Beaches and excursions around Tauro

Playa de Tauro — the closest beach

Tauro's own beach is a couple of minutes down the valley. It is a sheltered bay with pale sand and calm, shallow water, protected enough that children can swim without much fuss. It is smaller and quieter than the resort beaches further along the coast, which is precisely its appeal: it rarely feels crowded, even in high season.

Because it is so close, it works well for a first afternoon after landing, when nobody wants to get back in the car.

Playa de Amadores

A short drive west, Amadores is the beach most guests end up returning to. A long breakwater keeps the water flat and warm, the sand is golden and the whole bay curves round a promenade of cafés and restaurants. It is the safest swimming water in the area and the easiest beach day with small children.

Sun loungers and parasols can be hired along the sand, and there is parking above the bay — though it fills up by late morning in winter.

Puerto Rico and Anfi del Mar

Puerto Rico, a few minutes further on, is the busiest resort on this stretch. Its marina is the base for most boat trips on the south coast: dolphin and whale watching, sailing, fishing and the ferry down the coast. If you want to do one thing on the water during the week, this is where you book it.

Anfi del Mar, on the other side of Tauro, is the postcard beach — bright white imported sand, palm trees and a small island joined to the shore by a footbridge. It is worth an hour even if you do not swim.

Puerto de Mogán

Fifteen minutes or so west along the coast, Puerto de Mogán is the prettiest place in the south and the one to show visitors. Low white houses, bougainvillea over every wall and a network of small canals have earned it the nickname 'Little Venice'. The harbour is still a working one, and the restaurants around it serve the fish that came in that morning.

There is a large open-air market in the village one morning a week — ask us before you go, and we will tell you which day it falls on during your stay.

Inland and further afield

Gran Canaria changes completely once you leave the coast. These are the trips worth the drive:

• Mogán village — a traditional Canarian town in the valley behind the harbour, twenty minutes inland and a different world from the resorts
• Maspalomas — the great dune field on the southern tip, around half an hour east; walk in early or late, not at midday
• Roque Nublo and the central mountains — a longer drive up into the caldera, with pine forest and views across to Tenerife on a clear day
• Anfi Tauro Golf — an 18-hole course laid out in the valley, minutes from the villa
• Las Palmas — the island capital and Las Canteras beach, about an hour up the motorway

Getting around

A hire car makes all of the above easy and is what we would recommend: the GC-1 motorway runs along the coast and everything on this page is reached from it. Casa Tilda has private parking, so the car is not a problem at the villa.

Without a car, taxis are straightforward for the nearby beaches, and public buses connect the resorts along the coast. The mountain trips are far more comfortable by car or on an organised excursion.