Fuerteventura is the oldest of the Canary Islands, around twenty million years, and time has worn it down. Where Tenerife and La Palma are steep and green, Fuerteventura is low, eroded and largely bare: brown volcanic hills, plains of stone and scrub, a few thousand goats, and around 150 kilometres of beach, which is more than the rest of the archipelago combined. It is also the windiest, which is why it holds a round of the windsurfing and kiteboarding world tour every year.
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The name is usually glossed as strong wind, and whether or not that etymology holds, the description does. Pack for wind, for an Atlantic that is colder than the air by a wide margin, and for the fact that there is essentially no natural shade anywhere on the island.
What Makes Fuerteventura Different to Pack For
The trade wind is constant
The north easterly blows most days of the year and hardest from May to September. It moderates the temperature, which is why the island rarely feels as hot as the numbers suggest, and it also means loose hats are gone, sand is airborne on the beaches, and reading a paperback outdoors is a losing battle.
Anything with a strap. A buff or scarf. Sunglasses that wrap, because windblown sand in the eye is the commonest small misery here.
Warm air, cold water, year round
The Canary Current keeps the sea between 18°C and 23°C. Air temperatures are remarkably stable: 20°C to 28°C almost all year, with winter nights around 14°C. This is the most reliably mild climate in Europe and the reason the island fills in January.
A merino wool base layer for women covers the winter evenings, which get genuinely cool once the sun drops and the wind keeps blowing, and it packs to nothing.
No shade, anywhere
There are almost no trees. The beaches are backed by dune or cliff, the interior is bare, and what shade exists is built rather than grown. The wind disguises the sun completely and people burn badly here in air that feels pleasant.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Fuerteventura Packing List
Footwear
Sandals for the beaches and closed shoes with a sole for everything else. The volcanic terrain is sharp lava and loose scoria, which cuts sandals and feet. If you are walking the Calderon Hondo crater, the Jandia peninsula or the track to Cofete, waterproof hiking shoes are right, mainly for the sole and the ankle rather than for water.
Reef shoes for the rocky entries and the tide pools, and because sea urchins are common on the volcanic sections.
Clothing
Light layers and a windproof shell, which is more useful than a warm one. Long sleeves for sun. Quick drying everything. The island is very casual, the resorts more so, but the inland villages and Betancuria are ordinary Spanish places and beachwear in them is out of place.
For the water
A shorty wetsuit if you are in the water for long, which the schools rent. A rash vest, which does triple duty as sun protection, warmth and modesty. Your own mask if fit matters to you.
For sun and wind
A wide brim sun hat with a chin strap, or it will be in the Atlantic. High factor reef safe sunscreen reapplied far more often than you think, since wind and water remove it. Zinc for nose and lips. A large refillable bottle; tap water is desalinated and drinkable but most people find the taste poor.
Practical
A hire car, effectively, since the island is large and the bus network is thin. Cash for the smaller villages. A dry bag. Lip balm, because wind and salt wreck lips in two days.
What to Wear at Key Sites
The Corralejo dunes
A natural park of shifting sand dunes running along the north eastern coast, backed by turquoise water and crossed by a single road.
Practically: completely exposed, with sand moving across the road and no shade whatsoever. The beaches here are superb and the wind picks up sharply in the afternoon. Nudity is common and legal on parts of these beaches, which surprises some visitors.
Cofete and the Jandia peninsula
Cofete is a fourteen kilometre beach on the wild south western side, reached by a long unpaved mountain track, backed by a ridge and almost entirely undeveloped. It is the most spectacular place on the island.
Practically: the track is rough, most hire car contracts prohibit it, and a bus service and tours run instead. Swimming at Cofete is dangerous and has killed people: there are strong currents, a steep shore break and no lifeguards. Go for the landscape, not the water.
Betancuria and the interior
The former capital, founded in 1404 and set in a valley inland because pirates raided the coast for centuries. It is the green corner of an otherwise bare island, with a church, a small museum and palm trees.
Practically: cooler and more sheltered than the coast, and a welcome change. The mountain road to it has viewpoints and is one of the good drives.
Wind and water sports
Sotavento on the Jandia side has a lagoon that fills at high tide and is the world tour venue. El Cotillo and the north coast have the surf. Schools operate across the island.
Practically: conditions here are strong rather than gentle, and Sotavento's lagoon depends entirely on the tide, so check the tables before committing to a day there.
Lobos and Lanzarote
Isla de Lobos is a small uninhabited island off Corralejo with a permit system limiting daily visitors, reached in fifteen minutes by boat. Lanzarote is a short ferry from the same port.
Practically: Lobos requires a free permit booked in advance and there is no shop or shade on it. Take water and food.
What Not to Bring
Leave any hat without a strap. Leave the expectation of shade, greenery or shelter. Leave delicate fabrics, which sand and salt will destroy.
Leave the plan to drive to Cofete in a standard hire car, which voids most insurance. Leave the assumption that warm air means warm water on an Atlantic island with a cold current.
Essential Resources for Women in Fuerteventura
Emergency numbers in Spain: 112 is the single emergency number and handles police, ambulance and fire, with English speaking operators. The national police are on 091, the local police on 092 and the Guardia Civil, who cover the rural interior and the coast, on 062. Maritime rescue is on 900 202 202.
Tourist support: Spain has a dedicated service for foreign visitors reporting crime, the SATE, and the national police in Puerto del Rosario take reports from visitors. A report can be started by phone on 902 102 112 in English, but a stolen passport needs the denuncia signed in person before the consulate will act.
US Embassy and consulate: the embassy is in Madrid at Calle de Serrano 75, telephone +34 91 587 2200, at es.usembassy.gov. The consular agency for the Canary Islands is in Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, a short flight or ferry away. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: the Hospital General de Fuerteventura in Puerto del Rosario is the island's hospital with a 24 hour urgencias department, and there are clinics in the resort areas. Serious cases transfer to Gran Canaria or Tenerife by air. EU visitors should carry the European Health Insurance Card; everyone else needs travel insurance, and check that it covers wind sports, which many policies exclude.
Official health authority: the Spanish Ministry of Health at sanidad.gob.es.
US State Department travel advisory for Spain: current advisory level and detail. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for Spain: entry requirements, safety and health guidance.
Official tourism authority: Turespana at spain.info, with the island board at visitfuerteventura.es for the Lobos permit system, beach flag policy and the Cofete access arrangements.
Solo women safety assessment: Fuerteventura is a safe and easy island for a woman travelling alone. Crime is low, the resorts are family oriented and quiet compared with the party islands, the surf and kite communities are international and welcoming to solo travellers, and eating alone is unremarkable. Violent crime against visitors is rare and street harassment is uncommon. Petty theft is the main criminal issue and is concentrated on beach belongings and on cars: do not leave anything visible in a parked hire car at a trailhead or a beach car park, which is where almost all reported thefts happen. The serious risks here are in the water and they are worth taking seriously, because this is an Atlantic island rather than a Mediterranean one. Currents and shore breaks on the western and northern coasts are powerful, several beaches including Cofete are genuinely dangerous to swim at, and people drown here every year, often strong swimmers who underestimated the pull. Swim at beaches with lifeguards and flags, and treat a red flag as absolute. The wind is the other factor, since it can turn a manageable sea into a hazardous one within an hour and it makes inflatables lethal. On land, the hazards are sun and dehydration, which the constant breeze disguises completely, and driving: the roads are good but long and empty, distances are larger than they look, and the unpaved tracks are hard on vehicles. If you are walking inland, carry water, tell someone, and expect no shade and no phone signal in places.
Reading On
Fuerteventura is the Canary island for beaches and wind rather than mountains, and the emptiest of the group. The Spain travel guide for women is the parent for the whole country and covers the regions and the seasons, and the Spain packing list for women covers a multi region trip. Across the archipelago, the Lanzarote packing list for women covers the island a ferry ride north, the Gran Canaria packing list for women covers the one with the cold mountain interior, the Tenerife packing list for women covers Teide, and the La Palma packing list for women covers the green western island. On the mainland, the Cadiz packing list for women and the Almeria packing list for women cover the windiest and driest Atlantic and Mediterranean coasts. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why merino is worth carrying to an island that never gets cold, particularly for a windy January evening, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
