Family Holiday on Gran Canaria: What a Week of Excursions Really Costs
Updated September 10, 2026 · 7 min read
On the booking page, every price is followed by “per person”. For a family with two children, that means, at first glance, times four. The camel ride in the Maspalomas dunes then costs €72, the submarine in Puerto de Mogán €152, Palmitos Park €156. Whether that sum is right depends on something the page usually doesn’t say: whether children pay less, and up to what age.
The per-person prices below come from our site, as of 10 September 2026; the children’s prices come from the operators themselves. Both can change at any time.
The per-person price is almost always the adult price
At the well-known family destinations, the price on our site matches the adult price at the operator’s ticket desk exactly. The children make the difference:
| Offer | our site, per person | operator: children | free |
|---|---|---|---|
| Camel ride Maspalomas | €18 | €13 (3–12 yrs) | up to 3 yrs with a parent |
| Submarine Puerto de Mogán | €38 | €22 (2–12 yrs) | under 2 yrs not allowed |
| Poema del Mar | €29 | €19 (3–11 yrs) | 0–2 yrs |
| Palmitos Park | €39 | €29 (5–10 yrs), €15 (3–4 yrs) | 0–2 yrs |
| Aqualand Maspalomas | €41 | €31 (5–10 yrs), €17 (3–4 yrs) | 0–2 yrs |
| Sioux City Park | €25 | €15.90 | n/a |
The camel-ride rate is quoted by Camello Safari Dunas; that our listing runs through this operator is an outside attribution. What age the children’s ticket at Sioux City Park applies to isn’t stated on its page; in the sample week below, it’s assumed for a six- and a nine-year-old — ask beforehand. Children under two aren’t allowed on the submarine at all, according to the operator.
How the booking page charges for children, you’ll see there once you select participants. If no separate children’s price is shown, every seat pays the full price — and a family with younger children then does better booking directly with the operator. We say this even though we earn from bookings made through our site.
Palmitos Park and Aqualand also sell more cheaply on their own websites than at their own ticket desks. Palmitos Park charges €35 online instead of €39 for adults and €25 instead of €29 for children, and has a family package for two adults and two children at €118. Aqualand quotes online prices “from” €32 and €22, depending on the day of your visit. The submarine gives a 10% discount on its own website, just not for trips on the same day.
From what age a child pays in full
At Palmitos Park and Aqualand, you count as an adult from age 11; at Poema del Mar, from 12; on the submarine and the camel ride, from 13. An eleven-year-old, then, pays the full price at the park and still the children’s price on the submarine.
Palmitos Park measures height at the ticket desk if age isn’t proven with an original passport. Aqualand names heights alongside age: adult from 11 years “and/or” over 1.40 m, free up to two years “and/or” under 90 cm. How that’s applied at the ticket desk is best asked beforehand. Children’s ID belongs in your bag on park days. What else works with a child under five is covered in Gran Canaria with a toddler.
Sample week 1: children aged 6 and 9, all in the south
Five items, one per day, none in the north: the camel ride, the submarine, Palmitos Park, the catamaran trip with dolphins and snorkelling from Puerto Rico, and Sioux City Park.
| four seats at the per-person price | at the operator with children’s rate | |
|---|---|---|
| Camel ride | €72 | €62 |
| Submarine | €152 | €120 (online €108) |
| Palmitos Park | €156 | €136 (family package online €118) |
| Catamaran with dolphins | €152 | €152 |
| Sioux City Park | €100 | €81.80 |
| Total | €632 | €551.80 (online €521.80) |
For the catamaran, we couldn’t verify a children’s price, and the title doesn’t reveal who runs the trip. So it stands in full in both columns. The €110.20 between the first and last totals is almost another park visit for four. Not included are food, drinks and parking; Palmitos Park explicitly excludes photos by the park’s own photographers and bookable add-on programmes from the entry price.
Sample week 2: teenagers aged 13 and 15
With teenagers, the children’s discount disappears: at every operator with a verified children’s rate, both pay the adult price. In exchange, more is possible.
| four seats | at the operator | |
|---|---|---|
| Submarine | €152 | €136.80 (online) |
| Aqualand | €164 | from €128 (online) |
| Catamaran with dolphins | €152 | €152 |
| Poema del Mar | €116 | €116 |
| Buggy tour | €261 | €261 |
| Total | €845 | €793.80 |
For the catamaran and the buggy, we found no cheaper operator price. Poema del Mar is in Las Palmas, around an hour from the south. Anyone heading there anyway can put Banana World in Arucas on the same day, also in the north: €15 per person, €60 for four.
The most-reviewed buggy tour costs €65.25 per person, so €261 for four people. The operator it can be traced to from the outside only takes minors from 1.35 m tall, and only someone at least 18 with a driving licence may drive. So the teenagers ride along, while the parents take the wheel.
Per vehicle, not per person
With buggies, a second look pays off. Some are listed on the booking page as “per group up to 2 people”, such as a two-hour tour for €139 at 4.8 stars from 66 reviews. A family of four needs two groups, so €278 — more than the €261 of the most-reviewed tour. A four-seater from Maspalomas is also listed at €150 “per group up to 2 people”; what seats three and four cost is something to clarify before booking.
The three four-seaters explicitly marketed as family buggies, by contrast, are listed on the booking page at €79.50, €85.05 and €175.77 “per person”. If that’s meant literally, even the cheapest costs €318 for four, at 3.9 stars.
What gets expensive and barely pays off with young children
The catamaran trips with food and drinks cost €77 per person and last four and a half hours, €308 for four. The trip with dolphins and snorkelling takes an hour less and costs barely half as much. With a five-year-old, the long trip is expensive above all: without a children’s price, every seat pays for the food too, and if the child has had enough after an hour, three and a half remain. Which duration suits which age is covered in Boat trip with kids: what’s the minimum age?; all trips to wild animals are under Whale and dolphin watching.
Palmitos Park and Aqualand separately, at the per-person price, cost €320 for four. Both parks together sell a “2 Parks Ticket”: €62 for adults, €45 for children aged 5 to 10, so €214 for the family from the first week.
With children under 1.35 m, the most-reviewed buggy tour can’t be booked. Why buggies are rarely the highlight for young children anyway is covered in Gran Canaria with kids. And for a child under six, a morning at the beach often does the same job as four and a half hours on a catamaran, just without the €308.
What getting there costs
According to the operator, the submarine offers a free bus from the resorts of the south to Puerto de Mogán, “for online reservations” and with a seat reservation; whether that also applies to a booking through us is something to ask there. At the harbour, you can park free for two hours, as long as space is available. All the trips there are under Boat trips and submarine.
Sioux City Park names a free bus from various tourist points and free parking. It’s closed on Mondays. Public buses run to Palmitos Park and Aqualand: line 45 from Bahía Feliz, San Agustín and Playa del Inglés, line 70 from Puerto de Mogán, Puerto Rico and the Maspalomas lighthouse. Aqualand’s car park costs extra.
The camel ride starts on Calle Oceanía in Maspalomas. The operator doesn’t guarantee parking, and it only takes riders from 9.15 am to 2.15 pm. The longest trips head north: Poema del Mar and Banana World each lie around an hour from the south, and the day then belongs to the car.
What costs nothing
The beach. Spain’s coastal law declares the use of the sea and shore for walking, relaxing and bathing “libre, pública y gratuita”, and counts dunes as part of the beach where they’re necessary for its stability. The Maspalomas dunes remain open to the public, according to the tourist board, with around 8 kilometres of paths running through them. Off those paths, walking is banned, according to the Cabildo.
Even the camel operator recommends a “free nearby plan” for afterwards: the loop to the La Charca lagoon, the Maspalomas lighthouse and along the Meloneras promenade. All the paid offers, with their per-person prices, are under Things to do on Gran Canaria.
