Something for Everyone
coming to the Canaries
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Something for Everyone
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Boats - Excursions & Ferry Services
(If you're arriving into Las Palmas port by boat / cruise ship and are looking for day-trip ideas, please go to this link)With Gran Canaria being an island and Puerto (port) Rico being on the coast, I'm not surprised they've built two harbours here, one either side of the beach, with more than 600 moorings in total. The nearby towns of Mogán and Arguinegín are both "fishing" villages with their own harbours and angling is another popular sport and pastime, not just here but all around the island.
Well, first to mention would be the ferry service that operates from Puerto Rico to both Mogán and Arguinegín. The journey time to each of these is approximately 30 minutes. Look for the mooring of green & white boats of "Lineas Salmon".
The Ferry Service
To Mogán leaves Puerto Rico
10:00, 11:00, 12:00, 13:00, 14:00, 15:00, 16:00To Puerto Rico leaves Mogán
10:45, 11:45, 12:45, 13:45, 14:45, 15:45, 16:45To Arguinegín leaves Puerto Rico 10:30, 12:30, 14:30, 16:30
To Puerto Rico leaves Arguinegín 11:15, 13:15, 15:15, 17:00
P.rico-Mogan = €5.00 one-way or €8.00 return
P.rico - Arguineguin = same as above
Arguineguin - Mogan = €10.00 or €16.00There are a couple of dozen different boats offering excursions from Puerto Rico, most cruising around the south of the island, between Maspalomas to the east and Mogán to the west.
Two or three small, glass bottom boats cruise around the Puerto Rico area only, just far enough out to sea to throw anchor and enjoy watching the marine life from inside the boat's hull, which is lined with seats and windows. Two further decks on these boats are above sea level. There's a bar onboard too. They operate between 10:00 and 17:15 daily and cost around €9.00per adult, €6.00 per child. If this sounds appealing to you, but you want to do more than just gaze at the fish in their natural habitat, worry not! Many of the larger cruisers and catamarans also have a glass bottom section and sail further afield. The choice of boats is quite extensive, small and large cruisers, yachts, catamarans, and even a galleon style, transatlantic sailing ship! In addition to cruising along the south coast, each boat sets anchor out to see while its passengers enjoy sunbathing on deck, swimming, snorkeling and banana boat rides, all of which are included in the ticket price. Jet skis and parascending are also arranged at an extra charge (€12.00& €21.00 respectively). These cruises operate once during the day at around €36.00 and once for an evening cruise at around €30.00 lunch or dinner included also.
There's a couple of smaller catamarans that can be rented out exclusively to small groups or large families if you want to have it all to yourselves. Down at the harbour where each boat docks there's usually a promotion guy or girl you can talk to for further details and making reservations.
Fishing trips are another popular day out. Water temperatures of 19C/67F in winter and 26C/80F in summer and a depth of up to 3,000m around the island make Gran Canaria ideal for deep-sea fishing. Again there's a good choice of companies offering deep-sea/big game fishing from Puerto Rico and each offer all-inclusive prices covering rod, reel & bait, some free food & drink. The sport of "Big Game Fishing" has brought Gran Canaria 75 world records and whilst everyone seems to go after blue marlin (poor sods), other species fished for include white marlin, bigeye and yellowfin tuna, wahoo, dorado, bonito and sharks - the blue, mako and hammerhead species. Regular catches of Blue Marlin range from 150-225kg with last year's record standing at 360kg. This year saw a 366kg record for Bluefin Tuna and 84kg for a Swordfish. Great choice here for big game fishing with day trips lasting around 6 hours and cost around €42.00 including rods etc. but bring your own lunch. The boat I'd recommend for fishing is the El Dorado II down by the Lineas Salmon ferries. Call them direct on 616 826752 or 687 366778 and tell them Owen sent you!
If you wanted to do something a little different, you could hire a yacht for the day (€500) or for €60 per person, if it's not booked by a group, join a handful of other guests to really sail the southern coastline for a day with gourmet lunch and wine included.
The quickest way is take the GC-1 motorway north to the GC-3 turn-off and finally the GC-2 into Agaete so pretty much motorway all the way to the port and around an hour's drive. A jetfoil service operates from there to Tenerife, a 60 mins crossing costing around €57.00 return per adult and €29 per child. There´s fares and facilities to takes cars over too but check with the hire company (for insurance purposes) before you do that.
Another easy route to take by jetfoil is from the port in Las Palmas accross to Moro Jable, the south of Fuerteventura. The service running the route is Trasmediterranea. There's usually just the one departure daily around 10 or 11am and coming back the departure is around 5pm but check their web site as it changes depending on the month. Las Palmas is around 45 minutes up the motorway by car and sailing time is around 1 hour and 20 minutes.
The other islands are too far to get to and back in a day by boat and the internal flight options and prices make flying a much better option with the farthest of the Canary Islands (La Palma) taking around 45 minutes to get to.
The major ferry companies that operate around the Canary Islands each have their own web pages which show the routes, times and prices. On all services you can travel as a foot passenger or take a car on board.
