Casa de Colon

In the main courtyard, a Gothic stone well-head stands beneath a Renaissance arcade brought here from the convent of Santo Domingo, which the Dutch corsair Pieter van der Does destroyed in the sixteenth century. Look up as you walk through the rooms. The carved wooden ceilings are the house's other treasure, and the one in the cartographer's room is worth stopping for.

The Columbus rooms tell the voyages through models of caravels, nautical charts, navigation instruments and a reconstruction of the Admiral's cabin. Down in the crypt, original ceramics of the Esmeraldas and Tolita cultures share space with Yanomami baskets, harpoons and arrows. Upstairs, the paintings run from four Flemish panels, which reached the island through the sugar trade with Flanders, to Mexican pictures set with mother-of-pearl.

• Labels are only partly in English; the ship models, maps and instruments carry the story on their own.
• The painting galleries upstairs are part of the same visit, with no separate ticket.
• In the cartographer's room, look up at the ceiling before you move on.
• The gift shop sells local artisan crafts.
• Temporary exhibitions, talks, courses and concerts run through the year alongside the permanent rooms.

Casa de Colón stands in Vegueta, the old quarter of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, among the streets around Santa Ana Cathedral. Buses stop about 100 m away, on the Carretera del Centro by the Teatro Guiniguada and at Plaza de las Ranas. Drivers can use the paid car park at the Mercado de Vegueta, about 170 m in a straight line from the museum.

Either way the last stretch is on foot through the old town. From the museum the walk carries on easily to the cathedral, its square and the street of wooden balconies (Calle de los Balcones).

Best: around midday, or on a rainy day. Nearly all of the visit is indoors, so it fills the hours when the old town's streets are at their hottest or wettest.

Avoid: a late Sunday visit. Sunday opening ends hours earlier than the rest of the week, which leaves little time for thirteen rooms and two courtyards.