Las Palmas Old Town Walk: Vegueta and Triana

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

Quiet cobbled streets, old stone quarters and coloured old homes clinging to the hillside give the oldest part of Las Palmas its special flavour.

This post will help you discover this exceptional area, a hidden gem in the Gran Canarian tourist city.

Vegueta, the old town of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria

I will show you where to walk in the old areas of Las Palmas, called Triana and Vegueta, starting from the central square Parque de San Telmo.

Parque de San Telmo is where taxis and buses from central Las Palmas arrive.

Las Palmas Old Town on the Map

Map of the old town of Las Palmas and a walking itinerary to see it

The map shows the old town of Las Palmas (Triana and Vegueta) and a walking itinerary through it.

Next to the old town are the densely built Las Palmas Hills, a residential area you might also want to see.

Zoom out the map to see the location of the old town compared to the Las Palmas tourist zone.

On the Hills of Las Palmas

On the Las Palmas hills

Parts of the old town cling to the hills west of the central quarters Triana and Vegueta.

Climb up the stairs and explore this exceptional community where only local Canarians live. Or just look at the hills and wonder what life on the slopes might be like.

If you prefer taking a bus up the hills, the buses leave from Parque San Telmo. Take the bus up and walk back down the stairs.

The densely packed hillside of the Old Town of Las Palmas

Then about the lower city, Vegueta and Triana:

Local life in Vegueta and Triana

Vegueta, Las Palmas 

As you will soon notice, the old town of Las Palmas is much less touristic than the new parts of the city. Hardly any tourists exist in the old town, only local families gather with all their friends in outdoor cafes. Here they are watching a football game.

Spend some time with the nice Las Palmas locals and taste some tapas and wine. That’s what they are doing right now. As the best tapas time in Spain is late afternoon and early evening.

Vegueta, Las Palmas in photos

Then there is the busy shopping street Calle Mayor de Triana. Calle Mayor de Triana starts in Parque de San Telmo and goes straight though the old town.

We stepped into some shops and instantly made good bargains. Recommend!

Wandering Las Palmas streets and squares: the Old Town

Narrow Streets and Small Squares

A Vegueta plaza and walkers in the old town of Las Palmas 

As you wander the winding alleys you will come to the Museo Canario that tells about the history of the Canary Islands.

Another museum worth a visit is the museum Casa Colón. That’s the exact place where the great explorer Christopher Columbus stayed in 1492, planning his upcoming trip to discover the New World.

Walking in the Old Town of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria

More sights to see: go and see the tiny San Telmo Chapel (see the photo above) and the huge Catedral de Santa Ana (below).

Cathedral of Santa Ana

Cathedral of Santa Ana, Las Palmas

This is La Catedral de Santa Ana in evening light, seen from the pretty palm-fringed square in front. Can you believe, it took as many as 400 years to build this church! Take a lift to the top of Santa Ana’s south tower and you will get a panorama of the whole historic old town from a birds-eye perspective.

As you have now seen the top sights of the oldest part of Las Palmas, what about some more Spanish tapas? You will get that at any Vegueta bar.

How to get to Las Palmas Old Town

Parque San Telmo in the oldes part of Las Palmas

This oldest part of Las Palmas is 6 km south of the city center. To get to there, take a bus from Parque de Santa Catalina in central Las Palmas to the square of Parque de San Telmo located in Triana.

It’s good to know that Las Palmas buses are called guagua. You will find Las Palmas guagua route maps and timetables behind these links (in Spanish):

• Las Palmas bus map
• For the bus times, click here. Use the search box Planea tu ruta. However, as the buses run all the time you might not even need timetables.

A Las Palmas bus trip costs something like EUR 2 one way, and the taxi fare may be round EUR 10.

Hope you enjoyed walking Las Palmas with us. This walk was an easy half day trip from the tourist areas, or from the harbor of Las Palmas, if you are on a cruise.

More Trip Ideas from Las Palmas

Mountain trip from Las Palmas: in the town of Teror

If you want to make car trips out from Las Palmas, check out our Gran Canaria car trip ideas:

• Cave House Trip to the central island
• Car trip to the northern mountains
• The southern mountains of Gran Canaria by car

If local buses are more like your thing, this is where you will find Gran Canaria bus routes and timetables:

• The most useful Gran Canaria bus routes from Las Palmas
• Gran Canaria buses and timetables