Canary Islands: Fuerteventura and Gran Canaria

Benedikt Björn Bagger
21. Dez. 2016
4 Min. Lesezeit

While getting short termed holidays in October this year I was doing research where to go surfing and having a good time in Europe. Not too easy but finally I found a website about the best surfing spots in this time of the year and was immediately attracted to Fuerteventura because it was talk of desolate surfing spots with less people than anywhere else. No sooner said than done: I checked out the best and at the same cheapest surf school there around, the Waveguru surf school and booked the flight. Some days later I started my trip and after arriving in Fuerte I got my rental car, a Fiat 500x which was unexpectedly really fun to drive. And this is one of the first things about Fuerte that is awesome: driving. You have so little traffic and really just perfect twisting and mountain roads I have never had so much fun driving honestly! So after getting my car I hit the road while the sun was always setting and arrived at the surf school while it was already dark. The small town that reminded me of a desert ghosttown was named La Pared and it is known to have one of the best surfing spots of the island. The surf school has a really iconic and real character not like a franchise Billabong surf camp which is totally cool, too but obviously a lot more commercial. The surf teachers are really great and positively harsh when it comes to surfing. When saying harsh I mean that they won't let you go after your first week without having stood up and catching a few proper waves as I have seen in other softer surf schools so you will definitely have the feeling of success. I feel like other commercial surf schools sometimes intentionally want to keep people on a lower level to increase the amount of lessons they have to take - but not here. So while starting the first day completely relaxed with Coffee and a Bocadillo with different toppings which would become a daily dose I already attended my first surfing lesson which already was really fun with all the people from the surf camp. This was my third time surfing so I am still a beginner but would say that my learning curve is pretty proper already which maybe is due to my deep background in other sports like BMX, snowboarding and fitness. So pretty much everyday started with a decent amount of surfing and after one or two days I got to know so many great people from the camp that after surf we pretty much always took trips with our cars and step by step discovered the whole island: there is Costa Calma - a small town with some restaurants, shops, bars and the beach, Morro Jable - a city in the south of Fuerte surrounded with the most beautiful beaches of the island, the volcanic mountains in the inner part of the island, Puerto del Rosario - a city with a typical port character and steep streets like a mini San Francicso and Corralejo - the north city of Fuerte which is the most crowded one and has nice bars, beaches and the dunes of Corralejo. If you should go to Fuerteventura I really recommend you to rent a car because you are much more flexible and there is a lot to discover AND there is nearly no public transportation. Additionally to Fuerte we took an awesome 2-day trip to Gran Canaria by car and fairy. We went straight to Las Palmas which has a far more big city like vibe than any of the cities on Fuerte. One girl we met there was making fun of Fuerte and said 'But what is there? There is nothing but goat cheese and surfing'. Well I can tell you there is a lot more but if you are into more nightlifish holidays you should better go to Las Palmas, if you want to relax 200%, discover nature, beautiful small towns and awesome people go to Fuerte which I probably prefer. And about that goat cheese thing - it is true. The Fuerteventurans are very proud of their goat cheese and they offer it everywhere. Unfortunately I don't enjoy goat products at all but if you do THIS is your place to be. So Las Palmas - after being really lucky and immediately getting a hostel dorm at a really nice place we started a discovery trip into the mountains of Gran Canaria and it is beautiful. In contrast to Fuerte GC is really green and the forest is getting thicker and thicker the higher you get. So the mountains are definitely worth a trip - you have a lot of nice desolate villages up there, the driving is pretty gnarly but fun though. After a crazy ride we arrived back at the hostel and started our night. We checked out a few bars and ended up in a completely crazy small club with all kinds of weird native characters - we had our fun though. Back from our GC trip we had some more surfing and a good time and before I knew it 10 days had past and I had to get my flight back to Berlin. To sum it up canary islands were a blast and I highly recommend you get your ticket NOW or check out my gallery first (which by the way has no filters and was not processed in Photoshop or anything)! See you soon!