On your holiday to Lanzarote, you can go for many different hikes. The landscape of Lanzarote consists mainly of volcanoes. Therefore, you cannot leave the island without hiking a volcano or walking over the volcanic soil in the Timanfaya national park. Maybe less adventurous, but also really great, is a city tour through the historical city of Lanzarote: Teguise.
Hike the Caldera Blanca Volcano in Lanzarote
Around a quarter of the island Lanzarote is volcanic and consists of lava fields and around 200 to 300 volcanoes. We wanted to climb a volcano, and we wanted to do that by ourselves. We decided to hike on the Caldera Blanca. The hike normally is not that challenging; however, we made our hike a real adventure!
There is a parking place just a few hundred meters from the village Macha Blanca, from where you can start your hike to the Caldera Blanca volcano. For the first 30 to 60 minutes, you will walk through the rough lava fields while having beautiful views over the volcanoes. The first volcano you will reach is the smaller version from the Caldera Blanca, the Montaña Caldereta.
Ever wanted to stand inside of a crater of a real volcano? This is your chance! Because the hot lava has crumbled down one side of the volcano, you can just step inside it. Even though we knew it was not possible that it would suddenly erupt, still it felt a little bit exciting walking in a volcano.
When you walk further for a while, you will pass by the Caldera Blanca, which has a really impressive crater with a diameter of 1200 meters. The Caldera Blanca is a unique volcano in this area; it originated already 3000-5000 years ago. During the last volcanic activity on the island, the Timanfaya eruptions of 1730-1736, the sea of lava could not reach this volcano because of its heights. Therefore it has its white appearance in contrast with the black surroundings.
You have to look good, but if you walk further, there is a path going up, at the back of the volcano, which brings you to the impressive summit. It truly is a beautiful spot to watch the sunrise, and that’s what we did. However, because it was dark when we tried to reach the summit, we did not quickly find the path to bring you there. We thought we just had to climb the volcano randomly, but we cannot recommend you do this, especially not when it is as windy as it was that day…
Visit the Timanfaya National Park without a tour bus
Not capable of the quite challenging hike to the top of the volcano, but looking forward to exploring the volcanic lava fields in Lanzarote? Then you can explore the Timanfaya national park. There are two options: You can do one hike by yourself, or you can book a tour to really drive through the volcanic area with a bus.
Hike La Ruta del Litoral
The advantage of this hike is definitely that you can do it by yourself. No organized tour with time limits and overcrowded tour busses. However, you should be fit enough to do this hike. The whole route is 12 km long, one way, and most of it is hiking over the volcanic rocks, which makes this hike even more difficult. Wear good shoes and make sure that you bring enough water!
Of course, you can choose to do only part of the hike because this route along the northwestern coast is stunning. You can see the rough sea, where waves crash into the rocks, and in the meanwhile, you can also enjoy the harsh volcanic landscape. There is not much vegetation to see, except for the 200 different types of lichens that you can find here. The starting point is near el Golfo.
Visit The Timanfaya National Park Without Hiking
If you really want to visit the Timanfaya National Park to admire the vagarious volcanic surroundings, but not capable to the hike, then you can go by tour. You will drive through the Timanfaya park by bus. You can see some geothermal demonstrations from the heat that still is present in the ground after the latest eruptions. This day tour though the Timanfaya National Park is a good option if you want the entire day to be organized.
Visit Black Sand Beaches In The Timanfaya National Park
First, drive to Mancha Blanca, and from there, you have to drive through small but concrete roads. However, eventually, you will reach the dirt road, and it will take a while to get to the beach… You have to drive carefully, but it is worth it! Playa las Malvas is beautiful, and it gives an otherworldly feeling to be on this dark beach.
You find a few real black sand volcanic beaches on this side of the island. If you are trained to walk the Ruta del Litoral, you will reach one or two of them: Playa del Paso or Playa del Cochino. However, if you are not able to do this hike, there is one other beach that you can reach by car as well: Playa de las Malvas.
Go on a Teguise City Tour with sunday market
Not as adventurous as the other hikes, but you should go to Teguise if you like cute small towns and enjoy markets. Teguise is the old historical capital of Lanzarote, located on the northeastern side of Lanzarote. Usually, this town is really quiet, but on Sunday it gets crowded, because of the famous Sunday market.
You have two options if you visit Teguise. The first one is to really enjoy the authentic historical town with its old buildings on a weekday. It won’t be touristic here, it will even be very quiet, but the town is beautiful, so you will enjoy it. There are also a few great bars and restaurants for a coffee or a meal.
If you, however, want to visit the famous Sunday market, you should obviously visit on a Sunday. It is a big market, but we thought that most of the stalls weren’t that special. However, a few booths had really typical stuff from Lanzarote! If we were visiting again, I think we would skip the market. We were early, but when we were leaving the queues were crazy long, and we visited in the winter…
Are you super fit and into sports? Run along the beachside of Costa Teguise
One last tip for the really sporty ones; run along the coast of Costa Teguise. There is a 4 km-long path going all the way along the coast, one-way. Normally, it is not really busy, but some tourists and inhabitants walk here, of course. And, you won’t be the only one running here! Also, a great route to do on the bike, though.
Your holiday to Lanzarote can have it all, especially for the sporty types there is enough to experience here. Are you excited to visit Lanzarote but not sure which areas are best to stay? Read our blog on where to stay in Lanzarote and our blog for more great things to do in Lanzarote. Do you think that we miss a great sporty activity? Please leave a comment! 🙂
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