Things to do in Lanzarote

[kirinm]

We are staying in Playa Blanca. I'm keen to know which beaches are best, days out (with a 4 year old) and nice restaurants. Ideally tapas / authentic Spanish.

Are Puerto Del Carman / Costa Teguise worth visiting?

I may hire a car so distance might not to be too bit of a deal.

Eating up the top of the volcano is spectacular

Do a coach trip to the volcano area. You don't have to queue with the cars. The scenery is incredible and then they do demonstrations at the visitors centre of how hot/active the volcano still is.
We stayed in Costa Teguise. The only thing I'd recommend there is the aquarium which is very good value.

Go to the small town of Teguise which is up in the mountains confusingly not in the resort of Costa Teguise! It's really lovely with small boutiques, tapas bars, old buildings & amazing views, on a Friday there's a Very busy market.

My sister and I always hire a car. We love Lanzarote.

The Caesar Manrique house & museum are worth a visit, also Cave d' Jardin which is beautiful large cave with an inside lake & outside pool; the Cactus Gardens, & the caves which can be a bit claustrophobic though. Also Omar Sharif's old home is interesting to visit.

The best beaches are the lagoon at Playa Caleton; Playa Pocillos & Playa Matagorda near Playa del Carmen, and the beaches of Pozo & Papagoyo in the nature reserve near Playa Blanca.

The beach at Farmera is too dangerous for swimming but it's good to go & watch the surfers & kite surfers.

Near Playa del Carmen is the Marina of Playa Caleta which has some great shops, restaurants & bars plus a market.
Also there's the Biosphera shopping centre slightly out of town with a large Zara etc.

It's definitely worth visiting the Timanfaya National park with all the volcanoes & lava fields, & the seeing the green volcanic lake on a nearby beach.

There are lots of quaint towns to visit as well plus you can take boat trips.
By the way I've never spent time in Costa Teguise or the Playa Blanca resort.

Sorry an essay but I do like Lanzarote. It can get windy, and it's wise to take a denim jacket or something for the evenings.

Playa Blanca is v quiet. Not necessarily a bad thing.
We only stayed for a few days but enjoyed the volcano coach trip as well as the Submarine Safari.

Two best beaches for kids in PB are Flamingo Beach, which is very sheltered (and where you can stand in the shallows and feed the fish!) and the beach by the Princessa Yaiza hotel where you can hire pedalos etc.

Would definitely agree with an organised trip to Mount Timanfaya and visiting as many of Cesar Manrique's amazing buildings as possible. Jameos del Agua is particularly fun, with the lake of crabs.

Tapas wise, we absolutely love La Cuadra. Have some jalepeno croquettas for me!

Thanks for all the tips. We don't actually go until Easter so I've got enough time to work out where all these places are and how best to get to them.

Definitely do the volcano trip, we did the half day one where you go to the caves and winery aswell.
There are loads of lovely restaurants in Playa Blanca but I would avoid the Marina restaurants- over priced and that that good.
There is a wonderful Italian restaurant that has a very small menu but all homemade fresh pasta called Ninen- I would recommend booking as its only small and gets really busy.
Enjoy!

My favourites are. In Arrecifie. Go into the tall hotel. Easy to spot. It's the only tall building right on the front. Go up in the lift to the top floor. There is a lovely cafe with amazing views of Arrecife. It's a hidden gem. I highly recommend. Nice cakes too.

Very top of the island. Mirador del Rio. It's a bit of a drive from Playa Blanca. High up views of neighbouring island.

Pueto Callero. A lovely newish marina with a parade of fancy shops. Get a coffee or food at one of the waterside restaurants. Watch the super yachts and folk go by.

Volcano tour. I enjoyed.

You can hire a small boat in puerto Valero and self drive for a couple of hours, we quite like Texas ranch on our final day on the way back to the airport as we like the slides, the zoo then shower and the airport is 10 mins away.

Definitely do the timanfeya coach trip. We did it with our 8&4 year old and they loved it. Make sure you do the camel ride!

Would really recommend Rancho Texas for a day out as well. Animal park, really good section on the volcanic activity that has created the islands, plus a little water park as well. We did it as a coach trip but if we go back to Lanzarote (kids are desperate to!) I think we'll either get a taxi or hire a car, as we felt we had to leave too early.

We did the submarine trip too which the 4 year old really liked - she had fun trying to spot the different fish.

We stayed in Costa Teguise; it's nice but it's not worth a visit in of itself.

Also in terms of booking trips - we found that we got great advice from one of the little excursions shops. Very good at steering us towards the ones our kids would be ok with and away from the ones that were more geared at adults, even thought it meant we spent less money with them. Also they can get discounts!

So much to do, Lanzarote is a small island so if you hire a car (would recommend AutoReisen good rates, collect & drop off at the airport) you can cover a lot. Buses go to all the major resorts. Rancho Texas just outside PDC is popular with families, the Cactus Garden is well worth a visit, definitely the volcano, you can do an organised south tour which covers volcano, La geria wine vines, very different technique for growing on Lanzarote, the green lake. Caesar Manrique house/museum. Biosphere is good for shopping, open air cinema, mini golf, maccy d’s at PDC. CT have a craft market one evening a week in the main square. At Teguise (not to be confused with CT) have a large market on a Sunday. Aloe Vera museum is worth a visit too. Puerto Calero is another place we like, not a lot there, nice marina, a few shops and restaurants etc, you can do the submarine tour from Puerto Calero. You can also get the water taxi I think from PB. Lanzarote is such an interesting island to visit, I am sure you will have a wonderful holiday, enjoy!

We go to that area every year and stay by the marina. It's a lovely place

The beaches aren't brilliant but Playa Flamingo is the better one. Sheltered and gently sloping.
Depending where you are staying the Papagayo beaches are unspoilt and beautiful but inaccessible by road.
I think four is a little young for a lot of the things mentioned.
My favourite tapas is Carpe Diem near the sandos hotel. Best Indian is Imagine India, not far from Ninen mentioned above.

My 4 year old has just told me that the camel ride (timanfeya) and the submarine were her favourite things.

We've been going to Lanzarote for nearly 40 years on and off. Went back at Xmas for the first time in 9 years and still loved it.
When we first went it was pretty undeveloped to say the least. We started in Puerto del Carmen but within a few years it became far too built up for us and we moved on to Playa Blanca, which we still love.

Playa Flamingo offers a lagoon, which makes it perfect for little ones. Papagayo is spectacular but less accessible.
Having a car really opens up the island and all it has to offer.
Jameos del Agua is stunning as is Mirador del Rio and El Golfo.
Off there again in April, can't wait!

I think I got a little mixed up with my playas & puertos!!

When I said about the nice Marina with the shops, restaurants bars & market I meant Puerto Calero!

The (very shallow) lagoon beach is at the little known Playa Caleton Blanco & I really recommend it for children. Its hidden away but worth finding. I will find a couple of pics.

Jameos del Agua is where the cave lake & pool are. I did get the name wrong sorry!

I just had a look... basically the amazing Caleton Blanco is down a turn off on the road to the town of Orzola in the North of Lanzarote.
There's a small parking area but no facilities, it's very wild.

It gets extremely hot, I nearly got sunstroke there!
Take safe shoes to walk in across some of the lava strewn white sand. The contrast of white sand & black lava is stunning.
But the lagoon itself has a mainly sandy floor and is very shallow. Plus quite a few fish that like breadcrumbs!!

Following, going in June first time

I grew up there so I'd say definitely spend a day at Papagayo beach if you like beaches. Bring a picnic and drinks though there's nothing there.
You could go to Fuerteventura on the ferry for a daytrip, that's lovely.
There's really nice villages like Arietta and Teguise ( Sunday market not the best day to go) just remember that the shops and cafes will be closed in the middle of the day.
Puerto Calero marina is nice, a bit posh, alot quieter than Puerto del Carmen, if you like walking you can walk the whole coastline or hire bikes . There's kids fun stuff/play area in Biosfera in the old town of Puerto del Carmen and along the strip as well like mini golf, bunjee jump thingy and arcades, Rancho Texas has a zoo and a pool and is a great day out.
Playa Chica (diving beach) in the old town of P del C is a nice safe small beach and in Orzola in the north there's a lovely white sand beach, clear water in a really warm small bay to swim in. Great for small kids, it stays shallow for ages.
Haria and the valley of 1000 palms is beautiful to look at, nothing like the rest of the island.
Timanfaya national park is very touristy and there's often big queues to get in, I'd skip it and just drive around the island yourself. The green caves are pretty good though, definitely worth it, I think it would be ok for a 4 yr old, and if you want to know more about the volcanoes there's a volcano visitor museum place but I can't remember where it is, it's near the caves.

I really wouldn't skip Timanfaya (though I would do it on a coach tour as you skip the big queue of cars) as my dd's, especially the four year old, were absolutely thrilled to be going to a volcano. The tour at the top with the three "experiments" delighted them too, especially the pouring water down a hole and watching it woosh back up as steam!

The Cactus Garden was lovely and there was a fab market

Also the caves

We went to Timanfaya on a scooter and missed the queue of cars.

Following as we are planning a trip next year