Montana de Arucas Viewpoint

Arucas lies directly below, and the first thing the eye finds is the church of San Juan Bautista, its dark stone spires standing high above the rooftops. Beyond the town the slopes turn green with banana plantations running down to the north coast, and the Atlantic fills the horizon. On a clear day the view carries east along the coast towards Las Palmas.

The summit itself is plain. The bar is shut and the area around it looks neglected, so the view is the whole reason to come up. It works best as a stop on a drive through the north: you park right beside the viewpoint and the panorama is in front of you.

• There is no café or bar at the top and no drinking water nearby — bring your own.
• The nearest toilets are about 790 m away in a straight line, and one of them is for customers only.
• The site looks run-down around the closed bar; the view is the only thing on offer.
• Cloud decides the visit: when it sits over the north of the island, the view goes with it.
• Both the parking and the viewpoint itself are wheelchair-accessible.

By car, the road climbs the hill to car parks right beside the viewpoint, about 12 m and 56 m from it; the further one has a gravel surface. From either, the view is a few steps away.

Without a car, the nearest bus stop is Acequia Alta, about 340 m away in a straight line. The walk from there follows the road up the hill, so it runs longer than that figure.

Best: a clear, sunny day, when the view reaches across the town and along the coast.

Avoid: days when low cloud hangs over the north of the island.

The north of Gran Canaria catches the cloud carried in on the trade winds, and from the summit a grey day shows little more than the car park.