Jandía Natural Park and El Puertito Buggy Tour Fuerteventura

Port of Morro Jable and the driving class

The adventure starts at the port of Morro Jable, the southernmost town of Fuerteventura, where our transfer drops you after pickup from your hotel. Here your guide gives a theoretical class on how the buggies work and how to read the hand signals used in the convoy: slowing down, stopping, keeping distance and taking care on loose gravel.

After the safety talk you put on your dust goggles, adjust the seat and seat belt, and take a few minutes to get used to the controls before heading out. No off-road experience is needed, only a valid driving licence for each driver. Passengers can relax and take photos, and on the way back many couples swap seats at a stop if both hold a licence.

Jandía Natural Park

Jandía Natural Park protects almost the whole southern peninsula of Fuerteventura, a wild range of mountains, ravines and beaches covering around 14,000 hectares. Its crest rises to Pico de la Zarza at 807 metres, the highest point of the island, and on clear days clouds catch on the summits and feed a thin cover of plants that is rare elsewhere on this dry island.

This Jandía Natural Park tour follows the gravel tracks that cross the park towards the west, with sweeping views of the barren slopes, the deep valleys cutting down to the sea and the Atlantic stretching to the horizon. It is one of the few ways to see the interior of the peninsula without a four-wheel-drive car, and the guide stops at the best viewpoints for photos.

Wildlife and plants of Jandía

Life in Jandía has adapted to wind, sun and very little rain. Herds of wild majorera goats, the breed whose milk makes the island's famous cheese, climb the rocky slopes, while sheep and donkeys graze near old farmsteads. The quick little Barbary ground squirrels, brought from North Africa in the 1960s, dart between the stones and often come close to the track.

The park is also the only place in the world where the Jandía spurge grows, a cactus-like plant with thick grey-green stems that clings to a few ravines of the peninsula. Your guide points out these species and explains how the Canary trade winds shape the land. Keep your goggles on and your speed steady, and the animals usually stay in view.

The track to the western tip of Fuerteventura

Beyond the last houses of Morro Jable the asphalt gives way to a long gravel road that runs along the southern coast of the peninsula. On one side the mountains rise steeply; on the other, empty beaches and black lava headlands meet the ocean. This is one of the most remote corners of the Canary Islands, with no villages for many kilometres.

Driving a buggy here is the highlight for most travellers: wide bends, gentle climbs and short dips that feel thrilling without being technical. The guide keeps the pace safe for the slowest driver, so beginners feel comfortable. Dust is part of the fun, which is why closed shoes, goggles and clothes you do not mind getting dusty are essential.

El Puertito (Puerto de la Cruz)

The track ends at Puerto de la Cruz, a tiny fishing village of whitewashed huts near Punta de Jandía, the westernmost tip of Fuerteventura. Known locally as El Puertito, it has a handful of houses, rock pools and simple seafood restaurants facing the water, and the lighthouse of Punta de Jandía, built in the 1860s, stands a short distance away.

How to get to El Puertito? The only route is the long unpaved road from Morro Jable, which many rental car contracts do not cover, so a guided buggy tour is a practical and exciting way to reach it. Is El Puertito worth visiting? For the feeling of standing at the end of the island, with the ocean on three sides, absolutely.