Las Palmas Old Town Walk: The Historic Vegueta

Once in Las Palmas, take a short bus or taxi ride away from the tourist zone and you will enter a different world: Las Palmas Old Town, Vegueta.

Quiet cobbled streets, old stone quarters and coloured homes clinging to the hills give this oldest part of Las Palmas a very special flavour.

With this post we will let you discover these old quarters that really make a hidden gem in the busy tourist city. So, welcome to the old town of Las Palmas!

The colourful old town of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria

Strolling the historic centre of Las Palmas

In this post we will show you where to walk and what to see in the oldest part of Las Palmas that consists of two districts, the names of which are Triana and Vegueta.

We will walk through the old town starting from the central square Parque de San Telmo, the place where taxis and buses from central Las Palmas come:

Parque San Telmo

El Quiosco de la Musica centering the large Parque de San Telmo

Quiosco San Telmo, one of the old landmarks of Las Palmas 

Ermita de San Telmo, our starting point to the old town

So where in Las Palmas can you see this kind of things?

Look at the map below. The map shows you the whole old town of Las Palmas and our self-guided walking itinerary through it is marked with blue dots. So this is where you should go.

Las Palmas Old Town on the Map

Map of Las Palmas Old Town and a walking itinerary to explore it

Zoom out the map to see whereto the old town is from the Las Canteras tourist zone: only a few kilometres south and easy to reach.

Once in the old town, you will see a densely built residential area on the hills, something you might first want to have a look at. On the map they are on the left hand side.

Up to the Hills of Las Palmas

The winding road to the hills

Up we go to Las Palmas hills!

So, in the upper part of the historic Las Palmas homes cling to the hills:

In the streets of Las Palmas old town

Why not take the narrow stairs up and explore the hillside where a community of local Canarians live? Or just look at the steep hill from below.

Or, if you rather prefer take a bus uphill from Parque San Telmo and then walk back down. The place looks like  this:

The packed hillside of the historic part of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria

Some more details of old hillside homes:

Then, when you’re done the hillside it’s time to get back to the lower town, Vegueta and Triana:

Local life in Vegueta and Triana

A pretty fountain and square in Las Palmas old town

Old town Las Palmas in late afternoon

It’s quite easy to see that the oldest part of Las Palmas is much less touristic than the new centre. Because less travellers find their way here or even know that there’s an old town. Consequently, what you see in cafes is mainly locals that come here with their friends.

So why not do the same, have a drink or taste some tapas with wine. That’s what the locals are doing right now, the tapas time in Spain starts late afternoon and the best time is the early evening.

Some more photos of the historic Las Palmas old town:

Originally Las Palmas is an old a colonial town

A tiny church in Vegueta, the historic core of Las Palmas

An old town street 

One of the many cafes

My coffee and cake

Then there is the busy shopping street Calle Mayor de Triana. Starting from Parque de San Telmo Calle Mayor de Triana goes south through the old town.

It’s an old-style shopping street with a lot of atmosphere and good shops, a fresh experience in the world of covered shopping malls. Right in the first shops we went into there were so many things we liked that very soon we had to go away not to buy it all. Recommend Calle Triana!

A traditional shopping street: Calle Triana

Narrow Streets and Squares of All Sizes

Plaza de Santo Domingo, one of the squares in the old town of Las Palmas 

A smaller square in the heart of the old town 

A typical cobbled street

Wandering the cobbled alleys you will find tiny shops, art galleries and museums of which we should mention two, the first one of which is the Museo Canario that shows you the history of the islands.

The other museum we should show you is Casa Colón, the exact place where the great explorer Christopher Columbus stayed in 1492 to plan his upcoming trip to the New World:

Casa de Colon in the old town of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria

Calle de Colon, Las Palmas

Another sight nearby is the huge Catedral de Santa Ana.

Cathedral of  Santa Ana

Cathedral of Santa Ana, Vegueta, Las Palmas

Plaza Mayor de Santa Ana

This is La Catedral de Santa Ana facing a pretty palm square. Believe it or not, it took a very long time, 400 years to build this mighty cathedral! If you like, you can take a lift to the top of it for an amazing panorama of the historic old town.

Now we have shown you so much of the oldest part of Las Palmas that you might need some more Spanish tapas? Go to any Vegueta bar to get them, knowing that the best bars are in the side streets.

So this was our old town walk, and now, how do you get there from the city?

How to get to Las Palmas Old Town

In the oldest part of Las Palmas

The historic part of Las Palmas is located 6 km south of the city center and you will reach it by bus from Parque de Santa Catalina. The bus will take you to Parque de San Telmo.

Canary Island buses are called guagua, and you will find Las Palmas bus maps and timetables on the official Guagua website (mainly in Spanish):

• Guaguas.com: Las Palmas bus maps, timetables and tickets

In general, the buses run all the time so you might not even need to check any timetables. Good to know that Las Palmas bus fares are very reasonable: a bus trip only costs something like EUR 1 or 2 and taxi to the old town might be something like EUR 10.

Hope you liked walking with us through the beautiful old town of Las Palmas. This kind of walk takes two hours or half a day and makes a great day trip from the tourist area – or from the port of Las Palmas for you that are on a ferry cruise.

Are your staying in Las Palmas? Then, here are more trip ideas for you:

More Trips from Las Palmas

Mountain trip from Las Palmas: the mountain town of Teror

Want to travel the region by car? In that case, see these posts:

• The Highest Mountains in Gran Canaria by Car
• Gran Canaria East Coast Drive: Crater and Caves
• Las Palmas Mountain Trip: Gran Canaria’s Scenic North
• The scenic southern mountains of Gran Canaria by car

If using local buses are more like your thing, check out Gran Canaria bus routes and timetables here:

• The Official Gran Canaria Tourist Website: Create your own holiday