Visit the Botanical Garden in Gran Canaria, Spain's biggest botanical garden

Did you know that the Botanical Garden in Gran Canaria (Jardín Botánico Canario Viera y Clavijo) is actually the largest botanical garden not only in the Canary Islands, but in all of Spain?

The botanical garden is dedicated to the conservation and management of the Canarian flora, so if you're interested to see an ample collection of species endemic to the Canary Islands, this is a great place to visit in Gran Canaria.

Entrance

The entrance to the Botanical Garden in Gran Canaria is FREE. 

Opening hours

• Monday to Friday: from 7:30 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. (last access allowed at 1:00 p.m.).
• Saturday and Sundays: from 10:00 am TO 5:00 PM pm (last access allowed at 4:00 PM).
• On December 24, 25, 31 AND January 1 the Gardenis CLOSED

Visiting the Botanical Garden in Gran Canaria (Jardín Botánico Canario Viera y Clavijo)

We visited the Botanical Garden in January, on a rather cloudy day and the outside temperature was just 15 - 16°C, while it was around 20°C when we had left from the south of the island. So especially if you're visiting during the winter months, bring a jacket or a cardigan with you, as for obvious reasons, the botanical garden is located in a more humid and cool area of the  Gran Canaria.

Even if we visited the garden in January we still learned a lot of interesting facts about the Canarian flora and we saw some flowers in bloom, although I believe it would be even more colorful and beautiful to visit during spring or summer, when more plants will probably be in bloom. 

Did you know that....?

The CARDON (Euphorbia canariensis) is the symbol plant of Gran Canaria. 

It is a large shrub up to 4 meters with thick square or 5-sided succulent stems with spines, but with no leaves. Their flowers are either green, red, or yellow and the fruits are dark red. 

The main feature of the Cardon is the white poisonous liquid latex that comes out when its stems are damaged. 

How to get to the Botanical Garden in Gran Canaria

The Botanical Garden is located relatively close to Las Palmas, so if you're in the capital, we highly recommend coming here for a visit.

By public transport

From Las Palmas: buses no 303, 311, 302 from San Telmo and buses 301, 323 from Santa Catalina.

If you're coming from the south of Gran Canaria and you don't have a car, then you can take a bus to Las Palmas to San Telmo Station and from there transfer to one of the bus lines mentioned above. 

By car

If you have a rental car, then you just use your GPS to get to either one of the entrances of the botanical garden in Gran Canaria.

The upper entrance only has 25 parking places, while the entrance to the lower part of the garden has more parking spaces, including some for tourist buses.

We loved our visit to the Botanical Garden in Gran Canaria and we will come back again the next time we visit the island. 

The garden is truly large and spread around the bottom part and the upper part, so it takes a while to go through all the alleys and corners to admire both the plants and the views.

We feel like we could spend again an entire day here exploring the garden and learning how to recognize the typical Canarian flora when we see it in the wild during our hikes and walks. 

The Botanical Garden is truly a gem in Gran Canaria and one of the places we absolutely recommend that you visit if you want to learn more about the fascinating flora of the Canary Islands archipelago.

Where is the Botanical Garden located in Gran Canaria