What to do in Lanzarote (with Map) 🇮🇨

By Roberto (Updated Nov 22)

⏱ 6 min

Why visit Lanzarote?

Before asking what to do in Lanzarote, I’d like to mention why you should visit this island. Simply, you’ll fall in love in Lanzarote if you appreciate or are looking for:

• A unique island with its own personality
• Volcanic landscape
• A varied trip, with many small stops
• Good food and aesthetic roads
• Some small beaches

On the contrary, I would suggest checking other destination in case you are expecting to find:

• Paradisiacal beaches
• Huge resorts with full-included
• Crazy parties

For us, Lanzarote is unique in many aspects but the main highlight is being in and around volcanoes. Those dark mountains at the background everywhere will stay in your memory forever. In addition, the island can be explored in some days and it offers a decent amount of plans and locations to visit. So yes! we really recommend its visit. =)

How many days do you need to visit Lanzarote?

Unless you are a volcano enthusiast or want to discover all the places in the island, we would suggest that 3 to 5 full days are enough to discover the island. In our case, we spent a 3 and a half days in a non-strop trip, and visited many things in the island.

What to do in Lanzarote?

It’s hard to make a top things to do in Lanzarote list, but there are some MUST things to do in our opinion. Following a South to North location, we strongly recommend visiting the following places.

Playa del Papagayo

For us, the best beach in Lanzarote is, without hesitation, Playa del Papagayo. It’s a sandy beach with incredible blue water in a shell shape protected by rocky cliffs. The water, if cold, remains calm and swimming is safe.

Since the beach is a bit isolated, is not so crowded, and the views from the top of the lookout are stunning. Definitely you should spend a couple of hours here. Getting here takes around 50 min from Arrecife.

Los Hervideros

A must stop in a What to do in Lanzarote list, is a visit to Los Hervideros (the boilers). It’s hard to explain the concept but imagine abrupt volcanic coves with holes where the waves come in and out, and make huge noises with the splashes.

The terrain is SO unique, it’s free and the atmosphere and landscape around it are very particular. We encourage to go there around golden hour, to take some pictures around instagrammable roads and volcanic rocks.

Also, next to it there is the famous Lago Verde or Green Lake. A volcanic lake that is green due to the sulphuric chemicals. We ended our evening there with a nice sunset.

Timanfaya National Park by foot or bus

A top thing to do in Lanzarote is a visit to Timanfaya National Park. There are two options to do this, either visit the park by foot or by bus. We have a dedicated post talking about this with detail.

We absolutely recommend its visit, because it has some of the best conserved volcanoes and lava in the island. The road LZ-67, that goes from Yaiza to Mancha Blanca, is one of the most beautiful roads I’ve ever driven.

Caldera Blanca Hike

Consider visiting Caldera Blanca in case you want an easy-medium difficulty hike that bring you to the top of the biggest crater on the island. The walk to the bottom of the crater goes trough lava rocks and information boards and brings you to a huge crater. Both the views and the experience are worth the visit and it’s a good plan to fill some hours. It takes 2-4 hours, depending on the length of the route you want to do.

Cueva de los Verdes

Located on the north of the island, this unique place offers a visit to the interior of a volcanic cave. Inside, they offer an explanation about its origin and its use. Make sure to go during the Visiting hours (10.00  –  16.00) otherwise you’ll miss the chance like us! We didn’t visit this location but saw pictures from friends and everyone says there’s a charming view.

La Graciosa

Some people say that a visit to Lanzarote without exploring La Graciosa is not a complete visit. I’d say that if you have a day to spend in your agenda, then go ahead 😎. It’s a nice plan to spend a full morning and part of the evening discovering the island.

The visit to La Graciosa includes taking a ferry from Lanzarote, riding bikes around the island, and chill at some locations. We’ll dedicate a full post soon to this plan.

Mirador del Río / Nahum

Both places are lookouts located on the north of the island that face to La Graciosa. If you get a clear sky the views over the island are epic. Mirador del Río costs 5€ while Mirador de Nahum offers basically the same exact views but is free. Moreover is located just 100 meters from the other! Don’t pay for Mirador del Río and keep your money for another site.

Note: some of the different plans in Lanzarote have a 5€ entrance fee if you buy the ticket separately. In case you know the places you want to visit, buy the “combo” ticket from one of the official websites to get a discount.

More things to do in Lanzarote

In case you are staying more than 3 days or want other ideas about what to do in Lanzarote, we have other extra plans. We have them all in our What to do in Lanzarote map:

Puerto del Carmen

A touristic, yet cute, town on the South East coast of Lanzarote. Puerto del Carmen has tons of restaurants, stores and accommodation options. We were a bit shocked when saw all the English Breakfast options they had. It was even hard to find a local bar. We stayed at the AirBnB Casa Lomaverde, with a great location and views of Playa del Carmen.

One restaurant that we loved was La Chalana, with unbeatable quality/price local food and huge portions. The octopus and the papas arrugás were super delicious.

Jameos del Agua

We didn’t visit this natural space that is another volcanic cave with decoration from César Manrique. With a unique blind crab specie and some pools, this place offers an interesting stop where you can learn about the concepts of nature and art integrated.

Playa de Famara

Playa de Famara is probably the best beach for sunset photos in Lanzarote. It’s a long beach where the mountain meets the ocean and the atmosphere is quite relaxing.

While it’s not an epic beach for swimming, grabbing some beers and laying on the sand there sounds like a good plan. In addition, there is another lookout called Mirador Risco de Famara with amazing views of the beach.

Las Grietas

Located more or less in the middle of the island, next to Montaña Blanca, Las Grietas have become quite popular. They are a picturesque Instagrammable spot, with huge and long cracks in rocks, on the ladder of the mountain. There is no exact place since there are so many grietas. Park your car around the location in Google Maps, and have a walk through the cracks. I recommend using a wide lens for the pictures for the wow factor.

Scuba Dive

Lanzarote has a number of dive sites accessible by boat or from the shore. There are dive sites suitable for all levels of divers. The underwater topography of Lanzarote is unique, made up of rock and volcanic formations.

You can expect to see a variety of marine life including macro life like nudibranches and seahorses, and larger fish like Angel sharks, groupers, and various rays. One of the most visited sites is Playa Blanca, where you can also see the Museo Atlantico, an underwater museum.

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