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Volcanic mountains falling to the Atlantic on Tenerife

Spain · Atlantic

Canary Islands

Four and a half hours from the UK, and the only place in Europe that's reliably warm in January. Four islands, four completely different holidays — and picking the wrong one is the commonest mistake we fix.

4h 30m directNo visa for UK passportsWarm all yearGuide price from £399pp

The short version

The island decides the holiday

People book "the Canaries" the way they'd book "Greece", and the islands are far less alike than that suggests. Tenerife and Gran Canaria are big, busy and green in parts. Lanzarote is black rock and whitewash with a two-storey building limit. Fuerteventura is essentially beaches and wind. Tell us what you want the week to feel like and we'll pick.

Tenerife

North and south are different holidays

Teide sits in the middle at 3,700m and splits the island's weather in two. The south — Costa Adeje, Los Cristianos, Playa de las Américas — is dry, hot and near-guaranteed. The north around Puerto de la Cruz is greener, cooler, cloudier and considerably more Spanish. If someone tells you Tenerife was disappointing weather-wise, they almost certainly stayed north in winter.

Lanzarote

The island that refused to be Benidorm

In the 1960s the artist César Manrique persuaded the island to ban high-rise and outdoor advertising. The result is the one Canary island that doesn't look like the others — low white buildings on black lava, vineyards grown in volcanic pits, and no billboards. Quieter than Tenerife, better for couples, thinner on nightlife.

An aerial view of a beach backed by volcanic hills

Pick your island

Four islands, and the resorts within them

Flight times are from London; regional departures run to all four. Airport codes are the ones to check on any quote you're comparing.

4h 30m · TFS

Tenerife

Biggest, busiest, and the only one with two climates. Teide splits it down the middle: dry and hot in the south, green and cloudier in the north. Most UK flights land at Tenerife South, twenty minutes from the main resorts.

Costa Adeje: The smart end. Five-stars, calm beaches, best for families who want the resort to be the holiday.
Playa de las Américas: Loud, cheap and lively. Best value on the island, busiest nightlife.
Los Cristianos: Older crowd, working harbour, ferries to La Gomera. Calmer than its neighbour.
Puerto de la Cruz: The north. Spanish, green and characterful — but noticeably cooler and cloudier in winter.

An aerial view of a resort pool overlooking the ocean

4h 15m · ACE

Lanzarote

Black lava and whitewash, with a building-height limit that keeps the whole island low-rise. Quieter than Tenerife, stronger on scenery, thinner on nightlife. The best island for couples and for anyone who hates high-rise resorts.

Puerto del Carmen: The main strip. Long beach, plenty of restaurants, walkable and reasonably priced.
Playa Blanca: Southern tip, smartest of the three, and the ferry port for Fuerteventura.
Costa Teguise: Windier, which makes it the windsurf base. Sheltered family beaches behind the reef.
Famara: Surfers and walkers, not sunbeds. Dramatic and wild, and not really a resort at all.

A sandy beach with clear blue water beneath a cliff

4h 20m · FUE

Fuerteventura

The beaches — longer, paler and emptier than anywhere else in the Canaries. The trade-off is wind, which is why it's the watersports island. If you want to lie still on a towel all week, this isn't the one.

Corralejo: North, beside the dunes national park, and the ferry to Lanzarote. Liveliest choice.
Caleta de Fuste: Purpose-built, sheltered and shallow. The family default.
Costa Calma: Long pale beach, quiet, popular with kitesurfers.
Jandía & Morro Jable: The far south. Best beach on the island, longest transfer from the airport — about an hour.

4h 30m · LPA

Gran Canaria

A continent in miniature — dunes in the south, pine forest and mountains in the middle, and a proper city in the north. The widest range of resorts of the four, and the easiest to combine beach with something else.

Maspalomas: The dunes, and the smarter southern resorts beside them.
Playa del Inglés: Big, busy, cheap. The island's nightlife and its long-established LGBTQ+ scene.
Puerto de Mogán: 'Little Venice' — canals, low buildings, the prettiest and the priciest.
Las Palmas: A real city with a real beach at Las Canteras. Good if resorts bore you.

Our speciality

Two islands in one holiday

Almost nobody sells the Canaries as a two-centre, and on two of the routes it's a 25-minute ferry. You fly into one island and out of the other, so there's no backtracking and usually no extra flight cost.

Lanzarote4 nightsPlaya Blanca, at the southern tip.
Ferry · 25 min
Fuerteventura3 nightsCorralejo and the dunes. Fly home from FUE.

Tenerife5 nightsCosta Adeje or Los Cristianos.
Ferry · 50 min
La Gomera2 nightsLaurel forest and ravines. Back to TFS to fly.

The Lanzarote–Fuerteventura crossing runs roughly hourly and takes cars. The Gomera ferry from Los Cristianos is longer but still a morning. Both turn a flat beach week into something people talk about afterwards.

The other three

There are seven islands, not four

The western islands get a fraction of the visitors and none of the package flights. You route through Tenerife and take a ferry or a Binter hop. Worth it if you walk, dive, or have done the big four already.

A green mountain ridge falling to the sea

La Palma

The walking island. Volcanic ridges, laurel forest, and some of the clearest night skies on earth — there are international observatories on the summit.

Green trees above white buildings on a hillside

La Gomera

Fifty minutes by ferry from Los Cristianos. Ancient laurel forest, deep ravines, and a whistled language still in everyday use.

El Hierro

Smallest and furthest. Diving, volcanic swimming pools, almost no tourism. For people who've done the other six.

When to go

Winter is the point

The Canaries sit off the coast of Morocco, which is why they hold 21–22°C in January when the rest of Europe doesn't. Summer is pleasant rather than scorching — high twenties, tempered by the trade winds. There is no bad month; there are only expensive ones.

Jan21°

Feb21°

Mar22°

Apr23°

May24°

Jun26°

Jul28°

Aug29°

Sep28°

Oct26°

Nov24°

Dec21°

Navy marks peak pricing — Christmas, February half term and the school summer. May, June and October give you the same weather for noticeably less. Sea temperature runs 19–23°C year-round, which is cooler than the Med in summer and warmer in winter.

Worth leaving the resort for

What we'd actually book

A deep canyon cutting through volcanic rock

Masca gorge

Tenerife's best walk, down a ravine to the sea. Permit required and it sells out — ask us before you fly.

Whale watching

Pilot whales and dolphins live off south-west Tenerife year-round. Boats from Los Cristianos, and you will see them.

Timanfaya

Lanzarote's volcano park. Coach-only access, and they still grill lunch over geothermal heat at the visitor centre.

A white building with green shutters beside the ocean

César Manrique's house

Built into five volcanic bubbles. The best thing on Lanzarote, and the reason the island looks as it does.

Teide by cable car

3,555m at the top station. The final summit needs a free permit booked weeks ahead — we'll sort it with your booking.

La Geria vineyards

Vines grown in pits dug into black ash, each ringed by a stone wall. Malvasía tasting, twenty minutes from Puerto del Carmen.

Papagayo beaches

Seven coves at Lanzarote's southern tip, down a dirt track. Take everything with you — there's nothing there.

A road running across open volcanic landscape

Corralejo dunes

Eleven square kilometres of sand running down to the sea. Free, and best in the hour before sunset.

A view over the water from a rooftop terrace

Before you book

Five things worth knowing

Check which coast, not just which island. On Tenerife in January the difference between north and south is roughly a cardigan versus a swimming costume. It's the single detail that decides whether the holiday works.

Hire a car for two days, not seven. The resorts are walkable and parking is awkward. Two days gets you Teide, Masca and a village lunch; the rest of the week you don't need it.

Wind is a real factor. Fuerteventura and eastern Lanzarote are breezy most afternoons — brilliant if you sail or kite, wearing if you want a still beach day. We'll steer you to a sheltered bay if that matters.

Transfer times vary a lot. Costa Adeje is twenty minutes from Tenerife South; Morro Jable is nearly an hour from Fuerteventura's airport. With small children that's worth knowing before you book, not after.

It's Spain, so it's the EU. UK passports need three months' validity beyond your return date and must be under ten years old on entry. We check both against your documents before you fly.

The practical bits

Things that catch people out

Time zoneSame as the UK, all year. No jet lag, and the clocks change on the same weekend.

CurrencyEuro. Cards accepted everywhere; small bars and beach kiosks sometimes cash only.

Sea temperature19–23°C year-round. Atlantic, so cooler than the Med in August and warmer in February.

Flight time4h 15m to 4h 30m from London. Add roughly 20 minutes from northern UK airports.

TaxThe Canaries sit outside EU VAT, so spirits, tobacco and electronics are cheaper. Duty-free allowances apply coming home.

DrivingRight-hand side, good roads, cheap fuel. Mountain roads on Tenerife and La Gomera are slow and winding.

WaterTap water is desalinated and safe but tastes of it. Most people drink bottled.

EatingPapas arrugadas with mojo, fresh fish by weight, and Lanzarote's volcanic Malvasía wine. Eat away from the promenade.

Next step

Tell us your dates and we'll pick the island

Send your dates, party and rough budget and we'll come back with the island and the coast that actually fit, plus the payment plan written out in full.

Your money is protected. Trip Tides is a travel agent — we book your holiday with a travel company, and that company is named on your quote and confirmation. Your contract is with them. If your holiday is a package including flights, put together by an ATOL holder, you'll get an ATOL certificate naming that company. We confirm in writing what protection applies before you pay.

Each island in detail

They are an hour apart by ferry and they suit different people. Here is each one on its own.

Tenerife

Biggest island, most choice, and a 3,700m volcano. Book the south for sun.

Lanzarote

Volcanic, low-rise by law, and quietly the most striking of the four.

Fuerteventura

The best beaches in the Canaries, and the most wind. Quiet by design.

Gran Canaria

Dunes, 1,900m mountains and a real city. The most variety in one island.

Canary Islands packages

Flights, accommodation and transfers as one package. Every one can be reshaped — different dates, different board, a different airport, or a stopover on the way.

7 nights in Canary Islands

All inclusive · Nov–Mar

Return flights and private transfers
All inclusive throughout
Financial protection confirmed in writing before you pay

from £429per person

Get a quote

10 nights in Canary Islands

All inclusive · Nov–Mar

Return flights and private transfers
All inclusive throughout
The extra nights cost proportionally less — fixed costs don't change

from £549per person

Get a quote

14 nights in Canary Islands

Half board · Nov–Mar

Return flights and private transfers
Half board throughout
Best value per night, and worth it on a longer flight

from £649per person

Get a quote

Guide prices, per person, based on two sharing, including return flights, accommodation and transfers. They indicate what a holiday of this type has typically cost and are not an offer or a quotation. Your price depends on dates, party, board basis, departure airport and availability, and is confirmed in writing before any payment is taken.