The Orchid House is the park's most spectacular indoor space and the one most visitors talk about afterwards. It holds the largest orchid collection in the Canary Islands: thousands of specimens from across the globe, growing together in a climate-controlled glasshouse that keeps the right conditions year-round. The variety is extraordinary, from small and pale and barely-there to broad-leaved, vividly coloured specimens that look like something from a botanical illustration. Give this one more time than you think it needs.

Palmitos Park's aviary is a free-flight environment, which means the birds are not in cages. You walk into the enclosure and the birds move through the space around you, perching on branches overhead, landing on the paths nearby, going about their lives in a way that does not involve performing for visitors. The species represented span multiple continents and cover the full range of the colour spectrum. It is one of the most immediately striking things in the park.

The park's name is not accidental. The palm collection at Palmitos has been built over decades and sourced from across the world, which means you will find species here that you would not encounter elsewhere in the Canary Islands. The palms give the ravine its defining visual character: tall, various, and genuinely impressive in scale as the older specimens have had time to reach their full height.

The open-air cactus collection is one of those sections of the park that surprises people who are not expecting it. Some of the specimens have been growing here long enough to reach heights that stop you mid-path. The collection spans a wide range of species and is laid out across a section of the ravine where the terrain adds some natural drama to the scale of the plants.

The park's lake is shared by two animals that represent very different stories. The Spectacled Caiman is native to Central and South America, a crocodilian that spends most of its time motionless near the water's edge with a stillness that can make it genuinely difficult to spot. The Canary Island Lizard is an endemic species found naturally only on Gran Canaria, which gives its presence here an extra significance. The lake environment feels unhurried and genuinely natural, which is part of what makes this section of the park linger in the memory.

The trails that connect Palmitos Park's various sections are botanical in their own right, lined with subtropical plants native to the Canary Islands and to other subtropical regions of the world. The ravine setting means the paths rise and descend as they move through the park, which keeps the experience feeling like an exploration rather than a circuit. Many of the plants along the trails are labelled, which rewards visitors who take their time.

The park's Dolphin Encounter is an educational programme run by the team at Palmitos, built around genuine interaction with the resident dolphins rather than a choreographed show. It is not included in the entry ticket and cannot be booked in advance from outside the park; once you are inside, the team will brief you on the day's activities and help you make a reservation. Places are limited, which keeps the groups small and the experience meaningful. It costs extra, but for most visitors it becomes the part of the day they remember most.