Gran Canaria, verdict by verdict

Gran Canaria packs a continent's worth of terrain into one small island: the Saharan dune field at Maspalomas meeting the ocean in the south, a capital city with a real old town and a surfable urban beach at Las Canteras in the north, and a mountainous interior of pine forest, ravines and the Roque Nublo monolith. It is the most complete Canary after Tenerife and has the best city in the archipelago.

The real caveats: the southern resort belt of Playa del Ingles and Maspalomas is decades-built mass tourism, so anyone who dislikes large resorts has half the island written off. Interior roads are slow and winding and distances fool you, the microclimates are real, with Las Palmas under the panza de burro cloud while the south bakes, and the beaches are golden Atlantic rather than white Caribbean. For the one iconic volcano hike, Teide on Tenerife is the bigger draw.

Five to seven days split across two bases is the shape that works: two for Las Palmas' Vegueta quarter and the north villages, two for Maspalomas and the south coast, one for the interior peaks, with Global buses covering the resort corridors and a rental car for the mountains. The south is reliably sunny even in January and October to April is peak winter-sun season, though Carnival and Pride weeks book it solid. For winter-sun travelers who want urban texture with their beach week, it beats the more resort-only islands.