Decided to squeeze a little 17 day trip into the calendar and decided on the Canary island of Lanzarote. It’s quite an amazing place in terms of variety and landscape. Didn’t really know what to expect given that neither of us have been here before.
We’re staying at a place called Orzola which is a quiet fishing village on the north of the island. It’s a cheaper and less busy option than the resort towns in the south, but we’ve got a hire car and the roads are excellent so it’s easy to drive around the island. Overall the cost of our airbnb (which is very nice), flights and hire car has only cost us £1,700 for 17 days, not a bad deal I reckon.
So day 1 we headed off to find a supermarket and stock up, which we did at a very good Lidl in Costa Teguise. Then walked to the nearby beach in Orzola, Playa de la Canteria which is quite spectacular and enjoyed that for a couple of hours.
Day 2 we drove to a nearby beach just off the main road out of town, the LZ1, but before that we drove up to the highest point of the island to catch some spectacular views, Mirador del Rio, well worth a visit. The beach was lovely, lots of little bunkers have been built with the abundant black volcanic rocks, and they are dotted about amongst the lovely white sand. They provide a nice little sunbathing den to enjoy and shelter from the wind.
Day 3 we drove to the west coast via the old capital of the island Teguise to enjoy Playa Farmana, a large beach with loads of waves, very popular with surfers, but we found a lovely sheltered spot in the dunes for the day.
Day 4 we stayed local and spent the day on Playa de la Canteria, which is a 20 minute walk away. Again a beach with lots of waves, with a dramatic backdrop of volcanic mountains. Enjoy the images and video clips so far.
On day 5 it was a lovely calm and sunny day so we took the ferry across to the island of La Graciosa, which is about a 30 minute boat ride. It is only inhabited by about 170 people and is largely a tourist destination for trekking, cycling and beaches. We took a walk around the south western part of the island and ended up on a lovely little beach called Playa de le Cocina.
Day 6 we went to what we call our bunker beach just 5 minute drive down the coast.
Day 7 went out to do a bit of sight seeing but found out we needed to pre book tickets to visit the famous caves, and then the popular cactus garden was absolutely rammed, so we ended up going to costa Teguise, which is a fairly large resort town with some nice beaches. Quite a nice place so enjoyed the beach there and then stocked up at a nice big Lidl supermarket.
Day 8 we drove down to the south of the island and checked out a set of beaches known as the Papagoa area. Took just over an hour to get down there, but a very pleasant drive, plenty of spectacular volcanic landscape scenery. The beaches are well worth it. You have to pay a 3 euros fee to drive into the national park, which is where the beaches are situated, next to the popular resort of Playa Blanca.
Day 9 we went to a place called Timanfaya national park which is a must see place. We had to queue for about an hour to get into the car park, and then you are put on a bus and taken for a tour around some of this amazing park. The views and scenery are stunning, well worth the price of 22 euros.
After that we headed south again to a beach called Playa Mujeres, a very nice large golden sand beach with beautiful water to swim in and if you fance getting your kit off it is nudist friendly.
Demonstration of how hot the surface is just a few meters below ground at Timanfaya national park
On day 10 we drove to the old capital town of Teguise in the centre of the island. It was a Sunday and the town is famous for its Sunday market, the biggest on the island. It is worth a visit but go early to beat the crowds as it does get very busy from mid morning. We got there at 9.30 and parked nearby and strolled around for an hour or so before the crowds started to build up. The town itself is quite pretty by the way.
On day 11 we went to visit Jardin De Cactus which is quite unique and a very pretty walk around. Again go early because the crowds really build up.
After that we went back to Costa Teguise for a bit of beach time and a nice lunch.
Day 12 we went down south to Playa Mujeres again, just because the sun was out and it’s a very nice place to be.
On day 13 we stayed local but found a different bunker beach just before the one we’ve been going to, and arguably it’s even better. We found ourselves a lovely double bunker at the top of a slope with a beautiful view of the rocky cove below. It was quite windy today so that put us off attempting to get in the water, but the bunker did it’s job of giving us shelter.
On day 14 we were hit by storm Claudia which brought winds and rain for the whole day. Had a bit of a chill out morning, and did some exercise at home. Then the rain stopped for a bit so we drove to a lovely town called Haria, which is home to a museum that’s been created from a famous island resident artist, Cesar Manrique. He has been very instrumental in shaping the islands tourist industry, before his death in a car crash in 1992. It was a lovely place to stroll around, he obviously had great taste, and a fair bit of money by the looks of it.
We also went out for a long fairly boozy lunch at a restaurant in Orzola called La Maresia. The food was outstanding, and the owner was a lovely, friendly young man. Would highly recommend this place, but be warned it’s only a daytime restaurant, doesn’t open in the evenings
Day 15 the sun was back out so we decided to take one last drive down to Playa Mujeres, but we had a look at the iconic Playa Papagoa before hitting our beach. It did look lovely but gets rather crowded.
On the way home we drove through the islands winery area which is very interesting. They grow the vines in little round circles of volcanic rock. It’s hard to understand how they manage to produce enough grapes to make the quantity of wine that they do. We stopped at a Bodega to have a look around, they are very nice, and popular with tourists.
Day 16 was lovely again so we went back to our second bunker beach called Caleta Del Mojon Blanco, and enjoyed another delightful day.
Our last day was a cloudy damp day unfortunately, but we had tickets for the Cueva de los Verdes (caves) in the morning, and they were absolutely amazing. It’s a really worthwhile thing to see and well worth the ticket price of 16.50 euros. After that we went back to Costa Teguise hoping the weather would improve, but unfortunately it didn’t so our last afternoon was spent in our apartment. We are going out for dinner tonight though so looking forward to that.
