We last went on holiday to Lanzarote in February 2004 having found a nice last minute deal on the web, and stayed at Playa Blanca. 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 time for.
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 of
course probably good news if you actually live there or you run a hire-car business.
Lanzarote walking and hiking: We did a few walks whilst on holiday - and have described eleven of them below with thumb nailed photos to go alongside. 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.
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
insurance - 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.
Driving: As previously mentioned
many of the tracks have been surfaced now, the roads tend to be pretty
quiet away from the tourist spots, and only around Puerto del Carmen and
of course Arecife was traffic found to be 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 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.
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.
The really nice beaches in the south are just outside of Playa Blanca - Playa de Papagayo probably being the most
well known, but also check out the others nearby like Mujeres and Pozo.
They all seemed to be mixed bathing i.e. you could be nude or in an
overcoat - up to you with nobody getting excited either way. There is a
boat ferry service from Playa Blanca to Papagayo leaving several times a
day, otherwise unless you are prepared to walk to the beaches then you have to drive to them.
There is now a charge for vehicles to enter Monumento Natural de los Ajaches where the beaches are located which is 3 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 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 nudists 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 here going nude is fine. The only
exception to using this beach for nudists is possibly on Friday afternoons
and weekends when the local Islanders descend onto the beach complete with
their tents and barbeQs - often to stay for the weekend.
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| El Golfo | El Golfo Beach | El Golfo - Lanzarote | El Golfo |
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| Papagaya | Papagaya | Papagaya | Papagaya beaches |
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| Playa de Famara | Playa de Famara | Playa de Famara | Playa Blanca Beach |
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| Playa de Puerto Muelas | Playa Dorada | Playa Madera | Playa Mujeres |
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| Bahia De Penedo beach | La Graciosa beach | La Graciosa beach | Playa Pozos |
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| Malpais Corona coast | Malpais Corona | Malpais Corona |
As we hiked around Lanzarote we took lots of photos associated with the various walks and these can be seen via our "walks" menu higher up this page. Below are a few other photos taken whilst we were driving around which we hope may be of interest as well.
Salinas de Janubio (saltplans) It is easy to spend hours round here, not only because of the black sandy beach for sunbathing but also to wander round the old saltpans and have a look inside the now disused buildings (which still have various pumping machinery inside). There are plenty of lizards and birds that have made the area their home too. Salt is still collected from the saltpans.
Los Hervidores. This is where you can watch the sea crashing into and through rock blowholes (when the sea is rough and the waves are coming at the ideal angle.)
El Golfo. These photographs are from the really
unusual 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 below were taken from inside Lanzarote's Parque Natural de los Volcanos - Timanfaya area - lots of lava 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 cone with a cloudy sky behind it the views are spectacular.
Teguise. Below are some pictures taken in Teguise - it's a really pretty little Lanzarote town and nice to walk round - but note that on Sundays there is a large market 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 you will also find lots of holidaymakers around who are ferried in on coach trips as part of round the island trips and escursions.
Lanzarote Topics on our Site - Lanzarote Walks Volcanic Area Walks
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