The Best Apps for Travelling to the Canary Islands

Before you pack anything, it is worth checking your phone. Getting around the Canary Islands has its own logic: you move around the city by bus, cross to another island by ferry or plane, and the weather can change from one valley to the next in the same morning. No global "travel" app solves that for you. The ones that really matter here are local, many of them free, and some will save you queues, money and the odd nasty surprise. We will tell you which ones to actually install, what each is for, and at the end, which are essential and which are just a nice-to-have.

Getting around the city by bus

In the Canary Islands the bus is called a guagua, and each island has its own company, so the app depends on where you are.

In Tenerife, the company is TITSA. The payment system has been modernised: the old ten+ card gave way to the tenmás card, and its digital version is the ten+móvil app, with which you buy and validate your ticket from your phone, both on the bus and on the Santa Cruz and La Laguna tram. Travelling with a card or the app works out quite a bit cheaper than paying the driver in cash, so if you are going to take several buses, it more than pays off.

In Gran Canaria two companies coexist, and this confuses a lot of people. To get around the city of Las Palmas there is Guaguas Municipales, with its GuaguasLPA app, which offers arrival alerts, real-time tracking and payment with a QR code you show to the bus reader. For the rest of the island, the routes between towns, the company is Global, with its GuaguasGLOBAL app.

On the other islands the logic is the same: search the app store for the name of your destination's island bus and see whether it has a timetable and payment app. Almost all of them do now, and even if you do not pay by phone, seeing what time the next bus comes is worth its weight in gold when you are waiting in the sun.

Hopping from one island to another: ferries

If you want to see more than one island, sooner or later you will cross by boat. The two main ferry operators are Fred. Olsen Express and the former Naviera Armas, which since 2026 operates under the Baleària Canarias brand following the integration of its lines. It is a recent name change, so do not be surprised if you still find both names: Armas's historic routes are now booked with Baleària.

Both operators have a website and app to buy your ticket, choose your seat and carry your boarding pass on your phone. A local tip: prices vary a lot depending on how far in advance and which day, so always compare the two companies for the same route. On short, frequent routes, such as Los Cristianos to La Gomera or Agaete to Santa Cruz de Tenerife, it is usually enough to just show up, but on long weekends and in summer, book ahead.

Flying between islands

Sometimes the plane works out better than the boat, especially for the more distant islands or if you are short on time. Here two airlines rule: Binter and Canaryfly. Binter offers the most connections, with short flights that often last less than half an hour, and its app lets you book, check in and store your boarding pass. Canaryfly covers the busiest routes and tends to compete on price. As with the ferries, the trick is to check both before deciding: for the same route the difference can be notable depending on the day.

Renting a car: better with the local companies

In the Canary Islands car rental is dominated by two very reliable and affordable local companies: CICAR and Autoreisen. They rarely show up on the big international comparison sites, but they have their own website and app, they ask for no deposit, they include fully comprehensive insurance in the price and they hide no costs. For a trip around the islands, downloading the CICAR or Autoreisen app is one of the best decisions you can make. We cover it in detail in the guide to renting a car with no deposit and ferries between islands.

The weather: always check the official source

This is the app most people ignore and the one that prevents the most trouble. In the Canary Islands the weather has nuances that no international app understands well: the north cloudy and the south clear at the same time, the wind in the channels between islands, and above all the calima, that Saharan dust that raises the temperature, clouds the sky and, in strong episodes, can affect flights.

For this, the reference is AEMET, the State Meteorological Agency. It is the official and most reliable source, and its app is the one that marks warnings for heat, wind, rain or coastal phenomena with colours (yellow, orange, red). Before a hiking route, a beach day in the north or an inter-island flight, those warnings are the first thing you should check. The usual weather apps are fine for getting a rough idea, but when it really matters, listen to AEMET. We go deeper into the islands' climate in the Canary Islands weather guide.

Parking in the city without losing your mind

If you rent a car, sooner or later you will run into the blue zone in Santa Cruz, Las Palmas or the tourist centres. Instead of hunting for coins for the parking meter, you can pay for regulated parking from your phone with Telpark (formerly ElParking), which works in several Canary cities. The convenient part is not just paying without getting out of the car: you can extend the time remotely and get a warning before it runs out, so you save yourself the fine for a few minutes over. Check inside the app that your city and your zone are covered, because not every municipality is included.

Maps and routes, even without coverage

In many corners of the islands, especially in the midlands and the peaks, the phone runs out of data. So, two ideas.

For driving and finding your way, Google Maps lets you download the area in advance and use it offline: do it on the accommodation's wifi before heading out to a mountain area. One important warning: in the midlands and the mountains (Anaga, Masca, inland Gran Canaria) Google Maps sometimes sends you down very narrow, steep or even closed dirt tracks, impassable for a normal hire car. Trust the main roads (the ones signposted with TF- or GC-) even if the map promises to save you two minutes with a shortcut.

And for walking, the option hikers here really use is Wikiloc, a huge community of routes where you find the track of almost any trail in the Canary Islands, with downloadable maps that work offline and an alert if you stray off the path. It is a great help on trails that are only partly signposted, and there are some. And if you take your routes seriously, an expert tip: the official Canary Government viewer, IDECanarias (Grafcan), shows with cadastral precision the official trails, the boundaries of the protected areas and the closures; it is less intuitive than Wikiloc, but it is the official source, it works in the browser and it has a mobile view. If you enjoy hiking, first look at which island best fits what you are after in the which-Canary-Island-to-choose guide.

So, what do I actually install?

You do not need to fill your phone. With just the basics you are set.

Essential for almost any trip: AEMET for the weather, the bus app for the island you are on, and the ferry or airline app if you are going to move between islands. With those three you cover the essentials.

Very useful depending on your plan: the CICAR or Autoreisen app if you rent a car; Telpark for parking in the city; Google Maps offline whenever you leave the main routes; and Wikiloc (or IDECanarias for fine detail) if hiking is part of the trip. The rest of the general travel apps, the ones for searching international flights or saving bookings, you already know them and they do not change for being in the Canary Islands.

The rule is simple: install what solves something specific here, and leave the rest out. At islas24 we keep telling you what does work on the ground, from transport to weather, so you arrive knowing and enjoy from day one.