Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (Canary Islands)

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is a port city and capital of Grand Canaria Island. Las Palmas is also Canary islands' co-capital (together with Santa Cruz de Tenerife). The city has population around 385,000, ranking it the Canaries' most populous and Spain's 9th-largest metro region.

Port Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (locode ESLPA) is managed by the Las Palmas Port Authority and currently operated under concession by GPCI-Global Ports Canary Islands (80:20 joint venture company between GPH-Global Ports Holding Plc and Groupo Sepcan SL).

• In mid-November 2021, following a public tender process, the Las Palmas Port Authority awarded GPCI a 40-year concession (thru 2062) for the cruise operations on Gran Canaria.
• The company GPCI also won the bidding for Puerto del Rosario on Fuerteventura (20-year concession deal) and Port Arrecife on Lanzarote (20-year concession deal).
• GPH is currently the world's largest cruise port operator, with 24x total ports globally (as of 2022).
• The concession deal included GPCI investing ~EUR 40 million into a new cruise terminal (in Las Palmas) and modular cruise terminal facilities in Arrecife and Puerto del Rosario.

The Canaries are very popular for winter cruising vacations due to the archipelago's mild climate in comparison to other European regions. Las Palmas Ports (Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, Lanzarote) are also cruise destinations with great international flight connections. During the Coronavirus crisis in 2020, unlike other European seaports that closed for passenger shipping traffic, these Canary ports handled 0,5+ million tourists via "bubble cruises" around the Canaries.

The town was established in the late-15th century. Las Palmas is within easy reach from the renowned Playa del Ingles (beach), the desert-like dunes of Maspalomas (tourist town) and Mogan (small resort town). In the island's quieter corners are the old towns Teror and Arucas. Gran Canaria's scenery is marked by volcanic landscapes of craters, gorges, and mountains rising up to 1980 m (6500 ft). Mt Bandama (extinct crater) is reputed as the world's only inhabited crater.

During his discovery voyage in 1492, Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) was forced to anchor at Grand Canaria to make repairs to the "La Pinta" sailship. During three subsequent voyages, he stopped again in the Canaries.

Las Palmas de Gran Canaria cruise terminal