Grocery shopping in the Canary Islands
We have visited the biggest islands – Fuerteventura and Tenerife, and found plenty of vegan products in supermarkets. All about our vegan grocery shopping in the Canary Islands in this post!
In Fuerteventura, we stayed in apartments with a kitchen, which is always convenient – cook your own meals and avoid eating out all the time – saves you some money. During a 10-day period we visited a supermarket on two occasions to buy groceries. Boring details but if someone would like to know, here’s where we shopped and what we bought:
EUROSPAR:
The first shop stop after landing in Fuerteventura and picking up our rental car. It was the biggest supermarket on the main highway Fv-2 not far from the airport, inside Fuerteventura Atlantic Mall. The shop was easy to navigate, well- organised and spacious. It was not crowded when we were there so that made shopping for groceries less stressful. The fruits and veg section, always first.
I love seeing such a variety of fruits, we don’t see such in Finnish stores. I started to pile up stuff including some locally made jam (there was apricot, fig, aloe vera..). The fruits and vegetables weighing system was a bit different than in Finland. We had to gather our items and wait for a shop staff to come weigh and tag them for us. Other than that, it was easy to pick items and there were the regulars we stick to such as bread, oats, nuts, legumes, rice, pasta etc.
We didn’t find a specially marked bio or vegan products section but found the stock of plant milks and a good beans section. For cosmetics, Babaria brand has cruelty-free certification and you can find their products in most stores here.
Finally left with a few days worth of groceries. Also got a 8l bottle of mineral water (which lasted for about 4 days). Presented below is most of the rest. The canned ‘ Vietnamese curry vegano’ was strong-tasting – I didn’t like it too much. The Provamel bio oat drink is great, don’t think we’ve had that one before. Some whole grain bread, baked beans, tomato puree, baby corn, spinach, sundried tomatoes, potato chips snack.
HIPERDINO:
The next time we shopped for groceries was when we arrived at Corralejo. This time we went to the HiperDino – a chain of supermarkets which are found around the islands. I think they are pretty good for vegan grocery shopping in the Canary Islands. The HiperDino Dunas Corralejo was in a central square with open restaurants and tourist shops, with free parking.
It was also neat and well-organised and there was no trouble finding everything we needed. One thing was good about it – there was a great bio & eco products area which also included some processed vegan food items. ‘100% Vegetal’ label means it is plant-based!
If you’re looking for wine, it’s not easy to know which ones are vegan and you have to search for ones with the label. But there are always a couple of vegan wines found in store. We picked Vina Esmeralda that’s found in Finland too – a really good one, would recommend. Then, we picked up a few snacks for the beach – the Mios! chips were very tasty and had the V label. The guacamole and salsa found in the veggies section were vegan. There was a selection of nuts and dry fruits to choose from. I spotted some Solero dairy free ice cream but didn’t buy. All-in-all, a good place to shop for groceries.
We also shopped here on our latest visit to Fuerteventura (April 2022). We found bio seitan-tofu sausages and they were super good! Also, Bacardi and baked beans make a good combo, right?
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(jk!)
Points to remember when grocery shopping in the Canary Islands, Spain:
- Plenty of fruits and veggies.
- Vegan labelled products exist with the V symbol and ‘Vegano‘ written below it.
- Find vegan readymade items (e.g. tofu, seitan, burgers) at the bio section (not everything there is vegan though)
- 100% vegetal means it’s vegan (100% plant-based)
- ‘Sin’ – the word means ‘without’ something.
- ‘Leche’- means milk – referring to dairy milk.
- ‘Sin leche’ means that the product is dairy free.
- Bio label – the product is bio/organic.
- Almendras – Almond
- Avena – Oats
- Arroz – Rice
TENERIFE
We also stayed in Tenerife, the biggest of the Canary Islands and had no problems with finding vegan groceries. Again, there are HiperDino markets everywhere. We cooked spaghetti and paella which lasted over a couple of days. You can buy the paella spice mix from the store so it’s easy.
In El Medano, we also found a zero waste store Avellana Ecotienda! What’s more, we found a little vegan grocery store in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, called the Vegan Point – check it out!
Other stuff:
You will definitely see Canarian Aloe Vera products selling everywhere. I bought at least one 100ml aloe shampoo which was very nice! I would have liked to buy some body creams as well but I left with only the Babaria Cannabis seed oil hand cream. It was nice to see that many products had a cruelty-free label. If you want to shop for accessories and clothes I would recommend Koala Bay. I love the stuff they have at the shop in Morro Jable, plus good music playing, friendly staff, awesome clothes, shoes and accessories.
What did we eat out in Fuerteventura? – Find out on our post: VEGAN DINE OUTS IN FUERTEVENURA
OUR FAVOURITE RESOURCES FOR DINING AND TRAVEL PLANNING:
- Abillion – a vegan app with useful features like finding vegan dishes and products worldwide. Sign up for free with our invite code VEGANHAVEN. Add your own reviews to raise $ for donation to animal sanctuaries through the app.
- Booking.com* – a great, reliable resource to find plenty of hotels or apartments worldwide. Book your next stay through links on our pages!
- SkyScanner – useful for finding the best flight route and flight combinations for travels!
- GetYourGuide* – leading travel platform for booking tours, guided sightseeing and adventure activities at a destination. Search their online marketplace and find one to suit you!
*affiliate link
Last updated on October 27th, 2023
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