In short
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is a real city — some four hundred thousand residents — with a city beach in the middle of it. That is what sets it apart from the Canary resorts and explains its popularity with remote workers.
Vegueta is the colonial old town, with the cathedral and Columbus's house. Triana is the pedestrian shopping street. Las Canteras is the beach, three kilometres long, lined by a continuous promenade.
Arriving and getting around
Gran Canaria airport is some twenty kilometres out, served by frequent buses.
The city is stretched along the coast and the municipal buses cover it well. For the island's interior — Roque Nublo, the Tejeda caldera — and the Maspalomas dunes to the south, a car is more practical.
What it really costs
Las Palmas is cheaper than most mainland Spanish cities, and one of the few places in Europe where you can work by the sea without a resort budget.
Coworking spaces are numerous and the remote-work community is established, with the usual caveat: long-term housing tightens in winter, when northern Europeans arrive.
When to come
All year. The island is nicknamed "the miniature continent" for the diversity of its climates; the north-east coast stays between eighteen and twenty-five degrees more or less permanently.
The calima, a sand-laden wind from the Sahara, arrives in episodes of a few days, mainly in winter and spring: reduced visibility, heavy air, sometimes disrupted flights.
What nobody tells you
Las Canteras is protected by La Barra, a natural rock bar parallel to the shore that breaks the swell. It turns half the beach into a calm pool and shelters marine life visible while snorkelling, metres from the sand. The far end, La Cícer, takes the waves and serves the surfers.
The north-easterly wind blows almost continuously; the beach is sheltered, the rest of the coast less so.
The Maspalomas dunes, to the south, are a nature reserve and not a backdrop: movement is regulated and some areas are closed to protect the vegetation.
