What to See in Fuerteventura: The Essential Sights
Fuerteventura is the oldest of the Canary Islands, and you can tell: here the landscape has been worn down by millions of years of wind, and that same wind is what has made it famous. It is an island of long horizons, beaches that never end, windmills that still turn and goats everywhere, the ones that give us queso majorero, the local goat’s cheese. You don’t come to Fuerteventura to tick off one sight after another; you come to breathe deeply, slow down and let the wind mess up your hair. The whole island is a Biosphere Reserve, and when you travel around it you understand why.
The question isn’t so much what to see in Fuerteventura, but how far you want to get away from the familiar. Not every spot is here (for that you have the full map on islas24). These are the essentials, sorted by what you feel like that day: nature, villages or family plans.
The Corralejo Dunes and Isla de Lobos
If you start in the north, you start with the most spectacular part. The Parque Natural de las Dunas de Corralejo covers more than 2,600 hectares of fine white sand dunes rolling towards a turquoise Atlantic. And here’s a fact that surprises almost everyone: this sand doesn’t come from the Sahara, as people tend to believe, but is jable, an organic powder formed from millions of shells and marine skeletons ground down by the sea over millennia. It is a protected area, declared a natural park in 1982 along with the neighbouring Isla de Lobos, so you cross it along the tracks and enjoy it without leaving a trace. A local tip: park at the beaches on the south side of the park, the Grandes Playas, and walk a little way inland; the moment you lose sight of the road, you are alone with the sand and the wind.
Right opposite, a quarter of an hour by boat from the port of Corralejo, lies the Isla de Lobos, an unspoilt islet with no cars, no hotels and almost no shade, with coves of crystal-clear water and a volcano, the Caldera, that you can climb on a short walk. Here is the important bit, the one many people find out too late: to set foot on Lobos you need a compulsory free permit, requested online from the Cabildo de Fuerteventura, because the island has a daily visitor quota (around 400 a day, split into two shifts of 200, morning and afternoon) to protect its ecosystem. If you book the ferry with an authorised company, they usually arrange the permit for you, but confirm it before you go. No permit, no island.
El Cotillo and the west coast
Heading down the northwest coast you reach El Cotillo, an old fishing village that has kept its calm despite tourism. It has two sides, and both are worth it: to the north, some calm turquoise lagoons (La Concha and Los Lagos) perfect for bathing with children or simply floating; to the south, wild beaches with strong waves that surfers love. A little further up stands the Faro del Tostón, the red-and-white striped lighthouse, with a small Museum of Traditional Fishing inside, and nearby the Torre del Tostón, a watchtower built around 1700 to guard the coast against pirate raids. El Cotillo is also one of the best places on the island to stay for the sunset with a plate of fresh fish in front of you.
If you want to keep exploring the coast, in the best beaches of Fuerteventura you’ll find every stretch of sand with its own character, because when it comes to this Fuerteventura has no rival in the Canaries: beaches for every taste and for every season.
Villages with soul: Betancuria and Ajuy
Fuerteventura isn’t only about the beach. Inland, in a green, sheltered valley ringed by mountains, sits Betancuria, which was the island’s first capital. It was founded by the Norman conqueror Jean de Béthencourt in 1404, and he didn’t place it by the sea for a very practical reason: tucked away inland it was safer from pirates. It remained the capital for centuries, until in the 19th century the title passed to Puerto de Cabras, today Puerto del Rosario. Today it is a village of white houses, cobbled streets and a lovely church, with the winding road up to it offering some of the most impressive viewpoints on the island. It is the perfect stop to understand where the Fuerteventura of before the beach umbrellas comes from. And if that history interests you, further north, in La Oliva, you can visit the Casa de los Coroneles, an imposing manor house from the 17th and 18th centuries with a parade ground and wooden balconies: from here the colonels, who held both military and civil power, ruled the island until the mid-19th century, and today it is a cultural centre. While you are in rural Fuerteventura, take the chance to stop at one of the artisan cheese dairies along the way and buy queso majorero straight from the producer, fresh or cured.
On the west coast, heading down through Pájara, is the little fishing village of Ajuy, with its black sand beach and a few fish restaurants with their nets almost in the water. From there a short trail sets off, just over a kilometre along a cliff, leading to the Cuevas de Ajuy. And here is a fact that gives you goosebumps: the rocks of these cliffs are among the oldest in the whole Canary archipelago, sediments that formed on the ocean floor more than a hundred million years ago, long before the islands emerged. Go with shoes that grip and watch out for the tide and the swell, because the trail hugs the edge and on this west coast the Atlantic is treacherous: sudden waves are a real danger, so keep well away from the edge of the wet rocks.
For a family day out
The island’s family plan par excellence is in the south, in La Lajita: the Oasis Wildlife Fuerteventura (the former Oasis Park). It is a huge park, more than a million square metres, combining a botanical garden, an animal reserve and shows, and it boasts one of the largest camel reserves in Europe. It is enough for a full day with the kids, between the camel ride, the birds and a cactus garden that impresses. Buy the tickets online, which is usually cheaper and saves you the queue.
And to round off the family day, the calm lagoons of El Cotillo I mentioned earlier have still, shallow water, ideal for small children; you’ll find them one by one, with their access and facilities, in the best beaches of Fuerteventura.
How to plan your visit
Fuerteventura breaks down, broadly, into three parts: the north, with Corralejo, its dunes, Lobos and El Cotillo; the centre and the interior, with Betancuria, the windmills and the majorero villages; and the south, the long Jandía peninsula, home to the wildest beaches and the island’s most legendary corner, Cofete. With three or four full days you see the essentials without rushing, and a week gives you room to get lost among the coves without watching the clock.
A car is almost essential: distances on the map are barely deceptive because the roads are long and straight, but the best corners lie at the end of dirt tracks. The clearest case is Playa de Cofete, on the far side of the Jandía massif: fourteen kilometres of untouched sand with no beach bars, no toilets and almost no phone signal, with the mysterious Villa Winter presiding over the valley. That house, built by the German engineer Gustav Winter in the 1940s, carries all kinds of legends (a Nazi base, spies), although his biographer refutes them and explains it as an agricultural venture. Cofete is reached only by a long, narrow dirt track, and here is the honest warning: most rental-car insurance policies don’t cover that track, so consider going in a 4x4, on an organised excursion or on the guagua-taxi (Tiadhe’s line 111, an off-road bus that goes up twice a day) from Morro Jable. And an even more important warning: Cofete is not a beach for swimming. There are no lifeguards and the rip currents are very strong and treacherous, capable of dragging even strong swimmers out to sea; it is a place to contemplate, walk and respect the Atlantic, not to get in the water. It is not a place to improvise, but if you dare, it is one of those landscapes you never forget.
One last note for those chasing skies: being a low island, with hardly any light pollution in many areas, Fuerteventura offers spectacular starry nights. If that appeals to you, in our guide to where to see the stars in the Canaries you’ll find the best spots and the key dates.
On islas24 you’ll find each of these places with its location, opening hours and how to get there, so you can plan your route without surprises. Choose where to start and let the wind do the rest.