Fuerteventura’s Playa de Garcey – Wild, Unspoiled, and with Surf
Playa de Garcey is one of Fuerteventura’s most inaccessible yet tempting surf spots. It sits along one of the most remote parts of the island’s western shoreline, roughly two thirds of the way between the small surf town of La Pared and the even-smaller fishing village of Ajuy. The only way in is a rough dirt track road.
The reason you come here is a) to escape the crowds (because there are virtually never loads of people about) and b) to surf some really nice, highly consistent spots, on a beach that’s super-duper pretty.
It’s proper isolated Fuerte stuff – think blasts of rust-tinged cliffs running above a cinnamon-colored sand stretch peppered with pebbles. A couple of caves at the north end; some nice patches of reef descending straight into the sea in the middle.
To be honest, I’d say it’s worth coming here even if you’re not surfing. Playa de Garcey would be up there among my fav beaches on the whole island, regardless of waves. It’s got the remains of a pretty old-school shipwreck from the war, and that middle-of-nowhere vibe only the Canaries can nail.
The waves do add to it, mind you. They are very consistent, and – if the sandbars settle well – can be pretty banging, with good lefts and rights over a pebble-cobble bottom.
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Read more about surfing in Fuerteventura and all the other Canary Islands
Where is Playa de Garcey and how to get there?
Playa de Garcey is on the remote west coast of southern Fuerteventura, in the municipality of Pájara. It sits right between the better-known surf zones of La Pared and El Cotillo.
To be honest, it’s not somewhere you just stumble across. Most people reach it by car, first following paved roads into the island’s empty interior and then joining a rougher dirt track for the final stretch.
Be warned here: It’s not the easiest or comfiest drive. Watch out for the rental car!
The beach is isolated, with no real facilities, so it pays to bring water and anything else you need. Also, you can get pretty close by vehicle, but the last descent is steep on loose scree and sand.
Surfing in Playa de Garcey
Playa de Garcey is one of the more interesting waves on the wild west coast of Fuerteventura. The headland and cliffs at the north end help to organize the swell a bit, splitting it between a sort of point break right hander at the north end, and a more mellow beach break in the middle.
It can also handle more size than some nearby spots – esp El Cotillo – and the wind is often more manageable here than in places like La Pared, because the surrounding terrain gives a bit of shelter.
The setup changes with sand movement after bigger swells and those winter storms, so it’s not the sort of spot where every peak is fixed and named. I’ve seen it do very different things only like a week or two apart on the same swell size and direction.
That said, Garcey can be broken into two clear spots:
- The point break at the north end of the beach – Right at the northern tip of the beach, a right-hand point tends to work at a high or pushing tide when larger swells come in. It’s nice because it’s got some really good N wind protection, which is rare for this island, and it’s a solid right wall when it’s working at its best. It can be fickle. If the angle isn’t quite dead on it just won’t run. Watch out for a few undertows up here.
- The beach break – The whole rest of Garcey is fair-game beach break. Waves here form and reform on a series of sandbars that take shape with tides and storms and whatnot. They basically define what you’ll get. Well, that and the swell size. Bigger days see Garcey’s beach break hold quite well but it will close out after like 9 foot. It’s really best as a mid-sized beach, when you can have fun A-frame wedges breaking all along.
Other surf spots close to Playa de Garcey
Playa de Garcey is kinda in between two other popular surf areas but it’s very isolated. If you’re going to come here – you need to commit. It’s like an hour’s drive from the nearest town in Ajuy, and usually even a bit more than that if you come up from La Pared.
- Ajuy – A small, sleepy town that I have a real soft spot for. Colorful houses, wild beach, historic port – yea, it’s cool. This is north of Playa de Garcey and has some okay-ish lefts that are tricky on its main beach. More advanced surfers only.
- La Pared – The main surf town on the south side of the island, La Pared is slowly coming into its own against places like Cotillo and Corralejo. It’s still v chill and has some nice beach breaks on its main stretch.
When to surf at Playa de Garcey?
The peak season in Playa de Garcey is the same as the peak season for the rest of Fuerteventura: October to March has the most reliable swells and lower winds, especially in the morning.
That said, because Playa de Garcey faces basically head-on into those Atlantic swell channels, it can hoover up loads of stuff – anything from SW to dead N can work. That means the summer can be great here, especially as E trade winds are nicely offshore here (the same winds that are onshore in Corralejo across the other side of the island).
The Shipwreck at Playa de Garcey
The locals call this one Shipwreck Beach because of the ruin of the American Star, an old ocean liner that had originally sailed as the SS America.
In 1994, while being towed to Thailand to become a floating hotel, it broke free in bad Atlantic weather and ran aground off Garcey.
Heavy surf quickly split the ship in two. The stern sank first, while the bow stayed visible for a while. You can’t really see it any more. Only on really low tides does it pop up, in the form of some rusting metal girders sticking from the water.
Where to stay for Playa de Garcey?
Honestly, I would stay in either the surf town of La Pared, or the fishing village of Ajuy. They both have their ups and downs. Ajuy is quieter but much more authentically Canarian, but also hard to reach. La Pared has more places to eat, a bit of a surf vibe, and is kinda easy to get to from the airport – it also has a few more hotel choices.
Here are the places I’d look to:
- House on the beach [Ajuy] – Wake up to seeing nothing but the Atlantic Ocean from this stunning modern apartment in the heart of little Ajuy. You can hear the waves from your bed and stroll out to hit the black-sand beach in seconds. Playa de Garcey is a drive south from here. Car needed.
- Gartenappartement – Tierra – Surf & Yoga Villa [La Pared] – A boho-styled surf apartment with fantastic views in the backstreets of La Pared. You can walk/fast drive to the local beach to surf, and it’s a good jumping off point for Playa de Garcey too.
We might use affiliate links in this post. Basically, you click em’ and we get a little something from your booking or purchase. They help us keep offering more and more in-depth surf guides to awesome places all around the globe. So, thanks for that!
