Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Spain · Europe · 378,027 people · Atlantic/Canary · EUR
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria scores 74.8/100 for digital nomads under balanced weights, ranking 4 of 1501 cities. Expect about $2,200 per month (country-level estimate), a nomad visa (International teleworking visa (digital nomad visa)), and a measured median download speed of 61.8 Mbps.
Las Palmas is the go-to European winter base: warm all year, a long urban beach and a dense nomad scene around Las Canteras. It is an island, so flights are the only way out.
- Mild all year
- Las Canteras beach
- Surfing
- Island distance
Eating out
OpenStreetMap, 2026-1116410restaurants within 3 km
Mapped around the centre of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria: plenty of choice within walking distance. A count of what is on the map, not a rating, and it does not affect the score.
Living in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in plain words
Written by the Navoy team. The numbers that back it up follow below.
Las Palmas has become the winter answer for European nomads, and the appeal is simple: it is on the EU, on Spanish prices and sunny in January. The city beach, Las Canteras, runs for three kilometres along the north of town with a boardwalk that turns into the local office between November and March, when the rest of Europe is grey.
It is a mid-sized Spanish city rather than a resort, which is its strength. There are proper supermarkets, a university, hospitals and a working port, and the coworking scene is concentrated and friendly. Rents have risen with the attention, and the island's own housing shortage means finding a place in high season takes patience. Internet is good; the trade wind keeps the temperature in a narrow band all year, which some find perfect and others find monotonous.
Choose Las Palmas for a long European winter base where the weather is the point. It is a long flight from anywhere that is not Europe or West Africa, and island life repeats itself after a few months. For most people that is exactly the rhythm they came for.
How Las Palmas de Gran Canaria scores, factor by factor
Superscripts link to the source list at the bottom. Country-level figures apply to all of Spain.
Cost of living
Monthly cost for one person (log-scaled, cheaper is better).Safety
Homicide rate and political stability (country-level).Healthcare
WHO universal-health-coverage index and life expectancy (country-level).Internet
Median measured download and upload speed (M-Lab, city-level; the province or country aggregate where the city has too few tests).Visa ease
How easily your passport gets in and stays: visa-free days, eTA, visa on arrival, e-visa or consular visa, plus a nomad visa and how affordable its income threshold is. Averages US, EU and UK passports until you pick yours.Getting there & around
Non-stop airport destinations (hub size) plus editorial walkability and transit ratings.Climate
Share of months that are comfortable: 59–82°F (15–28 °C) mean, at most 5.9 in (150 mm) rain, at most 85% humidity.- Comfortable months: 12 of 1214 · city-level, 2001–2020 normals
Air quality
Annual mean PM2.5 on a fixed scale: 5 µg/m³ (WHO guideline) scores 100, 50 µg/m³ or worse scores 0.- Annual mean PM2.5: 10.4 µg/m³15 · city-level, 2024
Quality of life
Human Development Index and English proficiency (country-level).What does Las Palmas de Gran Canaria cost per month?
| Total, one person | $2,200 | country estimate |
|---|---|---|
| One-bedroom rent, centre | no data | city-level rent unavailable |
| Country cost index (US = 100) | 60 | country |
Can you stay legally?
| Nomad visa | International teleworking visa (digital nomad visa) | |
|---|---|---|
| Minimum income | $2,741/month | |
| US passport | 90 days | |
| EU passport | unlimited | |
| UK passport | 90 days | |
Visa rules change often. Verify with the issuing government before you book.
Do you pay tax here on income from abroad?
Airports and nonstop flights
Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is served by one airport.
| Airport | Nonstop destinations | International | From US airports |
|---|---|---|---|
| LPAGran Canaria Airport | 118 | 83 | 0 |
Wikipedia airport pages as of 2026-10: seasonal routes included, charters and announced-but-not-started routes excluded.
What is the weather like through the year?
Comfortable months by our rule: all year. Rank cities for Dec–Feb →
| Month | Jan | Feb | Mar | Apr | May | Jun | Jul | Aug | Sep | Oct | Nov | Dec |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Mean °F | 64 | 64 | 64 | 65 | 67 | 70 | 71 | 73 | 73 | 73 | 69 | 66 |
| Rain in | 0.7 | 0.9 | 0.6 | 0.4 | 0.2 | 0.1 | 0.1 | 0.2 | 0.3 | 0.7 | 0.9 | 1.1 |
| Humidity % | 74 | 76 | 77 | 76 | 77 | 80 | 84 | 84 | 80 | 78 | 76 | 75 |
Green temperatures mark months that meet the comfort rule (59–82°F, ≤5.9 in rain, ≤85% humidity). NASA POWER 2001–2020 climatology at the city coordinates.
Where can you stay in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria?
Three ways to live here, and what each does to the monthly budget. Rents are the one-bedroom figures from the cost table; hotels and short lets are priced per night and cost more, most of all in high season.
| Option | Rent per month | Monthly total | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| One-bedroom outside the centre | — | — | No city-level cost here; the total is a national estimate. |
| One-bedroom in the centre | — | — | No city-level rent figure for this city. |
| Hotel or short let | — | — | For the first weeks or a stay under a month. Compare hotels on Navoy → |
Monthly rents assume an unfurnished lease of six months or more; furnished monthly lets usually cost 20 to 50 percent more.
Cities with a similar profile
- Santa Cruz de Tenerife Spain · 75
- Puerto de la Cruz Spain · 74.9
- Arrecife (Lanzarote) Spain · 72.4
- Corralejo (Fuerteventura) Spain · 71.9
- Ponta Delgada (Azores) Portugal · 74.6
Also in Europe: A Coruña, Aachen, Aalborg, Aarhus, Aberdeen, Adana
Where Las Palmas de Gran Canaria ranks
The vibe
What people post about living in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, read for its mood. It is a reading of opinions, not a fact, and it is not part of the score.
Mixed · 52Thin and mostly tourist-style content: viewers admire the colourful houses and scenery, with one resident saying they loved living there, but no real discussion of costs, internet or daily life for remote workers.
- colourful architecture
- scenic views and caves
- pleasant walking streets
- feels like paradise to a former resident
- no real warnings in comments
- little discussion of daily costs
- sparse and dated content
- Viewers find the colourful old neighbourhoods visually appealing and worth a visit.
- One former resident described the island as paradise-like for living.
- Commenters mostly praise the videos rather than the city itself.
- Little evidence exists here on cost, internet or practical living for remote workers.
Read from 4 videos, 18 comments and 0 posts on 2026-11-08; the summary is written by a language model and can misread sarcasm.
Frequently asked
- How much does it cost to live in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria as a digital nomad?
- A single person typically spends about $2,200 per month in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria (a country-level estimate for Spain). That is a 36/100 cost score, where 100 is the cheapest city in the dataset.
- Is Las Palmas de Gran Canaria safe for digital nomads?
- Las Palmas de Gran Canaria scores 76/100 on safety. Spain records 0.73 homicides per 100,000 people per year (WHO, 2024) and a political-stability score of 68.7/100 (World Bank WGI). Both figures are national, so neighbourhood-level risk can differ.
- Does Spain have a digital nomad visa?
- Yes. Spain offers the International teleworking visa (digital nomad visa) with a minimum income of about $2,741 per month, and it can lead to permanent residence. Verify current rules with the issuing authority before applying. Full guide: https://nostos.navoy.io/visas/spain
- How fast is the internet in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria?
- Measured median download speed in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria was 61.8 Mbps (upload 51.3 Mbps) across 17,181 M-Lab tests in 2024. Measured speeds run below advertised plan speeds everywhere, so compare cities rather than reading the number as a plan.
- Is Starlink available in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria?
- Yes. Starlink's availability map lists residential service as available in Spain (checked 2026-10), so a dish can serve as a backup line in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria. Check the exact address on starlink.com before ordering, since capacity varies by area.
- Which airports serve Las Palmas de Gran Canaria and how many nonstop flights are there?
- Las Palmas de Gran Canaria is served by Gran Canaria Airport (LPA) with 118 nonstop destinations, of which 83 are international. 0 US airports have a nonstop link. Source: Wikipedia, 2026-10.
- When is the best time of year to be in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria?
- The most comfortable months are Jan, Feb, Mar, Apr, May, Jun, Jul, Aug, Sep, Oct, Nov, Dec. Mean temperatures range from 64°F (18°C) in Feb to 73°F (23°C) in Sep (NASA POWER 2001–2020 climatology).
- Las Palmas de Gran Canaria or Santa Cruz de Tenerife: which is better for digital nomads?
- Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the city with the closest factor profile to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria in this dataset. Which one wins depends on your weights; the comparison page puts every factor side by side with the numbers behind them.
Sources
Dataset 2026.11.3, published 2026-11-10. Download the full dataset or read the methodology.
- 1.City population (latest census or official estimate), Wikipedia (citing national statistics offices). CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. City-proper figures; the per-city source URL is stored with the seed row.
- 2.2026 Cost of Living Index (country level), WhereNext. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Country-level monthly estimate used only where no city-level figure exists; cost_index kept for every city.
- 3.Cost of Living Global 2026 (city rows), WhereToEmigrate. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. monthly_cost_single_eur and rent_1br_center_eur, converted to USD at the ECB reference rate on the retrieval date (see ecb-frankfurter).
- 4.Victims of intentional homicide per 100,000 population (national data, latest year), United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, dataUNODC. UNODC data, free to reuse with attribution. Retrieved 2026-10-12. Police- or statistics-office-recorded rates reported to UNODC's crime-trends survey, latest year per country (2024 for most), both sexes, all ages; the United Kingdom uses England and Wales. Replaces the WHO modelled estimate wherever UNODC has a figure from 2018 or later; WHO's 2021 estimates ran several times above recorded figures for El Salvador and Honduras. Workbook data_cts_intentional_homicide.xlsx (July 2026) reduced by scripts/build-dataset/inputs/convert-unodc-homicide.py.
- 5.Worldwide Governance Indicators — Political Stability and Absence of Violence (score 0–100), World Bank. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22.
- 6.UHC service coverage index, World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy). Retrieved 2026-09-22.
- 7.Life expectancy at birth (years), both sexes, World Health Organization, Global Health Observatory. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy). Retrieved 2026-09-22.
- 8.M-Lab NDT statistics (city aggregates, 2024), Measurement Lab. CC0 1.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Median of daily median download/upload throughput over 2024 for the city aggregate; sample count is the number of tests. Speeds reflect user-initiated tests, not advertised plans.
- 9.Starlink availability map, SpaceX (Starlink). Factual status cited from starlink.com. Retrieved 2026-10-07. Residential service status per country from the file Starlink's map loads. Grouped as on the map: launched or available = available; coming soon, pending regulatory approval or test = coming soon; blacklisted = not offered; unknown or excluded = unknown. Shown on city pages and as a ranker filter; not part of any score. Roaming and maritime plans can work in more places.
- 10.Nostos long-stay visa guides, Navoy. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-10-04. One record per country in data/manual/visas/<iso2>.json, compiled into data/visa-guides.json. Each guide lists the official government pages it was compiled from with retrieval dates. A guide's `verification` field is set only when a named person has re-read every source; until then pages say the guide is not yet reviewed by a person.
- 11.Passport Index dataset (visa requirements, 199 passports × 199 destinations), Ilya Ilyankou (compiled from passportindex.org). MIT. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Days per visit where stated; 'visa free' without a limit is credited as unlimited; eTA, visa on arrival, e-visa and visa required are credited 0 days for scoring but shown by kind. The default US/EU/UK figures use the US, German and British passports.
- 12.Airport destinations (Wikipedia airline and destination tables), Wikipedia contributors; countries via Wikidata. CC BY-SA 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-24. Distinct destination airports listed in each airport article's passenger table, resolved through Wikidata. Seasonal routes count; charters and routes announced but not yet flying are excluded. The as-of date is the newest article revision among the city's airports. Falls back to the OpenFlights snapshot when an airport has no article or table.
- 13.Walkability and transit ratings (editorial), Navoy. CC BY 4.0. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Judgment ratings, not measurements. Explained on /methodology.
- 14.NASA POWER climatology (2001–2020 monthly means), NASA Langley Research Center. Public domain (US Government). Retrieved 2026-09-22. T2M, PRECTOTCORR and RH2M at the city coordinates (0.5° grid). Monthly precipitation = mm/day × days in month.
- 15.WHO Ambient Air Quality Database, June 2026 update (V8), World Health Organization. CC BY-NC-SA 3.0 IGO (WHO data policy). Retrieved 2026-09-22. Annual mean PM2.5 for the most recent year available for the city.
- 16.OpenStreetMap restaurants (Overpass API), OpenStreetMap contributors. ODbL 1.0. Retrieved 2026-10-02. Count of OpenStreetMap elements tagged amenity=restaurant within 3 km of the city centre coordinate. Measures how many restaurants are mapped, which tracks real density well where OpenStreetMap is well maintained (Europe, the Americas, East and Southeast Asia) and under-counts where it is not (parts of Africa and Central Asia).
- 17.Human Development Index (HDR 2025, HDI 2023), United Nations Development Programme. CC BY 3.0 IGO. Retrieved 2026-09-22.
- 18.EF English Proficiency Index 2024 (band), EF Education First. Proprietary; band cited as a fact with attribution. Retrieved 2026-09-22. Only the proficiency band is stored, transcribed by hand from the public ranking.