Fred. Olsen Canary Islands Cruises

Tenerife anchors almost every itinerary, and ships tend to stay late into the evening, so there is time for more than one plan. Mount Teide, Spain's highest peak, is reachable by cable car for views across the island and its neighbours, while the waters off the south coast are among the most reliable places in Europe to see pilot whales and dolphins. The capital itself also rewards a slow wander through its markets and plazas.

Gran Canaria’s Las Palmas is a proper city as well as a port, and guests can be in the handsome old quarter of Vegueta within a few minutes of walking off the ship. The Renaissance-Gothic Santa Ana Cathedral and the pre-Hispanic archaeological collections sit alongside Las Canteras, one of the finest city beaches anywhere in the Atlantic, while the rolling sand dunes of Maspalomas are an easy trip south for guests who would rather see the wilder side of the island.

Arriving in Arrecife feels like arriving somewhere else entirely. Lanzarote’s interior is a landscape of black lava fields and ash cones, and Timanfaya National Park takes guests through its heart, past ground still warm enough to singe brushwood. The island is also shaped by the artist and architect César Manrique, whose cactus garden and cave auditorium at Jameos del Agua turn volcanic rock into places to sit and admire the landscape.

As the greenest of the islands and a designated Biosphere Reserve, La Palma is a favourite amongst guests. Santa Cruz de La Palma is lined with wooden balconies and cobbled streets that climb straight up from the quayside, and inland the vast crater walls of Caldera de Taburiente National Park drop away beneath laurel forest and pine. Black sand beaches and some of the clearest night skies in Europe complete the picture.