Car Hire in Las Palmas City: Vegueta, Las Canteras and Parking
The capital is in the greener north. Where a car helps, where it hurts, and where to leave it.
- 85 cars on the island
- 58 take a debit card
- Airport in 20 minutes
- Up to 50% cheaper than portals
Where a car is pointless in Las Palmas, and where it is not
Las Palmas is the capital of Gran Canaria, and it sits at the opposite end of the island from the sun: the north, where the cloud bank locals call the panza de burro parks over the hills while the dunes down the GC-1 sit in full light. It is also the one place on the island where a hire car can spend three days doing nothing. Vegueta is cobbled and tight, Triana is a street you walk, and Las Canteras has a promenade and no room at the kerb.
So: for the city itself, hire later, or garage the car and forget it. For Arucas, Teror, Agaete and the GC-15 climb to Tejeda, a car is the only sensible way to go, and the three cheapest on the island right now are listed beside this text.
Three of the cheapest cars right now
EUR a day
Cheapest car sampled
4-16 EUR a day
Lower quarter of the fleet
20-30 EUR a day
Middle of the fleet
25-39 EUR a day
Sampled on three dates; live prices load with your dates.
Walk it
Vegueta and Triana
Narrow one-way lanes around the cathedral square, most closed or restricted to residents, and a pedestrian main street next door. Park once, underground, and walk both in an afternoon.
Walk it
Las Canteras
A long beach with a promenade its whole length, and the tightest streets in the city for parking behind it. Nobody who lives there drives to it.
Arucas, Teror, Agaete
Each is a short drive out of the city and a long, slow bus ride. This is the day the car exists for.
The GC-15 to Tejeda
Steep, winding and slow, up to the village under Roque Nublo at 1,813 m. There is no version of this trip without a car that is worth doing.
Where the car sleeps in the city
Parking is the whole question in Las Palmas: underground car parks under the main squares and along the seafront, blue-zone bays metered by the hour, and fewer hotel garages than hotels. Which you use decides whether the car is a convenience or a chore.
| Where | What it costs you | Best for | The catch |
|---|---|---|---|
| Underground car park | By the hour; cheaper the longer you stay | Vegueta, Triana, the seafront; anyone with luggage | Height limits on some ramps; check before a minivan |
| Blue-zone bay on the street | Metered in business hours; the sign gives the times | A two-hour errand, never a night | A maximum stay per ticket, and prompt wardens |
| Hotel or apartment garage | Often a nightly charge on top of the room | Three nights or more, car garaged and forgotten | Ask before booking the car; many places have none |
| Free street parking | Nothing | The outer districts, and a Sunday | A long walk in, and a search that can outlast the drive |
| Return it to the airport | No drop fee when you return where you collected | The last night, if you fly early | 20 minutes on the GC-1 when clear, longer in the commuter hour |
The north by car: four places that are a day of work without one
Arucas
The closest of the three to the city, and the one to do first. The town is known for its church of dark volcanic stone, a neo-Gothic pile that looks older than it is, and for the rum made on its edge. It sits among banana plantations on the coastal shelf, so the drive out is flat and short.
Teror
Inland, higher, greener and cooler, with the basilica of the patron saint of the island and a Sunday market that fills the main street. Park at the edge and walk in.
Agaete
On the north-west coast, where the ferry to Tenerife leaves from the harbour at Puerto de las Nieves. The road out of the city follows the coast the whole way.
The GC-15 climb to Tejeda
This is the road that justifies the hire. It climbs out of the city through a string of hillside villages until the coast is a line far below, and arrives at Tejeda under Roque Nublo (1,813 m), with Pico de las Nieves, the summit at 1,949 m, beyond. A compact copes; an automatic makes it kinder. The mountain roads page covers the descent to the south.
Three ways to fit a car around a city stay
The cheapest day rate on the island is in single figures and the middle of the market is 25-39 EUR, so money is rarely the reason to hire for fewer days. The reason is that a car in the centre costs parking and patience every day it is not moving.
Best when the capital is the whole trip
Land at Gando, take the bus or a taxi north, and spend the first days on foot in Vegueta, Triana and along Las Canteras. Book the car from a city pickup for the middle of the stay, use it for the villages and the mountain, and return it before the last night.
Best for luggage, families and a split stay
Drive the GC-1 north, 20 minutes on a clear road, and put the car straight into the hotel garage or an underground car park. Use it for day trips, leave it for city days, and ask the hotel about the garage before booking the car. The airport page covers the handover at Gando.
Best for a single day with a full agenda
Hire for one day from a city pickup, leave early, do Arucas and Teror in the morning, Agaete for lunch by the harbour, and come back along the coast. Or give the whole day to the GC-15. Either fits a one-day hire, and 49 of the 85 cars accept a driver under 25.
The north is a different climate, and it changes what goes in the car
Visitors who book a week in Maspalomas and a day in the capital are surprised twice: first by the cloud over the north, then by how quickly it ends. The trade wind pushes moist air against the northern slopes of Gran Canaria and stacks it up as a grey bank the locals call the panza de burro, the belly of the donkey. It sits over Las Palmas on many afternoons while the south is in full sun. Above it, on the GC-15, it is often clear.
For the driver this means a windscreen that goes from damp to dazzling in twenty minutes, and a pullover in the boot for Teror even in August. The GC-1 runs the east coast from the city past the airport to the resorts: 120 on the motorway, 90 on the open road, 50 in town, and a drink-drive limit of 0.05, or 0.03 on a new licence. You drive on the right. Fuel is cheaper than on the mainland, because the Canaries sit outside the EU VAT area and charge their own lower tax, IGIC.
Every car on the island, on your dates
All 85 cars, from the local suppliers who hold them. Only 28 are automatic, so filter early if the GC-15 is on the plan; 58 take a debit card.
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Put your dates in and see which of the 85 are free
Prices move with the calendar and the automatics go first. Each car shows whether it takes a debit card, so the choice is made before any desk.
Parking and city questions
Not usefully. The old quarter is a knot of narrow one-way lanes, several restricted to residents, and the main street of Triana is pedestrian. Park in an underground car park at the edge and walk both; an afternoon covers them.
A blue-painted bay is metered: pay at the machine for a set time during business hours, display the ticket, and move on before it runs out. There is a maximum stay, so it suits errands rather than a night. Outside those hours the bays are free; the street sign gives the times.
Very little on the street, and what exists is blue zone or residents only. There are car parks a few streets back from the promenade, but the beach is easier to reach on foot than by car from anywhere in the port end of the city. Garage the car and walk.
If the city is your base for the whole stay, collect in the city on the day you first need it. If you are splitting time with the south or have a lot of luggage, collect at Gando: the GC-1 reaches the centre in about 20 minutes and the car goes straight into a garage.
An underground car park on a long-stay ticket; it is cheaper by the day than by the hour and the car is off the street. Free street parking exists in the outer districts, but the search takes time and the walk back is long. Ask your accommodation which car park it uses.