Just south of the Las Palomas airport is the main summer kite surfing beach, Vargas. In this bay wind surfers use the left half and kite surfers take a 1 km off road track to the right half. It was 20-40 knots NW every day I was there. If the wind is from North 20 degrees or less, the gusts can be very strong (20 knots). Those days many local kiters windsurf instead of kite. 7m kites were the biggest kites used most days. Many guys used 3-5m kites. The beach is rocks and there are moderate waves. The only accommodation at Vargas is a cabin/campground with restaurant, gear storage and view of the bay.


South of Vargas is Pozo Izquierdo, where international windsurf competitions take place and kite surfing is not allowed. Pozo Izquierdo consistently has 5 more knots than Vargas and they have a live webcam. (There is a small rocky beach just south of here where kite surfers go sometimes.) In Pozo Izquierdo there is a windsurf/kitesurf shop where I rented a kite board and got a lot of useful information in English. The local kiters are very helpful and friendly; many of them speak only Spanish.

We stayed farther south at the north end of Playa del Ingles (see photo) where the coastline curves and summer wind usually does not reach this far south. One day when it was 40 knots NW at Vargas, the wind did reach the dunes on the far distant peninsula (see photo again) and I was able to have a wonderful kite session with a beautiful sand beach along the dunes with smaller, cleaner waves

Teresa Wolff