Sights on the Canteras beach

A stroll on one of the most beautiful municipal beaches in Las Palmas

There are numerous sights along the Canteras beach. Undoubtedly, the centre of this area is the clean and approximately 3.5 km stretching sandy beach, which has already been awarded as one of the most beautiful municipal beaches in the world a number of times.

Location Sights Canteras Beach

To present you this area of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria as clearly as possible, we will simply take you from the Plaza La Puntilla, situated at the eastward end, to the opera house Auditorio Kraus at its opposite end.


We start our tour on the Plaza La Puntilla from which you can enjoy a picturesque view over the entire Canteras beach and the Confital beach on the other side. Afterwards we turn into the busy, palm-lined promenade. Here you can find many restaurants and cafes, which all share the same astonishing view over the beach. Nevertheless, most of them are slightly overpriced and do not offer any extraordinary culinary delicacies. Therefore, you should rather adhere to the restaurant tips on our website LasPalmas24.com.

In this area of the Canteras beach are also most of the tourists and many of the attracted street performers and musicians. Now we cross the Plaza Saulo Toron and continue to stroll under beautiful palm trees. Boats of the last fishermen of Canteras can be spotted on the beach, which give the unvaried sandy landscape some blurs of colour.


This picture does not really change much for almost the next 500 metres after which we reach a gentle inlet and the beach widens. This zone is known as Playa Chica (=small beach) among the locals. Since our start on the Plaza La Puntilla 25 minutes have passed. Those who are already tired can have a rest on the shadowy terrace of the Café Costa Canaria and enjoy a cool drink. Furthermore, Playa Chica would be the ideal starting point for all who are interested in diving as the chalky reef La Barra is immediately offshore.


Many apartments and hotels are placed side by side along the next 300 metres. They are situated directly on the beach and offer you fair prices, like the apartments of Brisamar or Goleta. Some further metres ahead you will be able to catch sight of the rock Pena la Vieja, which rises above the floods of the Atlantic Ocean and which gave this zone of the Canteras beach its name. Every now and then people climb this rock, but most of the times it is only a popular resting place for seagulls. Besides many romantic fishing boats surround the rock.
Numerous restaurants, cafes, bars and an ice cream parlour are also located on the Pena la Vieja. One of the bars, called Scorpio, is owned by a German. And not far from it the recommendable ‘rock bar’ Guardia can be found.

We slowly approach the Plaza Churruca now and the part of the Canteras beach that is called La Cicer. Before continuing you can enjoy a tea or some healthy food in the bar Kibutz.
In La Cicer you will be able to discover the sportive aspects of the Canteras beach. Any forms of sport are officially allowed there and, as a result, people play football, volleyball, Frisbee and tennis all day long. Dozens of Canarians go jogging along the beach early in the morning or before sunset. Certainly, the most popular sport present in La Cicer is surfing. This part of the beach is not protected by the chalky reef of La Barra and the continuous waves make it a surfer’s paradise – no matter how old you are or whether you use a body board or a conventional surfboard.

Among the Canarians La Cicer is known as one of the best and most beautiful surfing places. At the weekends it can be very crowdy there, because sometimes up to five surfers compete for one good wave. For all of you who would like to make their first attempts in this fascinating sport, we recommend you to enrol for a course in one of Las Palmas’ many surfing schools. Immediately on site the only surf camp of Las Palmas is situated as well, which offers neat and comfortable accommodation together with surfing courses and trips to the north of the island.
Directly above Cicer you can find the Café L Querque from which you can enjoy a gorgeous view over the beach and the open Atlantic. This section of the Canteras beach is popular with the Canarian youth, but also older persons can really enjoy themselves. After we have passed the restaurant and Café Bosmediano, it is only a few metres walk to the park Jardin Atlantico, which is in front of the opera house Alfredo Kraus. Hungry people can choose from a large selection of tapas in the bar Surfing, which can be found on this square. The considerable number of seating capacities is highly popular with the Canarians, since they can enjoy a stunning panorama of the beach and the stunts of the surfers.


Just behind the Jardin Atlantico the massive building of the opera house Alfredo Kraus and the 15 metre high statue of the opera singer, which gave it its name, dominates the square. During the year a whole range of concerts (from Jazz to Classical music) takes place here as well as the opening gala of the film festival of Las Palmas. On the far side of the opera house lies the big and absolutely amazing shopping centre Las Arenas. For all of you who still feel energetic enough after this one hour walk, this varied and modern shopping centre with an attached cinema is just the right venue for shopaholics!


It is particularly nice on this square in the light of the sunset. Opposite the opera house is the pier La Barra, which stretches into the Atlantic Ocean for 150 metres and on which relaxing people, fishermen and surfers all gather together, as the surfing spot La Barra is just ahead of the pier.


We have almost reached the end of our walk along the beach through the district Canteras. The western end of the Canteras beach is marked by the square Plaza de la Musica and the park El Rincon. Musical events and concerts are organized on the Plaza de la Musica on a regular basis. But traditional events are also taking place there, such as the celebrations on the occasion of the ‘Day of the Canarian Islands’, the dia canarias. Furthermore, this square turns into one single party zone during the weekends. Some recommendable bars (e.g. the IBEX 35) are located there in which you can party until early in the morning.
The region El Rincon constitutes the end of the more than 3 km long Canteras beach. Only recently hundreds of metre long concrete staircases were built there, which now are the gathering places of couples, joggers, skaters and bikers. Even paragliders use this free space for landing. The surfing place El Lloret is next to Rincon. It has some of the best waves on the entire island.