Fuerteventura News & Things Worth Knowing

Flights: two new UK routes for the winter season

From 13 December 2026, British Airways operates a direct scheduled service between Fuerteventura and London Heathrow (Terminal 5) — a first in the island's history, and a genuine scheduled route rather than a seasonal charter. Flight BA413 runs twice a week, on Thursdays and Sundays, through to 11 April 2027, replacing the airline's previous Gatwick service.

The switch from Gatwick to Heathrow matters more than it sounds. It plugs the island into a global hub, which changes the picture for anyone connecting from North America, Asia or a UK regional airport, and it puts Fuerteventura on the same footing as the Canary destinations that have long had a Heathrow link. For a direct flight to Fuerteventura from London, it is the option to check first for winter 2026-2027.

Further north, easyJet opens a new seasonal route between Newcastle and Fuerteventura from 25 October 2026, operating twice a week as part of the expansion of its new base at Newcastle airport. That is one more northern English city with a direct winter link to the island, and one less reason to drive south to Manchester or fly via a Spanish hub.

Rules: a first legal framework in the pipeline for campervans

In late July 2026, the Canary Islands government sent a draft decree to its advisory council covering the archipelago's open-air accommodation: campsites, motorhome areas and similar sites. It is a draft, not a law — the text is still working its way through the administrative process and has not come into force. Until it is published, the current rules apply: parking is free wherever a car may park, and camping outside the few designated areas is banned.

The text does show the direction of travel for campervan rules in the Canary Islands. As drafted, it would explicitly ban free camping for tourism purposes, cap stays on any single motorhome area at six months, and set out across eighteen articles the conditions — available surface area, compulsory services — required to open a site.

For anyone planning a van trip this winter, the practical consequence is straightforward: nothing changes right now, but the idea of an archipelago where you can pull up anywhere is already history and will soon be so in writing. The part worth watching is not the ban, which is broadly enforced already, but the licensing side of the text: that is what will determine whether the number of official service areas, currently very low in Fuerteventura, eventually grows.

Budget: still no tourist tax in Fuerteventura

It is one of the most common questions before departure, and the answer has not changed: there is no tourist tax in Fuerteventura, or anywhere else in the Canary Islands, at the time of writing. The regional government has ruled the option out of its programme. Nothing is added to your hotel bill, unlike Barcelona, the Balearics and much of the Mediterranean.

One nuance is worth knowing, because it is regularly mistaken for a general tourist levy: Tenerife's island council has confirmed an eco-fee from 2026 for non-resident visitors entering Teide National Park. It is a charge for access to one specific natural site, on a different island, and it does not apply to Fuerteventura.

The wider debate remains open across the archipelago: the idea of a tourist contribution comes back regularly in the Canarian press, and the Teide example shows that a targeted measure can move faster than a general tax. This is the page to check before you finalise a budget.

Dining: Fuerteventura is back in the Michelin Guide

In July 2026, El Pellizco, in Costa Calma, entered the Michelin Guide's "new additions" selection. It marks Fuerteventura's return to the guide after a decade with no listed address on the island. The restaurant is run by chef-owner Rigoberto Almeida and serves Cuban-Canarian fusion cooking.

The news matters beyond one address. Fuerteventura carries a reputation as an island of beaches and all-inclusive packages, rarely mentioned for its food, unlike Tenerife or Lanzarote. A Michelin listing — in a southern resort town, no less — changes how the island can be pitched to a traveller still weighing it up, and gives something concrete to those who also book for the table.

How this page is kept up to date

Every week we go through the Canarian press and official sources — the Canary Islands government, the Cabildo of Fuerteventura, airport and ferry operators — looking for what genuinely affects a traveller. A fact only reaches this page if it is confirmed by several independent sources or by an official one, and if it stays true for months: a new route, a change in the rules, a tax, a distinction, a site opening or closing.

Everything else is deliberately left out. No weather bulletin, no crime report, no one-off event that has already been and gone: that kind of content expires within days and helps nobody plan a trip. Seasonal patterns are not published here either — they go into our permanent pages, where they are useful at the moment someone is searching.

When a fact bears directly on one section of the guide, it is not just summarised here: it is also written into the relevant page, exactly where it informs a decision. The last-reviewed date shown on each page tells you when that was last done.

Explore further

Each fact summarised above is covered in full in the matching section of the guide: