LANZAROTE · CANARY ISLANDS
Volcanoes, vineyards, and Manrique’s island.
Timanfaya’s fire mountains, the lava-tube caves at Jameos del Agua, vines grown in black ash at La Geria, the empty beaches of La Graciosa and the golden coves of Papagayo. Lanzarote, the way travellers actually walk it.
Only on Lanzarote
Three things you can’t do anywhere else.
Beach days and boat hops exist on every Canary Island. These three don’t. A national park where the ground is still hot under your feet, a concert hall inside a lava tube, a vineyard planted into volcanic ash. Each is specific to this one island in the Atlantic. Plan the rest of the trip around them.
On the volcanoes
Driving into Timanfaya
The only national park in Spain where the ground a few metres down is still 400°C. At the El Diablo viewpoint they pour water into a borehole and it shoots back up as a column of steam, then drop brushwood into a pit and it ignites on contact. The malpais beyond the road is the youngest landscape in the Canaries.
- 1 Lanzarote: Timanfaya National Park Volcanic Craters Tour
- 2 Arrecife: Timanfaya and Green Lagoon for Cruise Passengers
- 3 Lanzarote: Timanfaya Park and Jameos del Agua Full-Day Tour
Inside the lava
The Concert Hall in a Lava Tube
César Manrique took a collapsed volcanic tube the length of six kilometres and turned the open chambers into a saltwater pool, a tropical garden, and an auditorium that still hosts concerts. The natural lagoon between the caves is home to the only blind, albino crab in the world, endemic to this single lava tube.
- 1 Lanzarote: Timanfaya Park, Jameos Agua, & Cueva Verdes Tour
- 2 Tour to Timanfaya, Jameos del Agua, Cueva de los Verdes and viewpoint from the cliff
- 3 Lanzarote: Jameos del Agua & North Island for Cruise Guests
In the vineyards
Vines Grown in Volcanic Ash
La Geria is the only wine region on earth where every vine sits inside its own crater dug into black lapilli, walled with a semi-circle of basalt stone to block the trade winds. The Malvasía grapes draw moisture from the ash itself. The result reads as desert farmland; the wine reads as bright and mineral.
- 1 Lanzarote: Timanfaya National Park & La Geria Tour
- 2 Lanzarote: Vineyard Tour with Wine and Chocolate Tasting
- 3 Wine Lovers: Wine Tasting Tour at El Grifo Bodega Lanzarote
Where everyone starts
If you only have one day on Lanzarote.
Day trips here circle the volcanic core. Start with the one most travellers book first.
The classics
Lanzarote’s Most Popular Day Tours
Timanfaya, Jameos del Agua, La Graciosa, La Geria. The day trips Lanzarote is built around.
The Manrique Trail
The island Manrique built.
César Manrique was the local artist who fought to keep Lanzarote from becoming Tenerife. Lava tubes turned into concert halls. Volcanic caves turned into restaurants. The white-walls-blue-shutters rule that still governs every building on the island. These are the four pieces of his work worth seeing first.
By place
Pick a corner of Lanzarote.
Each place is its own day. Puerto del Carmen for the resort strip. Costa Teguise for the calm bays. Famara for the surf and the cliffs. La Graciosa for the empty Atlantic. Papagayo for the golden coves. El Golfo for the green crater.
By tour type
Or pick how you want to spend the day.
Buggy if you want the malpais under the wheels. Volcano hikes if you want it under your boots. Sailing if you want the island from the Atlantic. Wine tours if you want vines in black ash. Take your pick.
Out on the water
Lanzarote from the Atlantic.
Dolphin pods off the south coast, sunset hops out of Puerto del Carmen, day cruises to La Graciosa. The three we’d book first when the wind drops.
On the malpais
The visceral way to see the volcanoes.
Open-cab buggies and Polaris slingshots cut through the lava fields outside the protected park boundary. Dust, wind, no glass between you and the malpais. Our shortlist when you don’t want to walk it.
Lanzarote’s nearest islands
Day trips off the main island.
La Graciosa for the empty Atlantic beaches, Isla de Lobos for the dunes and snorkelling lagoons, Fuerteventura for the southern sand belt. Three boats worth a full day off Lanzarote.
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