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.
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.
A volcano park, four Manrique sites, and beaches on two very different coasts.
Three hundred craters from the 1730s eruptions. Coach tour only through the fire mountains, and geothermal heat cooks food at the restaurant.
Manrique's concert hall and pool inside a lava tube, with blind albino crabs in the underground lake. Extraordinary.
A string of sheltered golden coves in the south-east, reached by dirt track. The best swimming on the island.
Vines grown in individual pits dug into black ash, each shielded by a stone wall. A wine region that looks like a moonscape.
A Manrique viewpoint cut into a 400m cliff, looking across to La Graciosa. Best in the morning light.
A 25-minute ferry to an island with sand streets and no tarmac roads. A proper day trip.
Three main resorts, all on the sheltered south and east coasts.
The longest beach strip, most restaurants, and the widest hotel choice. Lively without being brash.
Calmest water, best-kept, and closest to the Papagayo beaches. Where we send couples.
Good value and family-focused. Breezier — which is why the windsurfers are here.
Yaiza, Haría and Teguise. Rural houses, no beach, and a hire car essential.
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.
Arrecife (ACE), 10–25 minutes from the three main resorts. Among the shortest transfers in Europe.
Same as the UK all year.
Euro, with the Canaries' lower VAT rate.
Cheap, easy and worth it. Roads are good, distances short, and the island is only 60km long.
We'll match the resort to what you want — calm, lively or rural — and price the neighbouring islands alongside.
Playa Blanca for calm and quality, Puerto del Carmen for choice and restaurants, Costa Teguise for value and watersports.
Breezier than Tenerife or Gran Canaria, particularly on north-facing coasts. The southern resorts are sheltered and it's rarely a problem there.
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.
Yes — short transfers, calm beaches at Playa Blanca, and Aquapark at Costa Teguise. The volcanic sites are more interesting to older children.
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.
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.
Ready-built itineraries with flights, transfers and internal hops booked as one package, ATOL protected. Every one can be reshaped around your dates.
10 nights · May–Jun, Sep–Oct · from £1,449pp
11 nights · May–Jun, Sep · from £1,149pp
10 nights · Mar–May, Sep–Nov · from £849pp
11 nights · Apr, Oct · from £2,699pp
12 nights · Jun–Oct, Jan–Feb · from £3,399pp
12 nights · Jul–Oct · from £3,099pp
11 nights · Jun–Oct, Dec–Feb · from £1,799pp
11 nights · Nov–Apr · from £2,199pp
