Puerto de Mógan

Puerto de Mógan is approximately 1/3 way up the western side of Gran Canaria. By bus, it took over 90 mins from our home base in Playa de Arinaga….. on the highway it takes about 45 mins by car to travel the 54 kms. Once again we went south on the #1 bus line - this time our ride took us through a few places we hadn't been before, but fortunately this route does bi-pass both Playa de Inglés and Maspalomas, before heading upwards into the mountains.
Throughout our travels we've been on quite a few scary bus rides, including the infamous Amalfi route and the lesser known one that goes from the southern coast of Spain up to the town of Ronda….this one to Puerto to Mógan is certainly in a similar class! Kudos to all of the bus drivers whose job it is to manoeuvre their large vehicles along these narrow winding roads - we can only put our faith in them to keep us safe when we "climb aboard." With just 1 lane each way, our route took us up and around the mountains before heading down into small coastal towns. Quite a few of the "towns" along this route were purpose built for tourists, or adapted from old fishing villages. High rise hotels sprawl upwards from lovely beaches that are the main attraction in this area - they're often nestled in small coves and surrounded by the mountains. After a final mountain climb and a descent through 4 consecutive mountain tunnels (one of which was almost 3km long) we finally reached Puerto de Mógan. The last tunnel being the most recently built after a large landslide in the summer of 2017, when the road in and out of the village was cut off for quite a while. It's a very short stroll from the small bus terminal to reach the lovely beach and village, which are picture perfect. Unlike many of the large purpose built resorts that have sprawling areas of hotels, this village is small and laid back. It's a pretty fishing village with lovely architecture, lots of flowers and a couple of canals with whitewashed bridges, hence it's nickname the "Venice of Gran Canaria" - nice, but a bit of a stretch! The atmosphere is relaxed, the beach is golden and with mountains all around, the water is calm. With more sunny days than most any other place in Europe there's no wonder it's popular with families and any visitor who wants to relax in an idyllic place. I'm not sure what it's like in the height of summer - all those hours of sunshine attract almost 900,000 visitors a year - but the day we were there, the amount of visitors - along with everything else - seemed to be just about perfect.
The town has 2 weekly markets - one on Mondays for artisanal products and another on Fridays, selling fruits & veggies + clothing…we were there neither day, so I can't comment - but I've heard that on those days the mornings and early afternoons are very crowded in the village. There's a couple of grocery stores in town and the usual beach shops in addition to a couple of places that have good quality Canarian products. Although most visitors are there for the beach, the small village itself is a lovely place to take a stroll. We walked the beach promenade end to end, which is lined with restaurants and cafés, so there's plenty of places to sit, relax and enjoy the view - although the walk is quite short at just a couple of hundred metres. At one end the impressive rocks begin to rise up and at the other end is the port. We turned around and headed there next, walking through the old village, which is filled with attractive whitewashed houses, trimmed with bright blue paint and walls covered with flowering bougainvillea. Interspersed between the connecting rows of houses are tiny boutique cafés and shops. Before reaching the port, we strolled around the Marina, which has 200 berths. It's an attractive area in itself and popular with sailors.
Ferries to other parts other island leave from the Port, as do many tourist boat trips - and there's quite a few to choose from. Dolphin and whale watching is popular, as are snorkelling tours. The most popular tour with families is the Submarine Adventure - a 40 minute trip aboard a yellow submarine to view the seabed + its species. We spent some time at a restaurant overlooking the port and harbour. A small, old fishing boat was "parked" beside us, where a fisherman was catching fish from his side of the boat. Every so often he would step onto the quay to walk into the restaurant to "grab" a bottle of beer. 180 years ago this port was the only way for residents to contact and reach other parts of Gran Canaria….the first settlers were fishermen from Valencia in mainland Spain and Fuerteventura - another island in the Canaries. After leaving the port we walked to its far side to take a look at their other "beach," which is actually rocks and dirt, but it does have some amazing steep cliffs rising up around it…and in Europe people sunbathe on rocks all the time!
To see the last point of interest, we made our way up 257 steps to the look-out point, which gives amazing views of the village, ocean and surrounding scenery. Along the steep walkways upwards are the traditional and oldest houses, dating back to when Puerto de Mógan was founded. Apparently it's a great place to view the sunset, which is a popular pastime here. After making our way back down we stopped for a drink at the edge of the beach and although it wasn't yet sunset, we did enjoy the view and the saxophonist playing in the bar where we were.
This lovely beach has chair and umbrella rentals, showers and toilets, plus is easy accessible for baby-carriers and people with reduced mobility - something that's not always the case. One last fact about the beach, which we found surprising, but didn't change our opinion of it - the original, natural beach was supplied with sand that was shipped in from the Sahara. Although we missed a sunset view in Puerto de Mógan, we did see it on the way home…luckily it didn't distract our bus driver!