Gran Canaria Airport Car Hire (LPA): Compare Deals at Gando

Collect at Gando, turn north or south on the GC-1, and hand the car back on the same road.

85 cars on the island

58 take a debit card

28 automatics

Up to 50% cheaper than portals

Gando, in the four facts that shape a booking

Almost everyone who hires a car on Gran Canaria collects it here. Four things the airport fixes before you have chosen a single car: where it sits, what the search form calls it, how the fleet divides and what a day of it costs.

Where the airport sits

LPA is at Gando on the east coast, about 18 km south of Las Palmas and 30 km north-east of Maspalomas. The GC-1 motorway runs the east coast past the terminal and links all three, so every hire starts on the same road.

What the search form calls it

The pickup point is listed as Airport Gran Canaria (LPA). The only other option is delivery to an address, and none of the 85 cars currently provides it, so an island hire begins and, for most people, ends at the terminal.

How the 85 cars divide

57 manual against 28 automatic. By size, 31 compacts, 29 family cars, 24 SUVs, 14 minivans, three cabriolets and one premium car. Nothing is electric and nothing has four-wheel drive.

What a day of it costs

Sampled a week, a month and two months ahead: the cheapest car between 4 and 16 EUR a day, the lower quartile at 20-30, the median at 25-39, the upper quartile at 45-73. The 4 EUR figure is one car, not a class.

North or south from the first roundabout

Every hire from Gando begins with the same choice at the first roundabout: GC-1 north or GC-1 south. It is worth deciding before you land. Spain drives on the right, with 120 on the motorway, 90 on open road and 50 in town.

Right, towards the sun

The south is where the sun is, 30 km of motorway from the terminal. The resorts sit together at the end of the GC-1: San Agustin first on the east, then Playa del Ingles, the older and busier one, then Maspalomas with its dunes and lighthouse, then Meloneras on the quieter west side of the dunes.

Left, into the greener half

Las Palmas is 18 km north and is a capital, not a resort: Vegueta the old quarter, Triana beside it, Las Canteras the city beach. It is greener and cloudier than the south, under the cloud bank locals call the panza de burro, and a car there is a parking question first.

Past the resorts, where the motorway gives up

Beyond Maspalomas the GC-1 hands over to the GC-500 coast road: Puerto Rico, then Amadores, then Puerto de Mogan at the end. The resort roads climb steeply from the harbours, which is where the gearbox you filtered for stops being a preference.

A third answer, not for the first hour

The interior is mountain. The GC-15 climbs from Las Palmas and the GC-60 from Maspalomas through Fataga, both steep, winding and slow, to Tejeda, Roque Nublo at 1,813 m and Pico de las Nieves, the 1,949 m summit. It is the best day the car will give you and the worst way to spend the hour after a flight.

Arrival day or mid-stay: when the hire should start

The question is not whether to hire a car on Gran Canaria but on which day. The airport is 30 km from the dunes and 18 km from the capital. Thirty kilometres is far enough that a transfer costs real money both ways, and close enough that the car covers it in the first hour of the holiday. Eighteen kilometres is a cheap taxi into a city where a car spends its first days looking for somewhere to stand.

So the answer splits by where you sleep. A hotel in the south with its own parking, and a plan that uses the car most days, argues for collecting on arrival. A week in Las Palmas argues the opposite: taxi in, walk the city, start the hire the day you want to leave it. The common middle case, a resort week with two or three driving days in it, suits a mid-stay pickup in the resort, which the Maspalomas page sets out.

What the timing does not change is when to book. With 28 automatics on the whole island, a hire that starts on day four still needs reserving before you fly.

Handing it back: the same road in reverse

The return is the arrival mirrored. From the south you rejoin the GC-1 northbound and the airport exit comes 30 km later; from Las Palmas it is 18 km southbound. Neither has a difficult turn in it, which is why people leave too little time for it.

Fuel is the detail worth planning. The Canaries sit outside EU VAT territory and charge IGIC instead, so a tank costs noticeably less than on the mainland and a full-to-full return is cheap to honour. Fill up before you join the GC-1, where you can choose the station. And book the return for the date you fly: the hire is charged by the day, so a slipped date costs a day, not an hour.

Collecting at LPA: what people ask first

Yes, it is the named pickup point, shown under its LPA code as the one fixed collection place on the island. The only alternative is delivery to an address, which none of the 85 cars provides.

It depends where you sleep. A southern resort with parking, 30 km down the GC-1, favours collecting on arrival: the drive replaces a paid transfer both ways. A stay in Las Palmas, 18 km north, favours a taxi in and a later start.

Almost certainly not: the listing runs 57 manual to 28 automatic, so sorting by price alone puts manuals at the top. Set the gearbox filter before you compare, and book early in summer, because the 28 go first.

For 58 of the 85 cars, yes. The rule belongs to each supplier rather than to the island, so it is a filter to apply before you compare prices, not something to negotiate at the terminal.

The same road in reverse: the GC-1 northbound for 30 km from the south, or 18 km southbound from Las Palmas. Fill the tank before the motorway, since fuel here is cheaper than on the mainland, and book the return for the date you fly.