Las Palmas Old Town Walk: The Historic Vegueta

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

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

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

Vegueta, the old town and historic centre of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria

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

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

Las Palmas Old Town on the Map

Las Palmas Old Town on the map and a walking itinerary to see the historic district

The map will show you 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. That’s on the left on the map.

Zoom out the map to see the location of the old town compared to the Las Palmas tourist zone. Vegueta is south of the modern city centre.

On the Hills of Las Palmas

Getting up Las Palmas hills

So a part of Las Palmas historic centre clings to the hills west of the central quarters of Vegueta.

Why not take the winding stairs up and explore this exceptional community where only local Canarians live. Or just look at the hill view from below and wonder what living on these slopes might be like.

You can also take a bus uphill, buses leave at Parque San Telmo. Take the bus up and walk back down.

The densely packed hillside of the historic Old Town of Las Palmas, Gran Canaria

Then about the lower city, Vegueta and Triana:

Local life in Vegueta and Triana

Vegueta, Las Palmas 

You will soon notice that the old historic centre of Las Palmas is much less touristic than the city’s new part. Not many tourists find their way to the old town or even know about it. What you will see is local families gathering in outdoor cafes with their friends. Here you can see them watching a football game.

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

Vegueta, Las Palmas Old Town in photos:

Click on the small photos to open them up in a gallery

Vegueta, the historic centre of Las Palmas

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 only stepped into a few small shops and instantly made super good bargains. Recommend shopping in this district!

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 

Wandering the winding alleys, sooner or later you will see Museo Canario, an excellent museum about the history of the island chain.

Another museum worth a visit is the museum of 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: the tiny San Telmo Chapel (in the photo above) and the huge Catedral de Santa Ana (below).

Cathedral of Santa Ana

Cathedral of Santa Ana, Vegueta, Las Palmas

This is La Catedral de Santa Ana in evening light, seen from the pretty palm-fringed square that it faces. Can you believe, building this cathedral took as many as 400 years! 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, the central square of the oldest part of Las Palmas

The historic old city 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.

In the Canary Islands and Las Palmas buses are called guagua. 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. Las Palmas travel fares are very reasonable: a bus trip only costs EUR 1 or 2 and a taxi to the old town might be something like EUR 10.

Hope you liked joining our walk to Las Palmas Old Town. The walk is an easy two hour to half day trip from the tourist area – or from the port of Las Palmas if you are on a ferry cruise.

More Trip Ideas from Las Palmas

Mountain trip from Las Palmas: in the town of Teror

If you want to see the surroundings of Las Palmas and more of the island, check out our Gran Canaria car trip ideas:

• 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 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 Official Gran Canaria Tourist Website: Create your own holiday