The Canaries sit at about 28 degrees north, roughly level with Florida and only 100 kilometres off the Sahara. The Canary Current brings cool water up past them and the trade winds blow across it, which is why an archipelago on the latitude of a desert holds around 21 to 24 degrees in January.
That is the entire commercial proposition. Four hours from northern Europe, reliable warmth in midwinter, and no long-haul flight.
The islands are not interchangeable
Seven main islands, and they are geologically different ages, which shows.
Tenerife is the largest, with Teide at 3,715 metres — the highest point in Spain — and a sharp split: the north is green, wet and traditional, the south is dry, sunny and where the resorts are.
Lanzarote is the volcanic one: black lava fields, no high-rise by long-standing local design policy, and the landscape architecture of César Manrique, who shaped the island's building rules from the 1960s.
Gran Canaria is often called a continent in miniature, with dunes at Maspalomas in the south and pine forest in the middle. Las Palmas in the north is a proper city.
Fuerteventura has the best beaches and the most wind, which makes it the surf and kite island.
La Palma, La Gomera and El Hierro are the quiet western islands: laurel forest, hiking, and on La Palma some of the clearest night skies in the world.
The trade winds also mean the northern coasts of the bigger islands are cloudier than the southern ones almost year round.
The twelve below are grouped by island.
Tenerife
The largest, and the sharpest north-south split.
The Ritz-Carlton, Abama occupies a hillside estate above the southwest coast with a private beach reached by lift, a golf course, several pools and 25 hectares of gardens. It is the best hotel in the Canaries.
Bahía del Duque sits on the Costa Adeje in a large property laid out as a Canarian village around plazas and gardens, with a beach and full family facilities.
Royal Hideaway Corales Beach occupies a beachfront position at La Caleta with an adults-only policy, several pools and a design-led interior.
Hotel Botánico & The Oriental Spa Garden sits in the green north at Puerto de la Cruz in subtropical gardens with a spa, a pool and a level of quiet the south does not have.
Hotel San Roque occupies a seventeenth-century mansion in Garachico on the north coast with a courtyard, a small room count and a pool. It is the most characterful hotel on the island.
Lanzarote
The volcanic one, with no high-rise.
Princesa Yaiza Suite Hotel Resort sits at Playa Blanca in a low property with several pools, gardens and a beach, in an island where building height has been restricted for decades.
Hotel Fariones occupies a beachfront position at Puerto del Carmen, restored, with a pool over the water and the most contemporary rooms on the island.
Gran Canaria
The continent in miniature.
Seaside Grand Hotel Residencia - Gran Lujo occupies a low colonial-style property beside the Maspalomas dunes with a garden, a pool and an adults-only policy. It is the best hotel on the island.
Seaside Grand Hotel Residencia - Gran Lujo
Maspalomas, Gran Canaria · 5★ · $$$$
A low colonial-style property beside the dunes
Check availabilitySanta Catalina, a Royal Hideaway Hotel sits in Las Palmas in a 1890 building in the Doramas park, restored, with a rooftop and the city outside.
Bohemia Suites & Spa occupies a clifftop above Maspalomas with a rooftop pool, an adults-only policy and views over the dunes.
Fuerteventura and La Palma
The wind island and the dark sky one.
Gran Hotel Atlantis Bahía Real sits at Corralejo beside the dunes national park with several pools, a spa and a beach.
Hacienda de Abajo occupies an eighteenth-century manor at Tazacorte on La Palma with a walled garden, antiques and a handful of rooms. La Palma has among the clearest night skies anywhere.
What we have left off
The apartment complexes across the southern coasts are excluded, and in the Canaries they are the majority of the beds by a very wide margin. They are apartments rather than hotels.
What to do
Go up Teide. The cable car climbs to 3,555 metres and the summit itself needs a permit booked well ahead. The crater floor at 2,000 metres is a landscape used repeatedly as a stand-in for other planets.
See Manrique's work on Lanzarote: the Jameos del Agua in a lava tube, the Mirador del Río, and his own house built inside volcanic bubbles.
Walk the laurel forest at Anaga on Tenerife or Garajonay on La Gomera, both relics of a forest type that covered the Mediterranean before the ice ages.
Look at the sky. La Palma and Tenerife both hold major observatories and the islands have strict light pollution laws.
Swim in the natural volcanic pools at Garachico and Charco Azul, which is how the northern coasts bathe.
Practical notes
All seven islands have airports; Tenerife has two. Direct flights from across Europe run year round and ferries connect the islands.
Winter is the peak season, which is the reverse of most of Europe, with Christmas and February at the highest rates. Summer is warm rather than hot and much cheaper.
The northern coasts are cloudier than the southern ones. If reliable sun is the point, book south.
Explore 4 & 5 Star The Canary Islands Hotels
Questions people actually ask
Which island?
Tenerife for variety and the volcano, Lanzarote for landscape and architecture, Gran Canaria for dunes and a city, Fuerteventura for beaches and wind, La Palma for hiking and stars.
Is it warm in January?
Around 21 to 24 degrees on the southern coasts, which is the whole point. Sea temperature is cooler than the air.
North or south?
South for sun and resorts, north for green landscape, traditional towns and more cloud.
How many nights?
Seven. One island properly rather than two rushed.