Driving Gran Canaria's Interior: Tejeda, Roque Nublo and the GC-60
The honest version of the mountain drive: gradients, hairpins, cloud, parking at the trailhead and which car copes.
- Roque Nublo at 1,813 m
- GC-60 from the south
- GC-15 from the north
- 28 automatics in the fleet
Two roads climb into the interior, and they are not the same drive
Most of Gran Canaria lives on its coast, and most hire cars never leave it. The middle of the island is a ring of volcanic summits around Tejeda: Roque Nublo at 1,813 m, Pico de las Nieves at 1,949 m. Nothing up there is far as the crow flies and everything is far by road, on hairpins that keep you in second gear and turn a map time of fifty minutes into ninety. This is the drive as we would describe it to a friend.
GC-60
The southern climb
Out of Maspalomas past the dunes and up the Fataga ravine: bare and sunny, then palms, then hairpins above San Bartolome de Tirajana. Roughly 50 km to Tejeda; allow ninety minutes.
GC-15
The northern climb
Out of Las Palmas through Tafira and Santa Brigida to Cruz de Tejeda at 1,510 m. Greener, busier, and usually inside the cloud from halfway up. About 45 km; allow eighty minutes.
GC-65
The way back down
From San Bartolome east through Santa Lucia and Aguimes to the GC-1. Wider, fewer coaches, and it turns the day into a loop.
GC-210
Leave it for another day
Tejeda to Artenara and La Aldea. Single-lane stretches, a drop on one side, no barrier. Spectacular, and not for your first afternoon in an unfamiliar car.
The three cheapest cars on your dates, live
The same search as the full list below, sorted by price. Day rates in Gran Canaria start between 4 and 16 EUR depending on the date, and any of those cars will climb the GC-60.
€/day
Compact, manual
Lower quartile
20-30 EUR/day
Family or SUV
Fleet median
25-39 EUR/day
Automatic or seven seats
Upper quartile
45-73 EUR/day
1,949 m
Pico de las Nieves, the summit, by road
1,813 m
Roque Nublo, on foot from La Goleta
1,510 m
Cruz de Tejeda, top of the GC-15
28 of 85
cars with an automatic gearbox
The loop, in the order you will drive it
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1
Fill the tank before you leave the coast
Fuel is cheaper here than on mainland Spain, because the Canaries sit outside EU VAT, and there is no pump at Ayacata, La Goleta or Cruz de Tejeda. Leave Maspalomas full.
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2
GC-60 to the Degollada de las Yeguas
Fifteen minutes out of the resort the road crests a ridge and the Fataga ravine opens beneath you. First viewpoint, first coach stop, crowded by mid-morning; stop on the way up, with the light behind you.
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3
Fataga, then San Bartolome de Tirajana
Fataga is a white village on a bend worth a coffee stop. Above it the road climbs to Tunte, the local name for San Bartolome, and the hairpins begin in earnest: second gear, wide line, give the coach coming down the road.
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4
Ayacata, and the GC-600 to La Goleta
Ayacata is a junction with a bar, where you turn onto the GC-600 signed Roque Nublo. The La Goleta car park is the trailhead and small: space before ten, verge parking after eleven in season. The walk is about 1.5 km each way with 200 m of climb; allow ninety minutes.
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5
Back through Ayacata to Tejeda
Ten minutes on, the village appears across the caldera at about 1,050 m. Park in the lot at the bottom rather than hunting the main street. Lunch stop; the almond pastries are why the cafes are full.
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6
Cruz de Tejeda, and the spur to Pico de las Nieves
The pass has a parador, a viewpoint and, on a clear day, Teide above the cloud to the west. The road signed Pico de las Nieves climbs to the viewpoint below the military station: twenty minutes each way, worth it only if the top is clear.
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7
Choose your way home, and use a low gear
The GC-15 drops into Las Palmas and the GC-1 brings you back south in about 45 minutes; or return through Ayacata and take the GC-65 down from San Bartolome. Either way, hold a low gear, or the manual mode on an automatic, so the brakes stay firm.
What the cloud is doing while you drive
The trade wind blows from the north-east, so the north is green and the south is dry; locals call the northern cloud bank the panza de burro. Which side of it you start from decides the summit view.
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08:00
On the coast
Clear in the south almost every morning. The north may already be under the cloud, which sits at mid-height and leaves the summits above it.
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09:30
On the climb
From the south you climb in sun all the way. From Las Palmas you drive into the cloud, twenty minutes with headlights on, and come out above it near Cruz de Tejeda.
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11:00
At the top
The best hour. The summits usually stand clear, the white sea fills the northern valleys, and Teide shows to the west on a good day.
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13:00
After lunch
Warm air off the south pushes cloud up the ravines. If the rock vanishes while you eat in Tejeda, it is usually back by late afternoon, when La Goleta has emptied and the Fataga ravine is lit from the west.
Which car copes, and where the automatics earn their scarcity
31 compacts, and any of them will manage
What a compact gives you is width: on the hairpins above Tunte and the narrow stretch past Ayacata, a car you can place precisely beats power. Four adults and bags make it slow on the steep bits; the driver behind is local and will pass.
28 automatics, a third of the fleet, and they go first
Hill starts on a gradient with a coach behind you, hairpin after hairpin, then a long descent: easy in a manual you drive every week, tiring if you have not since your test. Book the automatic before the dates, because the 28 go before the 57 manuals.
24 SUVs and 43 family cars and minivans
Height and length buy nothing here. A minivan needs the whole lane on the tightest bends, and the verge parking along the GC-600 is tighter still. Nothing in the fleet has four-wheel drive and nothing needs it: the loop is tarmac end to end. Seven of you, take the seven-seater; four of you, size is a handicap.
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Pick the gearbox before you pick the day
Automatics are a third of the Gran Canaria fleet and the first to go. Put your dates in, set the gearbox filter, and the list above shows what a supplier will hand over that morning.
Questions drivers ask before the mountain day
No. Both roads are properly surfaced and a compact climbs them in second and third. What tires you is the hairpins, the morning coaches and the long descent: go slowly, pull over for the coach, and use a low gear coming down.
From the south if you can: the coast there is clear most mornings, so you climb in sun and reach the summits while they still stand above the cloud. From Las Palmas the GC-15 usually climbs through the cloud bank first.
At La Goleta on the GC-600, a few minutes above the Ayacata junction. The car park is the trailhead and it is small: before ten you get a space, at noon you park on the verge some way down and walk to the start.
A full day. Map times say under an hour from the south coast to Tejeda; ninety minutes is realistic. Add ninety for the Roque Nublo walk, an hour in Tejeda, forty for the summit spur, and the descent. Out at eight, back on the motorway by five.
On the coast; there is no pump at Ayacata, La Goleta or Cruz de Tejeda. The summits sit nearly 2,000 m above the beach: much cooler, windier, with frost possible from December to March and the top roads closed on the few snow days. Bring a layer even in summer.