Agaete and Puerto de las Nieves: the port worth seeing before the ferry
Many people know Agaete only as the port the Tenerife ferry leaves from: you arrive, join the queue and you are on your way. But if you get there an hour early, the northwest corner of Gran Canaria has more to show you: a fishermen's chapel with a Flemish altarpiece, a rock whose very absence is worth a look, and a valley where coffee grows among the orange trees.
Agaete lies 30 kilometres from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. The municipality covers 45.49 square kilometres and had 5,683 inhabitants on 1 January 2025, but its terrain is wild: it is made up of three large catchments (El Risco, Guayedra and Agaete itself) and rises to 1,180 metres in the pine forests of Tamadaba. Facing northwest, it gets little rain, and according to the town's tourism website the sun shines for roughly 2,415 hours a year.
We start at the port and head up through the town and the valley to Tamadaba. For Gran Canaria as a whole, see our article What to see in Gran Canaria.
Puerto de las Nieves: the port before the ferry
The port's name goes back to the conquest. When the conquest of Gran Canaria ended in April 1483, Alonso Fernández de Lugo became warden (alcaide) of Agaete and governor of the area, and he was deeply devoted to Our Lady of the Snows, the Virgen de las Nieves. After the conquest a sugar mill was built in Agaete, and Puerto de las Nieves traded sugar with European markets, above all with Flanders. In the 19th century, ships trading with Tenerife anchored here, so today's ferry route carries on a very old one.
The local kitchen's strength is fresh fish: fish soup (caldo de pescado), mixed grilled fish (parrillada), parrotfish (vieja) and grilled sardines, and according to the town's tourism website, mostly right here at the port. You could not ask for a better send-off before the ferry.
In front of today's quay lies the Playa de Las Nieves: a pebble beach with calm water and easy access, and the town's tourism website announces a Blue Flag for it. At the mouth of the Agaete ravine are the natural pools of Las Salinas, three pools linked by tunnels (see our page on them); the practical side of swimming there is covered in our article Natural Pools in Gran Canaria and Lanzarote. For the rest of Gran Canaria's beaches: The best beaches in Gran Canaria.
The Ermita de las Nieves and the Flemish altarpiece
The harbour chapel, which gave the port its name, is the Ermita de las Nieves. Antón Cerezo had it built in the second half of the 16th century, and the fishermen's houses slowly grew up around it, with the chapel as their axis. The ferry terminal's website recommends a visit too.
Inside is the Triptych of Our Lady of the Snows (Tríptico de Nuestra Señora de las Nieves). Cerezo and Doña Sancha Díaz de Zurita had it brought from Flanders in the 16th century. The central panel shows the Virgen de las Nieves, the two side panels Saint Anthony the Abbot and Saint Francis of Assisi. The painting is attributed to the Flemish painter Joos van Cleve. The two threads meet here: this same port traded sugar with Flanders, where the altarpiece came from.
The statue of the Virgin stays here all year, except from 5 to 17 August, when it is up in town, in the Concepción church.
What is left of the Dedo de Dios
Agaete's emblem used to be a finger of rock off the shore. Its original name is Roque Partido, the split rock; according to eldiario.es, the name Dedo de Dios, the Finger of God, was given to it by Fray Lesco in the early 20th century.
Then, on the afternoon of 28 November 2005, Tropical Storm Delta, with gusts of more than 130 kilometres per hour and the pounding of the waves, broke off the upper part of the rock. Today the Roque Partido stands as a stump a few metres from the Las Nieves beach. Rebuilding it is not advisable, according to a Canarias7 overview, because an intervention like that could bring the whole rock down.
In 2008, Pepe Dámaso, the artist from Agaete, said that losing the Dedo de Dios had been like a spiritual amputation for him. The town's tourism website still names the view of the Dedo de Dios as the port's most characteristic sight. When you stand on the beach, you will know what to look for: not the finger, but the space where it was.
Up into town: the Concepción church
From the port you walk up to the historic centre. The first Concepción church was built around 1515, and the first streets and the main square were laid out around it.
That church was ruined by a devastating fire on 28 June 1874, and in the same year Bishop Urquinaona laid the foundation stone of the new one. Today's building is eclectic, with three naves, and all its stone features are made of red dressed stone (cantería roja), which stands out beautifully against the white walls.
The Huerto de las Flores
Agaete's green corner is the Huerto de las Flores, a 19th-century garden. The Armas family planted it, mainly from seeds brought over from the Americas, and more than a hundred tropical species grow in it, among them macadamia, güiro, mamey and the camphor tree. The island's poets once strolled here, among them Saulo Torón, Tomás Morales and Alonso Quesada.
The garden reopened on Monday 30 March 2026 after a complete refurbishment. The work was carried out by the public company Gesplan, with EU Next Generation funding channelled through the tourism department of the Government of the Canary Islands. The old concrete path, damaged and uneven, was replaced by a raised wooden boardwalk that spares the plants' roots, so the garden is now more accessible.
We could not find any official information on visiting arrangements since the reopening: ask at the tourist office, or check the garden's page on the town's tourism portal.
The Maipés, where the ancient Canarians rest
At the mouth of the valley lies the Maipés, the ancient Canarians' burial ground on a lava flow more than 3,000 years old: around 700 graves, some of them over 1,300 years old, with mounds up to 8 metres across and 3 metres high. The site has been a protected archaeological zone (Bien de Interés Cultural) since 1974, and it has an interpretation centre and accessible paths (see our page on it). There is more about the ancient Canarians in our article The Cueva Pintada and the ancient Canarians, and the museum in Gáldar is less than 9 kilometres from Puerto de las Nieves (our Cueva Pintada page).
Coffee in the Agaete Valley
Beyond the Maipés opens the Agaete Valley: the orange groves, tropical fruit and coffee of San Pedro, Los Berrazales and the other hamlets.
Here coffee usually grows along the edges of the farms, next to oranges, papayas, mangoes and guavas, at between 150 and 550 metres above sea level. The Government of the Canary Islands puts it this way: Agaete is the only Spanish and European territory where coffee is cultivated in full ("de forma integral"), with every stage from growing to processing taking place inside the valley. The town's tourism website is more cautious: in its words, Agaete is "perhaps" the only place in Spain and Europe where coffee growing has any real weight. And coffee does grow elsewhere too: on São Jorge in the Azores, one family tends more than 1,500 plants, and there are small plantations on La Palma, Tenerife, La Gomera and Lanzarote as well.
According to the manager of Finca La Laja, coffee reached the valley in the early 19th century, planted by the Armas family on an estate that was later split between Barranco María, Longueras and La Laja. In the valley you can stay at the Finca Las Longueras rural hotel or at the Finca Los Castaños estate, while Finca La Laja is a winery and coffee farm. For what to order at the bar and where Canary coffee comes from, see our article Barraquito and zaperoco: Canary coffee.
The Rama: when the town dances with branches
The Fiesta de la Rama takes place on 3 and 4 August, as part of the festivities of Our Lady of the Snows, and draws on average between 20,000 and 30,000 people. The Bajada de la Rama is on 4 August: thousands of dancers go up to the upper part of town, take branches in their hands and dance their way down, to the rhythm of one of the town's bands, to the harbour chapel. Giant-headed figures, the papagüevos, lead the procession.
The residents used to cut the branches themselves before dawn; since the 1960s a lorry has delivered them to the "callejón de La Rama" alley, so that the Tamadaba pine forest is not harmed.
The Government of the Canary Islands declared the Rama a Bien de Interés Cultural (a protected cultural asset) because of its "deep popular roots": Decreto 43/2018, published in the BOC on 10 April 2018. The title of Fiesta of National Tourist Interest went on 20 October 1972 to the Fiestas de las Nieves as a whole, of which the Rama is part. Since August 2010 the Rama has had its own museum too, which you can visit through the tourist office. For the islands' other festivals: Canarian fiestas and romerías.
Tamadaba: the coast and the pine forest
Above Agaete begins the Tamadaba Natural Park, protected under Law 12/1987 on the Natural Areas of the Canary Islands. It covers 7,538.6 hectares between Agaete, Artenara and La Aldea, and holds one of the best-preserved natural pine forests on the island. It has two faces, each reached by its own route.
For the coast, you leave Agaete on the GC-200. Six kilometres from Agaete, the GC-200 reaches the Guayedra ravine, from where a 650-metre path leads down to the Playa de Guayedra, and this is where the natural park ends. According to the town's tourism website, this pebble and black sand beach is exposed and has strong surf. Fernando Guanarteme chose this ravine as his place of exile after acting as a mediator in the conquest. There is somewhere to stay here too: Redondo de Guayedra. El Risco lies on this same stretch of coast, with the Charco Azul, which our natural pools article also covers.
To reach the pine forest by car, you do not go up from Agaete but from Artenara, on the GC-216, in about twenty minutes. Up at Llanos de La Mimbre there is a picnic area under the pines (our page on the viewpoint). On foot, the classic San Pedro route links the pine forest with San Pedro in the Agaete valley: it is 20 kilometres long and has sweeping views over Agaete.
Getting there, and the ferry to Tenerife
By car: from Las Palmas de Gran Canaria on the GC-2; from the south and from La Aldea along the west coast on the GC-200.
By bus: scheduled guaguas (the Canarian word for bus) run from both directions. For car-free travel: The Canary Islands without a car. Fred. Olsen also runs a free bus (Ferry Bus) for passengers on the route between Las Palmas and the port of Agaete.
By ferry to Tenerife: Fred. Olsen Express takes you from Puerto de las Nieves to Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Check timetables and tickets on the terminal's official page; the terminal is accessible for people with reduced mobility. The route was presented here on 17 June 1994, and in 1999 two fast ferries served the same route for the first time in the Canary Islands. The town now regards it as the most important sea link between the two islands. For the other side, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, see our article What to see in Santa Cruz de Tenerife.
For longer trips: Island hopping in the Canaries. On the coast of neighbouring Gáldar is Sardina del Norte beach.
Most people's last view of Agaete is from the ferry rail: a small chapel, a broken rock, and the mountains behind them. Next time you are passing through, come an hour early.
Sources: Instituto Nacional de Estadística (INE), population on 1 January 2025; Agaete town council and its tourism portal (agaete.es, turismo.agaete.es); Cabildo de Gran Canaria, historical heritage: Fiesta de la Rama; Turismo de Gran Canaria (grancanaria.com); Government of the Canary Islands: Café de Agaete; BOE (Ley 12/1987); BOC (Decreto 43/2018); Fred. Olsen Express (fredolsen.es); Hola Islas Canarias; arqueologiacanaria.com; Canarias7; eldiario.es; nortegrancanaria.com; Diario de Avisos; Diário dos Açores; Canarias Destino Brand Center.
Cover photo (cropped): Puerto de las Nieves harbour and village seen from above, Agaete (2017). Bengt Nyman, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.