A road winding through Lanzarote's volcanic landscape
Canary Islands · Lanzarote

Lanzarote

Black lava fields, whitewashed houses with green shutters, and a building code that has kept it low-rise for fifty years. The most distinctive-looking island in the Atlantic.

Flight4h · ACE
Stay7 nights
Best monthsYear-round
Guide pricefrom £389pp

One architect shaped the whole island

César Manrique fought off high-rise development in the 1960s, and Lanzarote still looks like nowhere else.

Buildings are capped at two or three storeys, painted white with green or blue woodwork, and there are almost no billboards. The result is an island that looks deliberate rather than developed — black volcanic ground, white villages, and a series of visitor sites Manrique carved into lava tubes and craters. It's the Canary island to choose if the standard resort strip is what puts you off.

What to do

A volcano park, four Manrique sites, and beaches on two very different coasts.

Timanfaya

Three hundred craters from the 1730s eruptions. Coach tour only through the fire mountains, and geothermal heat cooks food at the restaurant.

Jameos del Agua

Manrique's concert hall and pool inside a lava tube, with blind albino crabs in the underground lake. Extraordinary.

Papagayo beaches

A string of sheltered golden coves on the southern tip, just east of Playa Blanca, reached by dirt track. The best swimming on the island.

La Geria

Vines grown in individual pits dug into black ash, each shielded by a stone wall. A wine region that looks like a moonscape.

Mirador del Río

A Manrique viewpoint cut into a 400m cliff, looking across to La Graciosa. Best in the morning light.

La Graciosa

A 25-minute ferry to an island with sand streets and no tarmac roads. A proper day trip.

Where to stay

Three main resorts, all on the sheltered south and east coasts.

Puerto del Carmen

Main resort

The longest beach strip, most restaurants, and the widest hotel choice. Lively without being brash.

Playa Blanca

South & smart

Calmest water, best-kept, and closest to the Papagayo beaches. Where we send couples.

Costa Teguise

Family & windy

Good value and family-focused. Breezier — which is why the windsurfers are here.

Inland villages

Quiet & local

Yaiza, Haría and Teguise. Rural houses, no beach, and a hire car essential.

Five things worth knowing

When to go

Warm and dry all year, with more wind than its neighbours and less rain than almost anywhere.

Winter sits at 21–22°C with sea around 19°C. Summer reaches 27–28°C, and the wind that makes it breezy also keeps it comfortable. It's one of the driest inhabited places in Europe — rainfall is minimal in any month. Spring and autumn are the value windows and the calmest for wind.

Practical

Airport

Arrecife (ACE), 10–25 minutes from the three main resorts. Among the shortest transfers in Europe.

Time zone

Same as the UK all year.

Currency

Euro, with the Canaries' lower VAT rate.

Car hire

Cheap, easy and worth it. Roads are good, distances short, and the island is only 60km long.

Tell us your dates

We'll match the resort to what you want — calm, lively or rural — and price the neighbouring islands alongside.

Questions people ask

Which resort is best?

Playa Blanca for calm and quality, Puerto del Carmen for choice and restaurants, Costa Teguise for value and watersports.

Is it too windy?

Breezier than Tenerife or Gran Canaria, particularly on north-facing coasts. The southern resorts are sheltered and it's rarely a problem there.

Do we need a car?

For two or three days, yes. The Manrique sites, Timanfaya and La Geria are what make Lanzarote different and they're spread across the island.

Is it good for children?

Yes — short transfers, calm beaches at Playa Blanca, and Aquapark at Costa Teguise. The volcanic sites are more interesting to older children.

You might also like

Lanzarote packages

Flights, accommodation and transfers as one package. Every one can be reshaped — different dates, different board, a different airport, or a stopover on the way.

7 nights in Lanzarote

All inclusive · Nov–Mar
  • Return flights and private transfers
  • All inclusive throughout
  • What protection applies, confirmed in writing before you pay
from £449per person

10 nights in Lanzarote

All inclusive · Nov–Mar
  • Return flights and private transfers
  • All inclusive throughout
  • The extra nights cost proportionally less — fixed costs don't change
from £569per person

14 nights in Lanzarote

Half board · Nov–Mar
  • Return flights and private transfers
  • Half board throughout
  • Best value per night
from £679per person

Guide prices, per person, based on two sharing, including return flights, accommodation and transfers. They indicate what a holiday of this type has typically cost and are not an offer or a quotation. Your price depends on dates, party, board basis, departure airport and availability, and is confirmed in writing before any payment is taken.

Multi-centre itineraries we arrange

We don't currently run a ready-built itinerary that includes Lanzarote, but these are the multi-centre trips people ask about most — and we can build one around Lanzarote on request. Flights, transfers and internal hops booked as one package, with what protection applies, confirmed in writing before you pay.

See all 33 multi-centre itineraries →