Touring and Exploring in Lanzarote
Lanzarote and the Canary Islands are as about as far south as you can travel and still find yourself within Europe. As this autonomus region of Spain is part of the EU, but is located much closer to the African continent than the European. Just 80 miles away from the south west coast of Morocco.
Lanzarote has been a Spanish possession ever since the island was first conquered back in the early 1400´s. And whilst it boasts its own culture and dialect it also offers all of the familiar customs and cuisine of Spain, but with even better weather. As here the sun shines even in the depths of winter.
As a result holidays in Lanzarote are popular all year round and the season here basically never stops. With just as many tourists touching down at Arrecife airport on cheap flights to Lanzarote during the summer months as during the winter ones.
Of the seven Canary Islands Lanzarote is the third most popular as a holiday destination and remains quite unspoiled despite welcoming close to 1.4 million foreign tourists every year. This is largely as a result of strict planning laws which were passed in the 1970´s and which prohibit high-rise or large scale development. The three main tourist resorts of Playa Blanca, Costa Teguise and Puerto del Carmen are all well contained too.
Whether visitors stay in one of the 200 plus Lanzarote hotels on the island or more simple apartment accommodation there are plenty of good reasons for getting out to explore. As Lanzarote is big on attractions – top of the list being the impressive sight of the Timanfaya National Park. Which is the epicentre of a large volcanic eruption some centuries ago, which has left the interior of the island looking like something out of a science fiction film.
If that wasn’t dramatic enough a local artist called César Manrique has worked with the terrain elsewhere on the island to create some unique visitor attractions. Such as the James del Agua, Mirador del Rio and the Cactus Garden. All of which feature on most tourists’ itineraries.
The beauty of Lanzarote for visitors is that it is a very small island. So it is really easy to get out and about exploring all of these sights. With little travelling time between them. The roads are also pretty quiet too which makes driving simple too.