Public Transportation in the Canary Islands

Discover all you need to know about public transportation in the Canary Islands, within islands, and between them. Learn the best ways to get around, fares, tips, and special features. I’ll tell you where to check schedules, what to pay attention to, making your travel across the Canary Islands fast and easy.

General information about public transportation in the Canary Islands

Naturally, the most popular and convenient transport for tourists in the Canaries is car rental. But it’s not suitable for everyone, and you can’t drive between islands. Or rather, you can, but it’s expensive and impractical. If you’re wondering whether you need a car while vacationing on the islands, read the article about car rentals in the Canaries. It will provide information on prices, roads, traffic rules, when a car is necessary, and when it’s not.

Here are the main points regarding public transportation:

• On the archipelago’s islands, public transportation consists only of buses and taxis. There are no trains, railways, or metros here.
• Overall, there are enough routes, and the bus network is well developed. But reaching any point on any island isn’t easy. There are issues with schedules and routes.
• Between the islands, both tourists and locals have two types of transportation: planes or ferries.

It’s important to know (regarding transportation fares between the islands in the Canaries):

Both ferries and planes have two fares: for island residents and non-residents (tourists). When searching for tickets and making reservations online, always check which price is selected. Residents get a 75% discount, and if you accidentally buy such a ticket, you won’t be allowed on the flight. Additional payments are not always possible on site.

Inter-island transportation

The Canary Islands are an archipelago of 7 islands, not just Tenerife and Gran Canaria. Often, tourists who come for a 2-week vacation spend the entire time on one island, Tenerife. In my opinion, this is a big mistake. And if you visit La Gomera or La Palma for 4 days, you’ll be surprised at how different they are. Not to mention Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.

A useful article about the Canaries on the world map, where they are located, and what you need to know about them.

The most important thing is that traveling between the islands is easy and relatively inexpensive. The key is to know the nuances. Here are the main points:

• Ferry transportation in the Canary Islands is operated by two major companies:
  • Fred.Olsen: https://www.fredolsen.es/en
  • Armas: https://www.navieraarmas.com/en/
  • Prices, schedules, ticket purchases – everything is done on official websites through the links above. Ferries run strictly according to schedule. There’s even an option to transport cars; the website is intuitive.

It’s important to understand:

If you look at the archipelago map, you’ll see that there are many ferries from the central islands of Tenerife and Gran Canaria. However, there’s no route that goes through all the islands. If you want to travel from one end of the archipelago to the other by ferry, you’ll have to make transfers, sometimes several.

Ferries are a very convenient mode of transportation to reach neighboring islands. The Tenerife-La Gomera route takes only 50 minutes. And Fuerteventura-Lanzarote is just 25 minutes. If you need to sail through 2 islands, planes are much more convenient. Read more about ferries in the Canary Islands, port changes, seasickness, and what ferries look like in the linked article.

I personally prefer traveling between the islands in the Canaries by plane. It’s faster, there are routes that go through the entire archipelago, you won’t get seasick like on ferries, and sometimes it’s even cheaper than the ferry. Since it’s hard to call ferry tickets cheap, there are situations where flying is cheaper. The only downside to the plane is that you can’t bring as much luggage as on a ferry.

Key points regarding airplanes between the islands:

• Local airports are present on all seven islands. An article covering all Canary Island airports, both international and local, duty-free, how to get there, and more.
• Between the islands, twin-engine ATR-72 planes accommodate 40-60 passengers.
• The average flight time depends on the route, ranging from 20 to 50 minutes.
• There are two main airlines, and you can check schedules and prices everywhere, purchasing where it suits you best. Prices are approximately the same, but unlike ferries, airfare pricing is dynamic, meaning prices can vary significantly.
  • Binter: https://www.bintercanarias.com/en
  • Canary Fly: https://www.canaryfly.es/eng
  • I fly with both, and there’s absolutely no difference. The planes are identical, with the same luggage allowances for tourists (23kg of baggage always included in any ticket). Only Binter offers a wafer and a drink during the flight, while Canary Fly doesn’t provide anything 🙂
• That was brief, but you can find detailed information about flights between the islands in the linked article. There, you’ll learn about layovers, fares, and how early you should arrive at the airport for such flights.

Public transport on the islands

Regarding public transport in the Canary Islands, specifically buses, there isn’t much to tell. I’ll highlight key points to give you a clearer picture, but for detailed information about buses, schedules, routes on each island, you can find articles in this guide’s overview of the island you’re interested in (all links are provided in the menu header).

• Buses in the Canaries are called GuaGua
• There aren’t many major cities with their own internal urban routes; usually, it’s only one city per island, the island’s capital. And even then, not every island has one. For example, the capital of La Gomera is so small that there are no city routes there.
• Therefore, almost all bus routes are inter-island and connect various settlements on the island.
• Overall, on tourist-popular routes, buses run frequently. If a route goes to a remote area, there may be only 1-2 trips per day.
• Buses have schedules that you can check online or at stops. Let’s put it this way: they don’t always adhere strictly to the schedule, but if it says a bus runs every half hour on a route, then it will, but the exact timing isn’t clear.

It’s important to note:

Each island in the archipelago has its own administration, and each island has its own transport company. Each company has its own buses, website, and fares. On one hand, everything seems similar, but on the other, there are many small differences. For instance, in some places, you can pay cash to the driver for a ticket, while in others, only cards are accepted. Sometimes, there are ticket vending machines at major stops.

However, on the main tourist routes and routes to ports and airports on the islands, you can pay by cash or card everywhere. And at the main airports of Tenerife and Gran Canaria, there are bus company staff at bus stops and ticket machines. There’s always someone to assist tourists in such places.

Fares vary, but on average, taking a bus from the airport to popular resorts on Tenerife or Gran Canaria costs €3.5-5. It’s cheaper on smaller islands.

Useful to know:

Fares for bus transport within the islands are the same for tourists and locals. The prices differ only for transport between islands: ferries and airplanes.

And for detailed information about taxis, read this article to learn how to call one, where to book cheap airport transfers, official versus unofficial taxis, and about prices and fares. But in general terms, without delving into pricing nuances, a taxi ride around the city costs an average of €1 per km, but there’s usually a minimum charge of €5, and for airport transfers, it’s €1.5-2 per km.

Travel Tips

Overall, transportation in the Canaries is excellent both on the islands and between them. But here are a few general tips:

• If you plan to travel to a neighboring island, compare prices for both ferry companies and both airlines. Sometimes, one may be sold out with sky-high prices, while the other may have promotions and discounts. I often find airplane tickets not more expensive than ferry tickets for the same route.

• If you’re traveling by ferry, always carefully check the departure and arrival ports. Each island has several ports, and often they’re not even connected within the same company.

For example, if you need to take a ferry from Gran Canaria to Lanzarote, you might buy a ticket with one transfer on Fuerteventura, but you’ll be surprised to learn that the ferry from Gran Canaria to Fuerteventura arrives at one port, while the one from Fuerteventura to Lanzarote departs from another port in a completely different part of the island, 100 km away. And such situations are possible on any island.

• The same applies to booking a car in a port or at an airport. Always double-check the names of the ports or airports where you arrive/depart to book a car in the right place. On Tenerife alone, there are two airports and five ports.

In conclusion: traveling around the island is undoubtedly more comfortable and easier by car. But overall, if you plan everything wisely, public transport in the Canaries won’t let you down. Yes, it may lack mobility, but you’ll still reach your destination. Between the islands, try to choose flights: they offer more excitement, are faster, there’s no seasickness like on ferries in the ocean, and almost every flight above the clouds offers a view of Mount Teide – the highest peak in Spain!

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.