I’ll share the optimal route, direct flight options from which airports, and how to get to the Canary Islands affordably. If you live in Europe, the transportation are easy for you. But for residents of other countries and regions, it’s a bit more complex.
How to get to the Canary Islands: general information
This is a brief but very useful article, as the optimal route isn’t obvious to everyone. There are several reasons for this:
- The Canary Islands are an archipelago consisting of 7 main islands and several dozen smaller ones.
- If you look at the world map, the Canary Islands are part of Africa. The distance from Fuerteventura Island to the Sahara Desert and Morocco is only 100 km.
- But it’s over 1000 km to the nearest point of mainland Europe. You can find a lot of useful information on this topic in the article: Canary Islands on the world map.
Important to know:
The Canary Islands are a region of Spain. It’s part of Europe, the Eurozone, and the Schengen Area. Entry requirements for the Canary Islands are exactly the same as for other countries in the Schengen Zone. For information on visas to the Canaries, check out the article for those living outside the Schengen Zone.
Since the Canary Islands are far from Europe, a very common question is, how long does it take to fly to the Canaries:
- From Warsaw to the Canaries, it’s a direct flight of 6 hours.
- From Italy, for example, from Milan or Bergamo, it’s 4 hours.
- From Madrid, it’s 2 and a half hours.
Direct flights to the Canary Islands
There are eight international airports on the seven Canary Islands. One on each island, and two on Tenerife. You can find detailed information about them, what local airports look like, where to check the online departure board, and how to get to the airport in the article: all airports of the Canary Islands.
But in reality, there are only 4 airports that are fully-fledged international airports with long runways capable of accommodating aircraft of any size, and with hundreds of flights a day from all over Europe:
- Tenerife South
- Gran Canaria
- Lanzarote
- Fuerteventura
Tip:
Inter-island transportation aren’t the cheapest. It’s better to fly directly to the island where you want to stay. Moving to another island will take a lot of time, and the cost of ferry tickets will eat up all the savings on plane tickets. So, it’s better to pay a little more upfront but buy a ticket to the island you need. For the best places to stay in the Canaries, check out the overview of all the islands.
There are direct flights to the Canary Islands from dozens of European airlines from hundreds of airports. You can check on the website of your favorite airline or on booking websites. I recommend checking booking platforms right away, like WayAway, as it shows you all possible route options and prices from all airlines, not just one.
The main European low-cost airlines have a very wide network of direct flights, you can check on their websites:
- Wizzair: https://wizzair.com
- There are direct flights to Tenerife from: Rome, Milan, Venice, Vienna, Budapest, Bucharest, Katowice, Warsaw, Gdańsk.
- And direct flights to Fuerteventura from Polish Warsaw and Katowice.
- Ryanair: https://www.ryanair.com. And there are hundreds of flights, go to the website and check the route map. Here’s a general idea:
- Direct flights to Tenerife from: Spain (from 12 airports), the UK and Scotland (from 15 airports), from 10 airports in Italy, from 8 airports in Germany, 5 from France, and so on.
- Lanzarote Island has almost the same flights as Tenerife.
- You can easily fly to Gran Canaria from Poland.
Tip:
These three links (WayAway, Wizz Air, and Ryanair) are more than enough to find a convenient direct flight to the Canary Islands from any corner of Europe.
How to get to Canaries from other regions of the World
Important to note:
Despite the fact that there’s only 100 km between the Canaries and Morocco, there’s no direct ferry connection between these countries. Only through mainland Spain. Read all about ferries in the Canaries through the link. There you’ll also learn about the nuances of ferry travel between the islands of the Canary archipelago.
Tip:
It’s cheaper, easier, and faster to get to Canaries from European airports. There are millions of route options.
From the New World, there’s one option for a direct flight: the New York (NewArk) – Tenerife route. However, it’s only available in the summer schedule from June to September. It’s operated by United Airlines, departing there on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Sundays, and returning on Wednesdays, Fridays, and Mondays. Prices start from $1000 round trip.
There are no direct flights from Istanbul or the UAE, so for any region of the world (except Europe), it’s simpler and cheaper to fly to the Canary Islands with a layover. The majority of flights go through Spain, but there are also inexpensive flights through Portugal and Italy. For instance, the same ticket from New York with a layover in Portugal would cost around $500-600 round trip.
In conclusion: I hope all your questions about how to get to the Canary Islands have been answered. 99% of tourists fly from European airports. There are hundreds of flights daily to the 4 main islands of the Canary archipelago. You can fly direct from any corner of Europe, from Riga, Stockholm, Warsaw to Lisbon and Porto. If you fly with low-cost airlines and buy tickets in advance, the travel expenses will be low, around 300 euros per person.
Useful links to help you plan your dream trip to Canary Islands:
- Car Rental: LocalRent or DiscoverCars – the most popular car rental platforms.
- Accommodation:
- Trip.com – the largest accommodation booking platform.
- or TripAdvisor – to compare prices among other platforms and choose the best one.
- Budget-friendly vacation packages to Spain and Canary Islands: CheapOair.
- Tours and activities: GetYourGuide or Viator – hundreds of offers, whales and dolphins, entrance tickets with discounts.
- eSIM and internet: Airalo.
- Flights: WayAway compares prices among dozens of companies.
- Travel Insurance: EKTA.