Anfi del Mar: The Complete Guide to Gran Canaria’s Caribbean Beach

Is it really like the Caribbean?

Tour operators sell it that way, so it is worth answering properly. The water genuinely is turquoise and the sand genuinely is white, so photographically the comparison holds up. What the brochures leave out is why.

Gran Canaria is volcanic, and its natural beaches are dark gold sand or pebble. Anfi’s sand is white because it is not Canarian sand at all: it was brought in when the resort was built in the late eighties, along with the two breakwaters that close off the bay.

Two consequences follow. The pale seabed changes how light reflects, which is where the colour comes from. And the breakwaters remove the swell and the current entirely, making it one of the safest beaches on the island for small children.

So: yes, it looks the part, and no, none of it is natural. If you want an unspoilt cove this is the wrong beach, and we will point you at a better one further down.

From quarry to postcard

It is worth knowing what was here before, because it explains the whole place. This stretch of coast was cliff and pebble with no tourist interest at all, and an aggregates operation ran here for years. There was no beach, no sand and nobody came.

The resort went up in the late eighties on an idea that was unusual on the island at the time: rather than build beside an existing beach, manufacture the beach itself. Two breakwaters were laid to enclose an artificial bay, pale sand was shipped in, and the island and its walkway were added.

Opinions divide, reasonably. To some it is a model of turning a degraded stretch into something usable; to others a stage set with nothing to do with the Canaries. Both readings are fair, and knowing it in advance saves the disappointment of anyone expecting a wild cove.

The heart-shaped island

This is the bit in every photograph: a small artificial island joined to the beach by a pedestrian walkway, heart-shaped when seen from above. You can walk it in five minutes, it has a viewpoint with the best panorama of the bay, and access is free.

As a place to take photographs it does its job. What to know is that the heart shape is only visible from the air. At ground level it is a headland with a path around it. If you were expecting the postcard view, those photographs are taken by drone.

What you can use without staying at the resort

The awkward question almost nobody answers plainly, so here it is: the beach is public, as all Spanish beaches are. Access to the sand, the water and the island is free to anyone.

What is private is the resort itself: the apartments, their pools and their communal areas. And some beach services, the sunbeds and parasols, are charged separately whether you are staying there or not.

What time to go, which changes everything

Anfi has one problem and one solution, and both are about the clock. The problem is that it is small and famous at the same time: two hundred metres of sand receiving considerably more people in high season than fit on it comfortably.

The solution is simple and hardly anyone applies it: go before ten or after five. In those windows the beach is what the photograph promised. In between it is a busy beach with hot sand.

Sea temperature

Because the bay is enclosed, the water at Anfi sits still and warms slightly more than the open beaches next door. These are the averages for the Mogán coast, which serve as the reference:

June to November swimming is comfortable without a second thought. December to May it is bracing for the first few seconds and fine afterwards, and here more than at any other beach in the south, because the lack of swell removes the cold shock that puts people off.

What to do besides lying down

A two-hundred-metre beach runs out quickly if all you plan to do is swim. What makes the morning worthwhile is everything around it.

On the water

A bay with no swell is an ideal place to try a kayak or a paddleboard, and it is probably the best spot in the south for a first attempt. From the Arguineguín pier, ten minutes away, the whale and dolphin trips also leave.

The promenade

Already mentioned as a way of getting here, but it is a plan in itself. The flat path linking Anfi with Arguineguín hugs the sea for a good half hour and works perfectly well with children. At sunset it is one of the best walks in the municipality.

Golf at Anfi Tauro

Inland, up the Tauro ravine, sits the golf course of the same name. It is an eighteen-hole course set into ravine scenery that looks like nothing else on the island. Ten minutes by car.

Anfi against the other beaches in the south

The real question is not whether Anfi is beautiful, which it is, but whether it is the right beach for you that day. This comparison is the most useful part of the guide:

The two low scores are deliberate and explain who this beach is for better than anything else. Authenticity scores badly because nothing you can see is natural: not the sand, not the bay, not the island. And peace scores badly because it is small and very well known at once. If you want an empty cove, Veneguera is about fifty minutes west, the last stretch on a rough track, and is precisely the opposite.

What is within twenty minutes

Anfi is a half-day beach, so the interesting question is what you pair it with. All of this is under twenty minutes away:

The combination that works best in a day: Anfi first thing, lunch in Arguineguín, sunset in Puerto de Mogán. Three very different places, none more than twenty minutes from the next, and each caught at its best hour.

Where to eat

Anfi’s commercial area has restaurants and cafés with terraces over the beach, aimed at visitors and priced accordingly. They are perfectly good and you pay for the view, which is a fair trade if you know it in advance.

The alternative is ten minutes away: Arguineguín is where you eat best for the money anywhere in the municipality. It is a fishing town with a working quay, so the fish is genuinely fresh and the bill drops noticeably. If you are spending the day on the beach it is worth driving over for lunch and coming back.

You can browse local places in our Mogán restaurant directory.

Going with children

If you are travelling with small children, Anfi is probably the best beach in the south of Gran Canaria, and it is worth saying exactly why rather than in general terms.

The two breakwaters remove the swell and the current, so the water is still even on rough days. The entry is gradual, with no step and no rocks. There is a lifeguard in season, showers and toilets. And the lower car park, paid though it is, puts the car metres from the sand, which with a pushchair and a cool box changes the day completely.

Is it worth staying here?

It depends what kind of trip you have in mind, and the honest answer is not the same for everyone.

The practical comparison: Puerto Rico is twelve minutes away with far more shops and restaurants; Puerto de Mogán, twenty, has the prettiest town in the municipality. Anfi wins on beach and on calm, and loses on everything else.

In short

Anfi del Mar is a textbook artificial beach, and precisely because of that it does very well what it set out to do: clear water, no swell, full facilities and a view that does not fit the idea anyone arrives with about a volcanic island. It is the best beach in the south for swimming with small children, without argument.

What it is not, and this is worth being clear about beforehand, is authentic or quiet. Nothing you can see was there forty years ago, and in high season it genuinely fills up.

If you take one idea from this guide, make it the one about timing: Anfi before ten in the morning is one of the most beautiful beaches in the Canaries, and at one in the afternoon it is a crowded beach. It is exactly the same place. Only the hour you turn up has changed.