the stops and the early morning at the top, before the coaches arrive. If nobody wants to drive, the Gran Canaria from Above: Fataga and Tejeda day trip covers the same route from €37.60 per person in 7 - 8 hours, at 4.4 out of 5 from 91 reviews — less than a day’s hire car for two once the petrol is counted.

See dates and prices for the Fataga and Tejeda day trip

The route, and the honest reason to drive it

Head inland from Maspalomas and the road climbs through the Barranco de Fataga: palms, terraced walls, a white village on a spur. Then San Bartolomé de Tirajana — Tunte on the signs — which the island’s tourist board places “at the foot of the Morros del Pinar and next to the bed of the Barranco de Tirajana, at an altitude of 890 metres”. From there the road runs over Ayacata towards Cruz de Tejeda, with Tejeda itself at 1,050 metres and the island’s summit, the Pico de los Pozos de las Nieves, at 1,949 metres.

Here is the part most guides leave out: a bus does this route too. Global’s line 18 runs from Faro de Maspalomas via Mundo Aborigen, the Mirador de las Yeguas, Arteara, Fataga, the Mirador de Tunte, San Bartolomé, Cruz Grande and Ayacata to Cruz de Tejeda and Tejeda. In the operator’s fare finder, the whole run costs €6.15, paid on board.

So the car is not buying you access. It is buying you the stops — the laybys between the named viewpoints, the village you decide to stay in for an hour, and being at the top before the coaches. That is a real thing to buy, and it is worth saying plainly rather than pretending the interior is otherwise unreachable.

What the Roque Nublo booking system changed

If Roque Nublo is the reason for the day, read this before you set the satnav for the Degollada de La Goleta. Access to the monolith is now managed, and the Cabildo de Gran Canaria publishes the rules:

• The trail is free, but a booking is compulsory between 10am and 5pm, made at grancanariasenderos.com. Individual visitors are limited to 60 people per hour, and only over-18s can make the booking.
• Private cars are directed to park-and-ride car parks at Tejeda and at Cruz de Los Llanos.
• Shuttle buses (Global line 18) run the circular route every 30 minutes between 9.30am and 6pm, except at 10am, noon, 2.30pm and 4pm, at the company’s usual fares. From Tejeda the ride to the start of the path takes about 30 minutes; from Cruz de Los Llanos, about 10 minutes.
• You can also walk it: from Cruz de Los Llanos the shortest path to the Degollada de La Goleta is given as 50 minutes.
• Visitors with reduced mobility may use the reserved spaces at La Goleta by asking the access-control staff and showing their credentials, if spaces are free.
• Bookings are cancelled during forest-fire alerts. The Cabildo asks visitors to check the official weather pages and its own fire-risk warning page before setting out.

None of that makes the drive pointless. It does mean the drive ends at a car park, and the walk begins from a bus. Plan the booking slot first and build the rest of the day around it — that is the reverse of how most people plan a road trip, and on this route it is the only order that works. Our Roque Nublo excursion guide compares doing it yourself against the organised trips.

Where to stop, and one that is easy to miss

The named viewpoints along the way sell themselves. The one worth a deliberate detour is the Mirador de la Degollada de Becerra on the GC-150, between Cruz de Tejeda and the summit, which looks straight down into the Tejeda basin with Roque Nublo and Roque Bentayga standing in it.

There is a visitor centre at the viewpoint. The island’s tourist board gives its hours as daily, 10am to 5pm, closed on 25 and 31 December and 1 and 6 January, at GC-150, 35369 Tejeda, telephone 610 586 203. It covers the island’s geology and the way people lived in these mountains, and on a day when the cloud is sitting in the basin it is a better use of half an hour than standing in it.

Tejeda itself is the place to stop for lunch rather than to photograph and leave. It is also where the island’s almond sweets come from, which is a reason to arrive hungry.

Summer and winter are different drives

Do not pack for the coast. There is a thousand metres between the dunes and Tejeda, and roughly two thousand between the dunes and the summit; the temperature and the wind at the top bear no relation to the beach you left. Take a layer even in August, and expect the possibility of cloud sitting in the Tejeda basin — which can be the finest thing you see all week, or can remove the view entirely.

In the hotter months the fire-risk warning is a practical part of planning, not a formality: when the Cabildo raises an alert, the Roque Nublo bookings stop. In winter the risk is different — cloud, rain and low light in the ravines, and a shorter afternoon than the coast suggests. Either way, check the forecast for the highlands rather than for your resort.

Petrol is cheap here, which makes the whole day cheaper than it looks. In the Spanish Ministry’s hourly national price file, the median across the 180 filling stations on Gran Canaria was €1.499 a litre for 95 octane, against €1.975 on the mainland. Fill up in the south before you climb; the choice of stations up there is thin. Compare hire cars for Gran Canaria if you have decided this day is worth a car.

When the guided tour is the better buy

Three honest cases, and they are not unusual ones.

If lunch involves wine. Spain’s limit is 0.5 g/l in blood and 0.25 mg/l in breath, and 0.3 g/l and 0.15 mg/l for anyone with under two years on their licence. A mountain village lunch is one of the pleasures of this route, and it does not combine with being the driver.

If nobody wants to drive it. The ascent is continuous hairpins with drops on one side. A driver concentrating on that sees very little of the ravine, and a nervous passenger enjoys none of it. The Gran Canaria from Above: Fataga and Tejeda day trip covers the same ground from €37.60 per person; our guide to this mountain tour goes through it stop by stop.

If you want the villages rather than the road. For Arucas, Firgas and Teror in the north the circuit from the south is the efficient way to see three of them in a day. For choosing between the island’s two standard round trips, start with our north or south comparison.

Four guided tours into the same mountains

Trip	Duration	From	Rating	Good for
Gran Canaria from Above: Fataga and Tejeda	7 - 8 hours	€37.60	4.4 ★ (91)	anyone who wants to do exactly this route without their own car
Off-Road Valleys & Villages Jeep Tour	5 hours	€69	4.5 ★ (1,412)	anyone with only half a day free
“Peaks of Gran Canaria” Hiking Tour	9 hours	€70	4.9 ★ (371)	hikers staying in Las Palmas
Ryker Moto Tour to Fataga	2.5 - 3 hours	€75	4.9 ★ (119)	anyone who wants to be behind the controls but not inside a car

The hiking tour, according to its description, starts in Las Palmas and includes a UIMLA-certified mountain guide, hotel transfer, lunch, insurance and walking poles. The Ryker tour runs from Maspalomas to Fataga and stops at an aloe vera plantation — it does not replace the route to Tejeda, only its lower section. Browse the full range of mountain excursions by what they actually stop at.

And if you are still deciding whether a car belongs in your week at all, we have written the sceptical version of that question.

Our recommendation

For most people who want to see this route: the Gran Canaria from Above: Fataga and Tejeda day trip from €37.60. Seven to eight hours, the same villages and viewpoints, and nobody has to drive the hairpins. For two people that is cheaper than a day’s hire car with petrol — and lunch can come with wine.

See availability and prices for the Fataga and Tejeda day trip

If you want to stop wherever you like: then the hire car after all, but only for this one day. The laybys between the viewpoints and an early morning at the top are exactly what no group trip delivers. Compare hire cars for Gran Canaria.

For hikers: the “Peaks of Gran Canaria” hiking tour for €70, nine hours, with 4.9 out of 5 from 371 reviews the best rating here, tied with the Ryker tour. It starts in Las Palmas, though — anyone based in the south should factor in the drive there.

If you only have half a day: the off-road jeep tour for €69 and five hours, with 1,412 reviews the broadest verdict on this list. It does not go all the way up to Tejeda, though.

This drive is not for you if hairpin bends ruin your day, if you want to visit Roque Nublo on a whim — without a booking slot that is not possible between 10am and 5pm — or if you want to spend the holiday on the beach and only know the mountains from photos. Then a day in the highlands is not a gain but a lost beach day.