The Spanish Canary islands off the coast of North Africa are a fantastic location for family holidays. The Spanish love children and Gran canaria and Tenerife in particular are heavily geared towards family tourism. If you want a full family day out there are theme parks, animal parks and nature reserves aplenty in North and South Tenerife and in Southern Gran Canaria.
Sometimes its difficult to combine an interesting sightseeing trip for the adults along with something for the kids to do! However in the Canaries there are plenty of activities and attractions to entertain both young and old. Even the hotels and restaurants are mostly “child friendly” and lay on suitable entertainment for kids even in the early evenings and the Spanish love of festivities and parades can be a good ( and free) source of entertainment for the family if you time your holiday well, there are tons of fiestas during the summer months and many carnivals during the winter in January and February.
Safaris
There are plenty of stables offering rides for children in holiday resorts but in Gran Canaria they do things differently, how about a camel safari? there are two main centres on Gran Canaria near Fataga and another in Tenerife at El Tanque.
Waterparks
The waterparks in Gran Canaria might not be up to Mr Disney’s standards, but never the less can provide almost as much fun for adults and kids and are much closer than Florida! Maspalomas on Gran Canaria has Aqualand and the smaller Oceanpark and there is another Aqualand on Teneri near Playas de las Americas.
Watersports
If your kids are old enough to take part in watersports activities there are many centres offering tuition in everything from snorkeling and scuba diving to rides on the “water bananas” ( inflatables pulled behind a speedboat). For younger kids the old family favourite of pedalos are also freely available for hire.
Wildlife
There are several bird and wildlife parks along with nature reserves on the islands, the biggest and best of which has to be the Loro Parque at Puerto de la Cruz on Tenerife. Second in popularity is the bird and butterfly park on gran canaria called Palmitos Parque. Young boys in particular will also love Reptilandia at galdar which specialises in insects and creepy crawlies!
Theme parks
Holiday world is perhaps the nearest thing the Canaries have to the theme parks of Florida, based just outside maspolamas on gran canaria this is the first and biggest of the canary islands theme parks and has conventional thrill rides for older kids along with more sedate attractions for toddlers.
Mount Teide
A fantastic day out for all the family is riding to the summit of Teide ina cable car, the car ascends from 2356m to 3555m in just 8 minutes and the weather at the top of the dormant volcano of Mount teide can be very different from the traditional Canaries weather along the coast, snow fequently falls here in winter. Be aware that you will need prior permission to visit the actual crater of the volcano itself which is a short (163m) walk from the El Teleferico cable car station.
