Canary Islands, Spain

Travelogue Canary Islands 5: Lanzerote

LANZEROTE
15 March 2025

With a slightly later start, the morning trot on the treadmill in the gym on the cruise ship had a spectacular view of the sunrise as we approached the island of Lanzerote on the horizon. A hearty breakfast later and we were there.

The port of Arancife was quite different to those at which we’d arrived on the other islands. The long row of masts on the yacht-lined harbour looked a bit like a palisade fence between us and the white block flat-roofed buildings along the shoreline.

First stop was in the former capital, Teguise, for a walk around the old town to view the Parish of Lanzerote, a building from 1418, as well as the museum that dated from the 1500s. The shops were starting to open up (not a bad life for the locals retailers, considering it was almost 11am on a Saturday) and atmosphere was building in the old town. We reckoned it might get quite festive later in the day.

Using the map we got at the car rental office, we navigated to Lanzerote’s most northernmost point. Amazing how different the landscape was; the feels of a desert with sandy patches and cactuses, but then also a rugged carpet of bright green shrubby foliage. Peculiarly, there were big chunks missing from the sides of several of the koppies; although likely an uninteresting explanation like wind erosion, it was more amusing to imagine that something other-worldly had taken massive bites out of them.

The town of Orzola was a bit of a wash with little going on besides the port to catch the ferry to La Graciosa, an island that offered a change of scenery just a hop across the bay. After a bit of a wander – and some souvenir shopping at the local supermercado for the mothers – we were back in the car.

Twenty minutes and superb scenery later we were in Caleta de Famara. With little to no internet on the trip, we had no idea what to expect. Pulling into the village we found 3 or 4 neat rows of the same white block houses, but this time with wide sandy roads between them instead of the impeccable tarmac we’d seen in all the others before.

It soon became evident that we were in surfers’ paradise. Every shop was something surf related – gear, lessons, branded merch – or a seafood restaurant. The sea itself was dotted with surfers in wetsuits bobbing on their boards, awaiting their wave. A sandy crescent of sunbathers watched the show. There really was little else to do.

After a stroll along the promenade and an amble back through the ‘burbs, we made our way to the west of Lanzarote to see what we could see.

Again, the terrain changed radically and we were soon surrounded by black lava fields that were described in the travel brochures as looking like being on Mars. The typically-Lanzerote white houses in the town of Tinajo seemed even whiter against the stark backdrop. So odd to see the black granules where green lawn should be in the local residents’ front yards.

The last stop for the day was the Parque Nacional de Timanfaya but by the time we got there, we reckoned we’d seen enough of the volcanic landscape to warrant giving the drive through the park a miss to just see more of the same. Some snaps at the gate and we ticked it off as done.

We had by now travelled far enough south that our trip would complete with a 22km slice to the east to get back to Arrecife. Before you could say ‘eating again’, we were on Deck 11 enjoying snacks and drinks to see us through to another fabulous dinner and evening of entertainment to bid farewell to our wonderful week of cruising around the Canary Islands as we arrived back in Tenerife.