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Canary Islands Island Hopping: Ferries & Itineraries

How to combine Tenerife, La Gomera, Lanzarote and more using inter-island ferries — routes, timings and sample 7-day plans.

2 min readBy Alby, canary islands resident & travel writer· Updated 17 August 2026
Guide leading visitors through Garajonay's misty laurel forest in La Gomera
Canary Islands travel context for this planning guide.

Best island combinations

The classic two-island trip is Tenerife + La Gomera, and it exists for a good reason: the 45-minute ferry makes the green island a relaxed day from the south coast, and the contrast — resort sunsets against laurel forest and silent valleys — is exactly what hopping is for. Lanzarote + Fuerteventura pairs from the eastern ports and works beautifully, with La Graciosa as the jewel third stop on the same route. Gran Canaria is better as a standalone or paired with Tenerife by short flight; the ferry between them burns hours that flights do not.

Ferry and flight practicalities

Fred Olsen and Naviera Armas cover the main routes, and the practical rule I give everyone is simple: book the earliest crossings of the day. Mornings are calmer, schedules run on time, and you arrive with the whole day in front of you instead of behind you. Atlantic routes can be lively even when the beaches look still — if anyone in the group is sensitive, take seasickness precautions before boarding, not when the horizon starts moving.

Sample 7-day route

Days 1–3 on Tenerife (Teide, whales and the sunny south); day 4 on the short ferry to La Gomera for Garajonay's forest and the Valley of the Great King; days 5–7 a flight or ferry across to Lanzarote for Timanfaya and the easy eastern coasts. It works, and it is the version I recommend when people insist on hopping: two long stays with relaxed transitions beat a five-island checklist every time.

When island hopping is a bad idea

The honest advice from someone who lives here: one island plus a day trip is a perfect week; two islands in five days means two transfers, two rental cars and checkout arithmetic that quietly eats the holiday. If you only have five days, stay on Tenerife and treat La Gomera as the day trip it was made for. If you have ten days or more, two bases with genuinely different characters — southern Tenerife plus the north, or Lanzarote plus Fuerteventura — form the relaxed formula residents actually recommend.

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