Gran Canaria or Lanzarote: alike over the year, different month by month

Over a year, Gran Canaria and Lanzarote are hard to tell apart. The mean temperature at both airports is 21.1 °C, and the average hotel night costs €151 and €150. Month by month they run in opposite directions: Gran Canaria is dearest in December, Lanzarote in August. And the islands are built differently. Gran Canaria has 5.2 times as many residents but a third as many hotel beds per thousand of them: a city island with a resort south. Lanzarote is a resort island, with 248 hotel beds per thousand residents.

This compares our eight places. On Gran Canaria they are two cities, Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and Telde, and two resorts in the south, Maspalomas and Mogán. On Lanzarote, the capital Arrecife and three resort municipalities: Teguise, Tías and Yaiza. Maspalomas is part of the municipality of San Bartolomé de Tirajana, and its census, housing and winter figures are the municipality's.

Short answers

• A hotel night costs almost the same over the year, €151 and €150. But Gran Canaria is dearer from October to April and Lanzarote from July to September, in both years of the series.
• Nights are warmer on Gran Canaria in every month. Days are hotter on Lanzarote from February to October, by 1.6 °C in August.
• The sea off Gran Canaria's south is warmer than off Lanzarote's resorts in every month, by 0.5–0.8 °C.
• In Gran Canaria's south the largest foreign group is Italian; in Lanzarote's resorts it is British.
• Direct winter destinations abroad: 97 from Gran Canaria airport, 60 from Lanzarote. To Sweden and to Norway, 7 each against 2.
• To hospital from Gran Canaria's south: 40 minutes and 65 minutes. From any of our places on Lanzarote, no more than 25 minutes.

A city island and a resort island

Gran Canaria is home to 870,608 people and Lanzarote to 167,406, as of 1 January 2025. The capital of Gran Canaria alone has 384,023 residents by the census: more than two Lanzarotes. Yet the big island has only 1.7 times as many hotel beds: 70,784 against 41,458 on average over the year. Hence the gap per thousand residents: 81 beds against 248. Island population.

Gran Canaria's hotels stand in the south. The tourist zone INE calls "South of Gran Canaria" holds 62,699 beds on average, 89% of all the island's hotel beds. In our two cities, homes let to tourists barely register: 1.6% of all housing in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and 1% in Telde. In the south the share is different: 12.5% in the municipality of Mogán and 11.8% in San Bartolomé de Tirajana. In Lanzarote's three resort municipalities it runs from 14.2% to 21.7%. Figures as of 30 April 2026. Tourist housing.

The guests show it too. A guest from abroad stays equally long on both islands: 7.3 nights on Gran Canaria and 7.3 nights on Lanzarote. A guest resident in Spain stays 3.4 nights on average on Gran Canaria and 4.8 nights on Lanzarote. That is nights divided by arrivals over the last year. Nights and arrivals.

The price of a night: two calendars running against each other

The figures cover September 2025 to August 2026. Gran Canaria is dearest in December: €179, 10% above Lanzarote, and its hotels are clearly fuller that month, 74% against 65%. Lanzarote is dearest in August: €181, 19% above Gran Canaria, though both islands' hotels are almost equally full in August, 83% and 84%. Gran Canaria is cheapest in June, at €120, and Lanzarote in May, at €133.

This is not one odd year. In the previous twelve months, September 2024 to August 2025, Gran Canaria was also dearer from October to April and Lanzarote from July to September, with the same dearest months. What moved is the average: a year earlier a night on Gran Canaria cost 4% more. Since then Lanzarote has risen by 4.6% and Gran Canaria by 0.7%.

Gran Canaria's hotels were fuller in 10 months of 12; Lanzarote's were fuller only in June and July. And the price swings more on the big island: its dearest month is 49% above its cheapest, against 36% on Lanzarote. Room price, occupancy.

Weather: the same average, different days

Both stations are airports by the sea: Gran Canaria's is 24 m up on the east coast, between the capital and the resort south; Lanzarote's is at 14 m. The AEMETAEMETSpain's state meteorological agency. It runs the weather stations and publishes the climate norms.Why it matters. Our sunshine hours and winter temperatures come from observations, not from resort marketing. The gap between the two can be several degrees. normal covers 1981–2010. They share a yearly mean of 21.1 °C, but they reach it differently. At night Gran Canaria is warmer in every month, by 0.4–1 °C. By day Lanzarote is hotter from February to October, most of all in August: 29.1 °C against 27.5 °C. In January and December Gran Canaria has the warmer days, and in November the two stations are level. So a day on Gran Canaria is more even: 6.1 °C between day and night on average, against 7.4 °C on Lanzarote.

Lanzarote gets more sun in 10 months of 12; in July they are level, and in August Gran Canaria gets more. Over the year that comes to 2,986 hours against 2,822. Gran Canaria gets 151 mm of rain a year and Lanzarote 111, almost all of it from October to March: 89% and 92% of the yearly total. Our data has no normal for the resorts of Gran Canaria's south or for its capital: there is one station, at the airport between them. AEMET.

The sea: half a degree warmer off Gran Canaria

The water off Gran Canaria's south (Maspalomas) is warmer than off Lanzarote's resorts (Tías) in every month, by 0.5–0.8 °C. The capitals show the same: Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is 0.4–0.7 °C warmer than Arrecife. The sea is coldest in March on both islands, 19.2 °C and 18.5 °C.

The sea off Gran Canaria's south stays at the swimming line of 20 °C for 9 months, from May to January; off Lanzarote for 8, from May to December. The whole difference is one January, and in January the water off the south of Gran Canaria sits exactly on the line: 20.0 °C. From February to April it is below the line off both islands. These are satellite averages for 2015–2024. NOAA OISST.

Neighbours: Italians in Gran Canaria's south, Britons on Lanzarote

By the 2025 census the largest foreign group in Gran Canaria's south is Italian. San Bartolomé de Tirajana, which includes Maspalomas, has 3,312 Italians, followed by 2,435 Germans. The municipality of Mogán has 1,103 Italians, 955 Britons and 625 Norwegians: more Norwegians than Germans.

In all three of Lanzarote's resorts Britons come first: 1,272 in Teguise, 2,143 in Tías and 1,483 in Yaiza. Adding up our places, there are 5,169 Britons on Lanzarote and 2,542 on Gran Canaria, an island with 5.2 times as many residents. With Italians it is the other way round: 8,900 on Gran Canaria and 3,474 on Lanzarote.

The cities make a third picture. In Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, Telde and Arrecife the largest foreign group is Colombian. But the foreign share differs: 9.5% of residents in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, 4.7% in Telde and 22.8% in Arrecife. Census by nationality.

Where winter flights go

The same communities show in the timetable. In January of the 2026/27 season, Gran Canaria airport has direct flights to 97 cities abroad and Lanzarote airport to 60. To the UK the islands are almost level, 18 and 17. The gap is in Scandinavia and Italy: 7 destinations in Sweden against 2, the same for Norway, and 9 in Italy against 4. To France it is the other way round, 7 from Lanzarote against 5.

No government keeps such a series, so the count is ours: cities with a direct flight at least weekly in January. The table lists countries with three or more such cities from either island. Checked on 17 September 2026.

Housing: price per square metre and rent

Spain's housing ministry publishes an appraised value per square metre for three of our places: the two Gran Canaria cities and Arrecife. Las Palmas de Gran Canaria at €2,321/m², Arrecife at €2,011/m² and Telde at €1,796/m², all appraised. That is one basis, so the three figures compare fairly. Our database holds no such appraisal for the resorts, and asking prices do not mix with appraisals, so buying in the resorts is not compared here. Ministry bulletin.

The state counts rent almost everywhere. The median rent on current leases in 2024 was €600 in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, €520 in Telde and €500 in Arrecife a month. In the resorts it was €600 in the municipality of Mogán and €595 to €611 on Lanzarote. Almost the same money buys different space. A typical rented flat in Mogán is 47 m², in Lanzarote's resorts 61–68 m². Per square metre a month that is €13.1 against €9.2–9.7. Our data has no median for San Bartolomé de Tirajana, which includes Maspalomas. SERPAVI.

The drive to hospital

For all four of our Gran Canaria places the nearest public general hospital is in the island's capital (Las Palmas de Gran Canaria), and there are two of them: Hospital Universitario de Gran Canaria Dr. Negrín and Complejo Hospitalario Universitario Insular Materno Infantil. From the cities the drive is short: 4 minutes from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and 16 minutes from Telde. From the south it is longer: 40 minutes from Maspalomas and 65 minutes from Mogán. On Lanzarote the nearest for everyone is Hospital Universitario Dr. José Molina Orosa (Arrecife), and the furthest of our places from it is Yaiza, at 25 minutes.

The time is for a car with no traffic, from the centre of each place to a hospital in the health ministry's catalogue; it says nothing about ambulances. Hospital catalogue.

All eight places in one table

Neither island stops in winter. By Social Security's monthly figures for 2025, our Gran Canaria places kept at least 99.1% of their best month's cafés, hotels and shops in January, and our Lanzarote places at least 96.3%; the lowest is Yaiza. The residents shown for Maspalomas are the whole of San Bartolomé de Tirajana. Social Security series.

Further

Each island month by month is in best time to visit Gran Canaria and best time to visit Lanzarote. Lanzarote against its other neighbours: Tenerife or Lanzarote and Lanzarote or Fuerteventura. All seven islands are in which Canary Island to choose. Our places are on the Gran Canaria and Lanzarote pages.

Read next

Gran Canaria or Fuerteventura: about a third apart in winter, level in summer

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

Cost of living in the Canary Islands: a local tax instead of VAT, fuel, flights, spending and rent from government data