Gran Canaria's beaches by water quality: excellent everywhere but Puerto de Mogán

Almost all of Gran Canaria's bathing water sits on the top grade. In 2025, 62 of 63 sampling points were graded excellent. One was lower, the beach at Puerto de Mogán, which has now been good for 4 seasons running. But the last season does not show everything. El Confital in Las Palmas was graded poor for 5 seasons in a row, 2018 to 2022, and then its grades stopped. The grade counts bacteria in samples; sand, waves and the view are not part of it.

That is 98% of the island's points, against 91% for Spain as a whole. Among the Canary Islands, El Hierro, La Gomera and La Palma had every point excellent. Fuerteventura, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote had one point each below excellent. More than one: Tenerife, 5.

Where the grade comes from

Every summer, water is drawn at the official bathing points and tested for two kinds of gut bacteria: E. coli and intestinal enterococci. A season's grade comes from its own samples plus those of the three summers before. So one dirty week barely touches it, while a lasting problem keeps a point down for years and lets go just as slowly. The EU bathing water directive.

The top three steps, excellent, good and sufficient, mean the water passed. Poor means it failed. People must then be warned, and bathing may be closed or advised against. The European Environment Agency.

Puerto de Mogán: good after three decades of excellent

The beach by Puerto de Mogán's old harbour has been tested since 1990. It was graded excellent in 31 seasons, and good in every season since 2022. The full record: excellent 1990–1991, no grade 1992, excellent 1993–2021, good 2022–2025. Good means the standard was met with a smaller margin; it carries no ban and no advice against swimming.

The neighbouring beaches on the same shore hold excellent. Within 5 km of the harbour point the register keeps 4 more: Taurito at 1 km, El Cura at 3.8 km, Tauro at 4.3 km and Amadores at 4.9 km. All were excellent in 2025. The last time any other point in the municipality of Mogán dropped below excellent was 1999. Why the harbour does worse the register does not say: it reports what was found in the water, not where it came from.

El Confital: five seasons of poor, then silence after 2022

El Confital is a bay on the northern edge of Las Palmas, past Las Canteras beach. Its point was added in 2010. Its record: excellent 2010–2015, good 2016, sufficient 2017, poor 2018–2022. The register has no grades after 2022: the point is no longer kept. It does not say why, nor what the water is like now.

These are all the poor grades on the island in the last quarter-century. Before that there were two: El Hombre in 1990 and Alcaravaneras in 1998. The nearest working point to El Confital is the northern one on Las Canteras, 1.1 km away. In 2022, El Confital's last season, it too slipped to good, then went back to excellent. The other Las Canteras points have been excellent throughout.

Telde's shore: before 2016 and after

Telde's eastern shore has 7 points, 11% of the island's. Yet 45% of all the island's seasons below excellent fell on them. La Garita has the most: 19 of 34 seasons. Under today's rules, from 2011, Telde's shore had seasons below excellent 5 years running, up to 2015. Since 2016 all 7 points have been excellent every season.

The record before 2011 needs care: water was measured under older rules then, and the Spanish series has no good grade yet. La Garita under today's rules: sufficient 2011–2012, good 2013, sufficient 2014, good 2015, excellent 2016–2025.

10 points without a single lower grade since 1990

These are 10 points on 7 beaches, graded excellent in every one of the 36 seasons: Bahia Feliz Parte Tarajalillo (San Bartolomé de Tirajana); El Ingles (San Bartolomé de Tirajana); Las Burras (San Bartolomé de Tirajana); Las Canteras (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria); Las Meloneras (San Bartolomé de Tirajana); Maspalomas (San Bartolomé de Tirajana); Salinetas (Telde). They lie in 3 municipalities, Telde among them: Salinetas is on the same shore as La Garita. In all, 25 of 48 beaches have never dropped below excellent, counting those tested only recently.

Twelve municipalities

12 of the island's 21 municipalities have points. Ingenio and Santa Lucía de Tirajana never had a grade below excellent. 7 more last dropped below before 2011, under the older rules. Among them is San Bartolomé de Tirajana, home to Maspalomas and Playa del Inglés: 14 points, last below excellent in 1999.

At our four places

• Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: 8 points, all excellent in 2025. Nearest to the centre: Alcaravaneras, 1.1 km, excellent.
• Telde: 7 points, all excellent in 2025. Nearest to the centre: La Garita, 4 km, excellent.
• Maspalomas (municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana): 14 points, all excellent in 2025. Nearest to the centre: El Ingles, 2.1 km, excellent.
• Mogán: 11 points, 10 of 11 excellent in 2025. Nearest to the centre: Taurito, 8.3 km, excellent.

Distances are in a straight line from the point our base uses for each place. For Mogán that point is the old village up the ravine, 8.3 km from the harbour beach. Each place's beaches with distances are on its own page: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Telde, Maspalomas, Mogán.

The sea by month

The water at our four places is nearly the same: in no month do they differ by more than 0.2 °C. It is coldest in March, at 19.1–19.2 °C, and warmest in September, at 23.5–23.6 °C. January is the difference. In the south (Maspalomas, Mogán) the January sea is exactly 20 °C, giving 9 months at the swimming line. In the north and east (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Telde) January is a tenth of a degree lower, leaving 8 months, May to December. These are NOAA satellite averages for 2015–2024: a cell a quarter of a degree across, centred 6–14.3 km from the place; open water, not a reading at a beach. NOAA OISST.

All 48 beaches on the island

Further

Our places on the island, with prices, winter and population, are on the Gran Canaria page. When to go is in best time to visit Gran Canaria. Neighbouring islands' beaches on the same grades: Tenerife beaches and Fuerteventura beaches; the whole country: Spain's cleanest beaches. Water at every place in our base is in our dataset.

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