Lanzarote Holiday & Beach Guides & Photos.

Lanzarote is a particularly unusual and scenic Canary Island with plenty to do on holiday with it's excellent beaches, great sightseeing and lovely Lanzarote weather.

When we last went on a holiday to Lanzarote we stayed at Playa Blanca. It is amazing how much building is going on now - mostly apartments and small houses for sale - the Playa Blanca we knew from a couple of years ago has disappeared under a lot of concrete and from the look of the marked out areas on it's outskirts it is going to get a whole lot bigger yet.
That said, most of the building is very low level and a lot of trouble has been taken to plant shrubs to keep the area as nice as possible. This building craze also seems to be applied to Puerto del Carmen, Teguise and in fact most of Lanzarote's villages and towns - thank goodness various areas of the island have been designated Parks etc which will preclude building encroachment - hopefully. Another thing we noticed whilst on holiday on Lanzarote was that (apart from the Parks like Timanfaya and Monumento Natural de los Ajaches) quite a lot of the tracks we knew of on our previous visit have been tarmac'd over which is a shame if you like track-walking but probably good news for hire-car companies.

Lanzarote Car Hire: The Canary Islands are pretty cheap for hire cars and Lanzarote seems to still be one of the cheapest. We got a newish Golf Polo for 10 days for 190 Euros including full cover insurance and cdw etc. - it is worth checking a couple of hire places out to compare though since the first one we tried was 80 Euros dearer than that - also of course you may find even cheaper deals before you go out to Lanzarote by booking your car on the web. (The prices have probably gone up somewhat from those mentioned.)

Driving on Lanzarote: As previously mentioned many of the Island's tracks have been surfaced now however the roads tend to be pretty quiet away from the main tourist spots. In fact only around Puerto del Carmen and of course Arecife was traffic found to be particularly heavy. Driving across the lava fields is now not too bad, the roads have been mostly marked on the sides with large lumps of lava/rock so you are not so aware of the sometimes deep drops awaiting you should you go too far right when an angry bus heads at high speed towards you..., Timanfaya roads are also pretty wide now and ok to drive with ease. However the road through La Geria which passes through the grape vine fields (out of Uga northwest) is remarkably narrow in places and certainly does have some nice deep drops on the sides to welcome you should you wish to visit them.

Lanzarote Restaurants. We found several good restaurants along the front at Playa Blanca - actually for the size of the place there are not that many to chose from - anyway we found the food nicely cooked - and big plate full of it, friendly waiters, good wine and lots of menu choice - typically a main meal with a bit of bread and a jug of house wine (or bottle of local wine) was around 30 Euros for the two of us. Many meals come with chips as standard but you can ask for either canary potatoes or jacket potatoes plus vegetables instead thank goodness.

Lanzarote walking and hiking: We enjoyed a few walks whilst on our Lanzarote holiday - there are plenty of paths and tracks to walk on Lanzarote - we managed about 120 miles of walking (and took many photos..) during our couple of weeks holiday and that only within quite small parts of the island. There were loads more tracks we just did not have the time for. The walks vary from circular to end-to-end, are from just a few kms to around 20 km, and go from coastline following i.e. fairly flat to walks involving sometimes quite steep climbs. We tried where possible to stay off tarmac but as mentioned above the continued surfacing of tracks means at times normal roads had to be used for a part of some of the walks. We have included some GPS readings (Lat/Lon) at various locations for those who like to play around with Magellans etc. using WGS84. It is worth taking a look at our walks since even if you don't like hiking too much there are lots of photographs showing the various features seen around the walk locations.

Photos and holiday guide about several of Lanzarote's excellent Beaches.

Probably the best Lanzarote holiday beaches in the south are just outside of Playa Blanca with Playa de Papagayo beach probably being the most well known, but also check out the others nearby like Mujeres and Pozo.
There is now a charge for vehicles to enter Monumento Natural de los Ajaches where these Lanzarote beaches are located which is just a few Euros - this area is track only and the surfaces are extremely rough but perfectly possible with a hire car - the way in is to go down to the Playa Blanca - Femes roundabout and in you bump from there.

The other Lanzarote beach we have always loved to go to is up the other side of the island at Playa de Famara - you can use the beach which runs alongside the road (have never seen any naturists here by the way and since many locals seem to use it as well as families I am not sure stripping off here would wise?). However you can drive further along the road towards the cliffs, then take the left hand fork which soon passes houses on the left - at the end of the road the tarmac ends nearly under the cliffs and the (now) track goes sharply left - follow this incredibly bumpy track down and around and you come to another part of the beach right under the very high cliffs. This end of the beach area is really wild looking - there are lots of rock wind-breaks which you can use to stay out of the wind - and around here stripping off is fine is you so wish. The only exception to using Playa de Famara beach for naturists is possibly on Friday afternoons and through weekends when the local Islanders descend onto the beach complete with their tents and barbeQs (plus a granny or two) - often to stay for the weekend.

El Golfo
Lanzarote

El Golfo beach

Green water at El Golfo

El Golfo beach, Lanzarote

Lanzarote, Papagayo Beaches

A Papagayo Beach

Small cove - Papagayo

Papagayo Coastal Area

Mujeres and Pozo beaches all seemed to be mixed bathing i.e. you could be just in your skin or wear an overcoat. A boat ferry operates from Playa Blanca to Papagayo beach leaving several times a day, otherwise unless you are prepared to walk to those beaches you have to drive to them.

Playa de Famara

Playa de Famara

Playa de Famara

Playa Blanca Beach

Playa de Puerto Muelas

Playa Dorada Beach

Playa Madera beach

Playa Mujeres Beach

Bahia de Penedo Beach

The Beach at La Graciosa

La Graciosa beach

Playa Pozos beach

Malpais Corona coast beaches

Malpais Corona beach

Beautiful beaches at Malpais Corona

As we hiked around Lanzarote we took quite a few photographs associated with the various walks instructions and these can be seen via our "Lanzarote Walks" topic. Below are a few other photos taken whilst we were driving around the island which we hope may be of interest as well for possible places to visit.

Salinas de Janubio (saltplans). It is easy to spend hours meandering around here, not only because of the good black sandy beaches for sunbathing but also to wander round the old saltpans and have a look inside the now disused buildings (several of which still have various bits and pieces of pumping machinery remaining inside them).

Salinas de Janubio - Lanzarote

Coastal area beside the saltpans

Surprising colourful saltpans

Salinas de Janubio - Lanzarote

Several of the pumphouses and buildings

Salt is still being taken out.

Pump machinery inside the pumphouse

View from inside a pumphouse

The saltpans occupy a huge area.

There are plenty of lizards and birds that have made the area around the saltpans their home too. Salinas de Janubio's saltpans are still actively worked.

Los Hervidores. This is where you can watch the sea crashing into and through rock blowholes (this obviously only when the sea is reasonably rough and the waves are arriving at the ideal angle).

El Golfo. These photographs below are from the really unusual location of El Golfo and it's surrounding area. The deep green looking water in the mini-lagoon down on the beach is really this colour - the green comes from the algae. Certainly this mixture seems to suit the fairly large fish which you can see swimming around in the lagoon.

La Geria - these pictures above and right were taken from inside Lanzarote's Parque Natural de los Volcanos - Timanfaya area - there are lots of lava fields and craters to be looked around and the colours are amazing at times. When you get a contrast of a brooding angry looking crater or volcanic cone with a cloudy sky behind it the views are spectacular.

Lanzarote - Teguise.
These are some photographs which were taken in and around Teguise. It's a really pretty little - normally peacefull - Lanzarote town and pleasant to walk round - however it's worth noting that on Sundays there is a large market which is located in the town's church square. Therefore the roads in and around Teguise become incredibly busy - so it can take ages just to get through the traffic chaos and manage to find a parking space.
Apart from the local islanders going there for the market you will also find lots of holidaymakers around who are ferried in on coach trips as part of the "round the island" day trips and escursions.

Our other Lanzarote Topics: - Lanzarote Holiday Walks and Lanzarote Volcanic Area Walks.
Please also take a look at our Canary Islands Home Page for topics on Gran Canaria holidays and Fuerteventura holidays and beaches.