Artenara Cave Houses Ethnographic Museum

Step through the doorway and the walls and ceiling are rock. The caves are laid out as a family once kept them, with furniture and the everyday objects of past decades preserved where they would have been used. The museum is small and closely packed, and the staff at the front explain how the homes worked before you go in; laminated sheets in several languages cover the exhibits room by room.

Then there is the patio. It opens straight onto the mountains of central Gran Canaria, and the view from it is as much a reason to make the drive as the rooms behind you.

• There is no ticket; a donation box stands at the entrance, so bring some cash.
• Guide sheets come in several languages, and staff at the front talk you through the cave homes.
• The museum has its own toilet, and public toilets are about 110 m away.
• A municipal picnic area with drinking water is about 190 m away.
• Artenara sits high in the mountains and is cooler than the coast; bring a layer.

The museum stands in the village of Artenara, high in the centre of Gran Canaria, and the road from Tejeda brings you over the mountains to it. Two parking areas lie about 180 m and 200 m away in a straight line, and from either the rest is a walk through the village. Buses stop at Artenara, about 200 m away. A guidepost for the S-90 footpath stands about 80 m from the museum, useful if you arrive or leave on foot.

Best: a clear day, at any hour the museum is open. The rock keeps the caves at an even temperature through the year, so the rooms change little with the season; the patio view is what needs clear air to reach across the mountains.

Avoid: days when cloud sits low over the summits. The rooms are still worth the stop, but the view from the patio, the other reason to come, disappears.