Fuerteventura, Spain

Jable Beach on Fuerteventura, Canary Islands, Spain (cc)

Fuerteventura Travel Guide

Introduction

Fuerteventura has sand, buckets of it. It is an island of deserts and sand dunes, and the longest beaches in the Canary Islands. It is actually not that dissimilar to Morocco's coast and desert region just to the east. There are some 50 kilometers of fine white-sand beaches here, and another 25 kilometers or so of black-sand ones – in sum, no fewer than 152 beaches! It is also an island of emerald waters and, with the Atlantic winter swells, of big waves. And there's the wind that blows in from the Sahara and whips across the island. And then there's the sunshine, dollops of it, more than 3,000 hours in any given year. Which, all put together, gives beach-goers, sun-bathers, surfers, windsurfers and wave runners a great deal to cheer about. For here's an island of sand, surf, and sun.

Location

Fuerteventura is situated in the Atlantic Ocean amid the group of Canary Islands, just 63 miles (100 km) west of the north coast of Africa. It is 100 kilometers long and 31 kilometers wide, the second largest of the Canary Islands, after Tenerife.

How to Get There

Sightseeing

Neighborhoods

How to Get Around

Where to Stay

Where to Eat

Where to Party

Essential Information

Nearby Destinations

How to Get There

Fuerteventura can be reached by ferry from Tenerife, or by air from cities in Spain.

Sightseeing

Fuerteventura broadly consists of two parts: Maxorata in the north and the Jandia Peninsula in the southwest. Mount Jandia, the highest point on the island at 807 meters, rises between them. The sand dunes are in the north, at Corralejo and El Jable. The beaches are all down the island, from Corralejo to the southern tip. The most popular is Playa Sotavento de Jandía on the east side of the southern peninsula, which is also where most of the restaurants and hotels are. The loveliest village is Betancuría, situated inland in the western part of the island. The capital city is Puerto del Rosario, located in the northeastern part of the island, where the majority of the island's population resides.

Main Neighborhoods