Betancuria, Fuerteventura — Is The Old Capital Worth It?

Fuerteventura's inland villages and the historic capital of Betancuria offer the best way to escape the crowded resorts and discover the island's true history. Most people stick to the coast when they visit Fuerteventura, but heading into the volcanic interior reveals a completely different island. I drove away from the beaches to explore the quiet, overlooked towns that most tourists miss. The journey starts at La Ampuyenta, a village home to a massive hospital funded by Tomás Mena y Mesa that miraculously never opened, before moving on to Antigua. Antigua is famously library-quiet—a stark, green contrast to the arid coast, known locally as the place to 'find God and eat cheese.' The real highlight of the drive is navigating the mountain roads to the Mirador de Guise y Ayose, where massive bronze statues of pre-conquest kings overlook the valleys, leading straight down into Betancuria. Founded in the 1400s by Jean de Béthencourt, this former capital was built deep in a mountain valley specifically to defend against marauding pirates. We explore the fortified Iglesia de Santa María—a hybrid church and castle—and take in the precarious mountain views at the Mirador de las Peñitas. If you're tired of the typical resort holiday and want to find the actual soul of the Canary Islands, let me know in the comments which of these hidden villages you'd head to first. Don't forget to subscribe for more unfiltered European travel. Chapters: 0:00 - Why I left the Fuerteventura coastal resorts behind 0:39 - La Ampuyenta: The Fuerteventura hospital that never opened 1:30 - Why Antigua is Fuerteventura's quietest village 2:30 - The 15th-century giant kings at Mirador de Guise y Ayose 3:03 - Betancuria: The mountain fortress built to survive pirates 5:50 - The Fuerteventura mountain views at Mirador de las Peñitas 6:00 - The verdict: Is the inland road trip better than the beach? #Fuerteventura #Betancuria #CanaryIslands ━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━━ Read the full written guide: https://allout.travel/blog/betancuria...