Lanzarote Travel Guide

There’s no place on earth quite like Lanzarote. Indeed, encountering the Timanfaya National Park for the first time will convince you that you’ve taken a detour to the moon. Its lunar landscape truly has to be seen to be believed.

Lanzarote owes its name to the Italian explorer Lanceloto Malocello. After he arrived in 1312, the isle became known as the Insula de Lanzarotus Marocelus (replicating the Latin spelling of the navigator’s name). Previously it had been called Titerogakaet, Red Mountain, by its Majo natives owing to the volcanic history of the island.

The Majos would expel Malocello after two decades of conquest which included a fortress above the original capital of Teguise. The following century a Norman explorer by the name of Jean de Béthencourt, with a lot of help from Castilian king Enrique III, would fare rather better. Arriving in 1402, he was able to bequeath Lanzarote, along with the neighbouring Fuerteventura, to his nephew Maciot by 1406.

Lying nearer to the African mainland than the Spanish peninsula, Lanzarote is both the most easterly and the most northerly of the Canaries. Whilst it’s a mere 125km (78 miles) from the coast of Africa, it’s a distant 1,000km (621 miles) to Cadiz – the closest port of Spain proper. Its neighbour Fuerteventura is located 11km (7 miles) to the south-west.

The seal-shaped Lanzarote features a small head in the north, a bulky interior of a body and a short southern tail. Whilst the north is windy, the south is sunny. Leaving the middle, predictably enough, somewhere in between. Politically, Lanzarote, despite being under Spanish authority, enjoys an autonomous status – thanks to 1982’s Regional Constitution. Forming part of the province of Gran Canaria, along with its eastern neighbours, it’s split into seven administrative districts: Arrecife (the capital), Haría, San Bartolomé, Teguise, Tías, Tinajo, and Yaiza. As on the mainland, the two main parties are the left-leaning Partido Socialista Obrero Español (PSOE) and the right-wing Partido Popular (PP) with the regional Coalición Canaria (CC) also enjoying support.

So, welcome to a land where you can leisure at your pleasure. Like the other Canary Islands, there are plenty of fiestas to enjoy. And, as you’ll soon discover, there ain’t no party like a Lanzarote party.