Lanzarote - Travel Guide for your holiday

Lanzarote Info
Lanzarote is situated just 70 miles off the coast of Africa and is the most easterly of the Canary Islands. The island is 37 miles (60km) long and 12 miles (20 km) wide, making it the fourth largest island in the Canaries. Lanzarote enjoys a mild dry climate with average daytime temperatures ranging from about 21°C in January to 29°C in August. Annual rainfall is just 140mm (5.5 inches). This makes Lanzarote the perfect year-round destination.

Beaches on Puerto del Carmen

Playa Grande
This beach is located along the main road that runs through Puerto Del Carmen. The beach is over 1 km in length and is golden sand. On the beach it's self you will find many sun-loungers for you to use although you will have to pay around 3 euros hire (this is for the full day).
While on the beach there is also some facilities, you will find some toilets and a small shop selling ice creams. You will also find people wondering about the sun loungers offering to sell ice creams if the walk back is to far (or the sand is to hot!).
They have some water activities at this beach including some Swan pedalows and many of the dive excursions will go from this beach.

Playa Chica
The chica beach is located in the Old Town of Puerto Del Carmen. The beach is very small and can get very busy in the summer months. The beach is host to many different water sports and diving. The beach being small and encolsed is ideal for snorkeling and learning to dive. Along with the diving, you can also hire and ride jet ski's and do parasailing from the area. Being located in the Old Town you are only 5 minutes walk from the harbour where you can get food and drink.

Playa Los Pocillos
This beach is located along the main road that runs through Puerto Del Carmen but towards the area known as Matagorda. The beach is very wide and quite long and has many sun loungers for tourists. The beach is very open and can get quite windy so if you are planning on visiting this beach you should try and take a wind breaker with you.
The beach does not offer any activities live the banana boat, instead it's a place for tourist to just relax and get a tan.
Sorunding the beach is many different shops bars and restaurants, where the beach is located you have facilities on all sides allowing you to easily walk to a bar/restaurant and get a drink or have some food.

Playa Matagorda
Matagorda beach is located in Puerto del Carmen close to the Airport.
The beach is very large and runs from Matagorda past the airport and in to Playa Honda. Just behind this beach you will also find a foot path which also has cycle lanes on. With the area being smooth and flat compared to the rest of Puerto del Carmen it is also a good location if you are in a wheel chair or have small children with you.
Just behind the beach you will find a large complex which has many bar and restaurants for you to choose from. Also the stretch of beach you will also find public toliets.

The History from Lanzarote

The Guanches
It is difficult to gain much firm information about the earliest inhabitants of the Canary Islands and there is some doubt about their origins. Some sources suggest that they may have come from the south of Spain whilst others suggest that they came from North Africa. The early inhabitants certainly had some resemblance to the darker skinned peoples of North Africa.
The inhabitants of the islands were known, collectively, as Guanches. The inhabitants of all seven Canary Islands spoke a similar language, but with slight variations. We are told that they had a highly developed political and social structure.
One unusual, but intriguing, development in communication has been on the island of Gomera. Here, the mountains are so steep and the valleys so deep that the people of the island developed the habit of whistling to each other across the ravines. By this means they were able to 'talk' to each other. I was once priviledged to witness this 'talking' in action and was most impressed. The whistling 'language' has lived on, but with all the modern innovations, is now likely to die out.
Volcanic Landscape
The Guanches were pastoral and worked the land. Their way of life was very basic - almost 'stoneage' - and the tools which they used were primitive. They had no ploughs and wheels were unknown to them. The clay pots which they used were moulded by hand. Most were cave dwellers although a few of them did lay stones, one on top of the other, to form rudimentary houses.
The Island Is Discovered
More became known about the island of Lanzarote and it's inhabitants as various explorers 'discovered' it. One of the first to arrive - in the 1300's - was an Italian seafarer by the name of Lancelloto Malocello. It is possible that the island's name of Lanzarote is derived from Malocello's first name.
Then it was the turn of the Spanish - or, rather, a Frenchman acting on behalf of the Spanish king. Jean de Béthencourt (a nobleman from Normandy), acting for Enrique III of Castille, brought the island under Spanish rule during the first years of the fifteenth century. In his southward venture, Lanzarote was the first of the Canary Islands which he came upon.
Protection Against Pirates.
This castle (Castillo de las Coloradas
in Playa Blanca) was built later - in 1769.
The local inhabitants had been at the mercy of raiding pirates and Béthencourt, leading a small troop of men, is reported to have promised the king of the Guanches protection from the pirates. He, Béthencourt, was allowed to build a fortress on the Rubicón (a plain in the south of the island) to protect the islanders. His conquest of the island is said to have been peaceful. After Lanzarote, Jean de Béthencourt later went on to subdue Fuerteventura and El Hierro. He brought settlers out from Spain, who coexisted peacefully with the Guanches. The whole conquest took only four years.
Bethencourt acquired the title 'Lord of the Islands'. Following his conquest of the islands, he returned to France and was succeeded by his nephew, Maciót.
Whereas Béthencourt had ruled peacefully, his nephew, Maciot, did not. Maciót traded in slaves and exploited his newly acquired land. The king of Spain, hearing of his deeds, had him removed from the island and exiled to Madeira. Maciót's scheming was still not over, however. One of his subsequent acts was to offer to sell the 'rights' to the Canary Islands to Portugal. As a consequence, a dispute ensued between Spain and Portugal which was only settled by the intervention of the Pope. After Maciót had been deposed, a series of feudal lords controlled the island. 
 
The Arrival of The Pirates
A period of relative peace followed. That is - until the appearance of pirates and corsairs from the nearby North African coast. The island was then subjected to repeated attacks and was fought over for nearly four centuries. Great bloodshed and ruin was caused. Many inhabitants were carried off to be sold as slaves. Many of those inhabitants who were not murdered or carried off were forced to take refuge in the Cueva de los Verdes in the North.
Friend or Foe ?
As the capital of the island in those turbulent times, Teguise suffered badly - the church in the main square being repeatedly vandalised, sacked and burnt. Teguise ceased to be the capital of the island in 1852 in favour of Arrecife.
Pirates of other nations also abounded in Canarian waters. These included Jean Florin and 'Peg Leg' LeClerc from France, together with Sir John Hawkins, John Poole and Sir Walter Raleigh from Britain. In the middle of the seventeenth century Lanzarote's population was reduced to a few hundred inhabitants. At this distance in time, and living the comparatively comfortable lives which most of us now do, it is difficult for us to imagine what their lives must have been like. Quite apart from working hard to win the means to survive, they were at times reduced to living in caves to avoid being murdered or carried off to be sold into slavery. It is hardly surprising that many of Lanzarote's inhabitants emigrated to other islands of the archipelago and to South America. There is a museum at the Castillo de Guanapay dedicated to displaying souvenirs and other records of the lives of those emigrants. 

Attractions on the Island Lanzarote
Mirador del Rio  (El Rio Belvedere)
Breathtaking views from this most northerly point of the Famara Cliffs overlooking La Graciosa Isle and three tiny islets out to sea, as well as the multi-coloured salt ponds directly below on the seashore. The uninterrupted vista can be enjoyed from an indoor snack bar or an outdoor observation terrace.
 
Montañas del Fuego  (Fire Mountains, Timanfaya National Park)
This area resulted from six years of intermittent volcanic eruptions from 1730 to 1736. A camel ride round the rim of an extinct cone, a restaurant where food can be observed cooking from the heat of the volcano below, and a guided coach tour with multi-lingual commentary, through scenery unchanged since the eruptions, allows visitors a clear picture of the staggering natural catastrophe that took place.
 
Casa Museo y Monumento al Campesino (House and Monument to the Farm Labourer)
The farm house museum - which contains a retaurant serving local cuisine - and monument were built as a tribute to the Lanzarote farmer. Nearby, artisans produce local arts and crafts in workshops adjoining a typical Lanzarote wine bodega. A second restaurant also opens for dinner with folklore music several nights a week.
 
Castillo de San Jose  (International Contemporary Art Museum)
Built as a fortress in 1799 to protect the harbour from pirate attacks, the interior was converted in 1974 to house a permanent exhibition of modern art in the upper halls and stairwell. On the lower level a first class restaurant with floor-to-ceiling wrap around windows, overlooking the harbour, serves excellent local and international cuisine.
 
Cueva de los Verdes  (The Greens' Cave)
Named after owners called Green and for colour in the roofs and walls, the Caves form a representative section of the seven kilometre long Atlantida volcanic tunnel, the longest volcanic tunnel in the world. A guided tour leaves hourly on the hour - watch out for a truly amazing optical illusion. This was a cave used by the inhabitants of Lanzarote in times of trouble.
 
Jameos del Agua  (Water Grotto)
A grotto formed when a stream of molten lava met the nearby waters of the Atlantic, the Grotto contains an underground lake with an albino crab unique in the sea world at this depth, an outdoor pool area abounding with lush sub-tropical vegetation and a concert hall located amid an underground volcanic cavern. Volcanic history is depicted in the upper level. Breathtaking by day - folklore entertainment with buffet dinner three nights a week.
 
Jardin del Cactus  (The Cactus Garden)
Situated in Guatiza village on the north east coast, the Cactus Garden is home to over 10,000 cacti and succulents of 1,450 different species growing in beds at ground level and in several levels of terracing. This area is the centre of Lanzarote's cochineal industry with several hundered acres planted with the prickly pear (or, 'tuneracactus') from which the cochineal beetle is collected for it's dye.
 
El Golfo
A stunning contrast of black beach, deep green lagoon and volcanic cliff, this unique sight can certainly be described as spectacular. El Golfo (the lagoon - not the nearby village of the same name) is the remaining half of a volcano which now forms part of the coastline. The western half has been carried away by the sea, leaving in it's place only a handful of rocks (which have survived erosion) rearing up out of the sea. The backdrop of the remaining half of the volcano reveals some bizarre formations - quite 'out of this world'.
The green lagoon is apparently caused by the algae living in the top layer of water. It is said to be very deep and to have subterranean links with the sea.
The adjoining village of El Golfo, which has a number of restaurants, faces the full force of the Atlantic Ocean.
 
Famara
With it's magnificent backdrop of imposing cliffs, this beach on the north-west coast of the island is one to remember - and one for the family photograph album. The currents here are very strong and the waves can be huge. It is, therefore, not a beach from which most people would consider swimming. Ideal, of course, for those who enjoy windsurfing or surfboarding. A pleasant walk along the beach and over the rocks will bring you to the attractive little village of La Caleta.
 
La Geria
The biggest wine growing region on the Canary Islands. Cacti are used in the cultivation of vines. A pit is dug, in which a cactus is planted. The vine is then grafted onto this. The whole area is next covered with picon and, finally, a low semi-circular dry-stone wall is built around the young plant. These walls, although basically practical, also create very interesting artistic patterns - especially when viewed in a mass. Yet another spectacular sight !!
Lanzarote the Volcanic in origin
As with the other Canary Islands, Lanzarote is Volcanic in origin. Due to the recent eruptions during the 18th and 19th Centuries, many parts of Lanzarote appear to be from another world, often described as
Because of the extreme shortage of water and poor soil conditions, agriculture on Lanzarote is restricted to just a few products.The most important produce, apart from potatoes and sweet potatoes, are mild-flavoured onions and of course wine.The malvasia or malmsey vine was brought from Crete to Lanzarote as far back as the Middle ages, though large-scale cultivation of the grape did not begin until after the enormous volcanic eruptions of 1730-36, when the ability of the volcanic ash (picón) to absorb and store moisture was harnessed for cultivation purposes. This is known as dry cultivation (enarenado), and involves planting the vines deep down in the lava ash and building walls to protect them from the trade winds. The night dew is stored by the "picón" and then gradually released to the roots. In 1964-65 the region around La Geria, Lanzarote.















La Graciosa
Off the north coast of Lanzarote, La Graciosa has an area of about 27 square kilometres and it's highest point is just 266 metres above sea level. At it's narrowest the stretch of sea between this island and Lanzarote is about one kilometre, and only a few metres deep. It is rich in fish life. One of the smallest of the Canary Islands, La Graciosa is now (since 1986) a protected nature reserve. Around 500 people live here, making their living almost exclusively from fishing. The island can be reached by ferry from Orzola.
 
Los Hervideros
The name means the 'boiling pots' - and you can understand how the area got that name when you see the sea pounding in at high tide - especially when there is a strong following wind. It is quite something to see the huge waves drive into the narrowing space between the cliffs and then explode into the numerous crevices and lava bubbles, from which they are repelled with great force. A sea spectacular.

Papagayo
At the southernmost tip of the island (virtually an extension of our town of Playa Blanca) are the crystal clear waters and white sands of Papagayo. The half dozen beaches are separated by rocky headlands. It's a bumpy ride to the beach on the unmade road and will cost you 500ptas for admission, but it is well worth it. Alternatively, a walk from Playa Blanca will take you about an hour and will be a rewarding experience. Views of the nearby islands of Fuerteventura and Lobos accompany you all the way. There are no services, so take some supplies and prepare for a climb down to the beach. 
       
Puerto Calero
A beautiful marina has been constructed at Puerto Calero and this is one of my favourite places. It is a must for anyone interested in boats and sailing. It is possible to go for an underwater trip in a real (yellow) submarine - something which I haven't done yet, but which I intend to do before long. Puerto Calero is situated between Puerto del Carmen and Playa Quemada. A meal here, at one of the restaurants on the side of the jetty and surrounded by beautiful scenery, is a pleasant experience.

Teguise Market
One of the weekly attractions staged on the island is the Sunday market at Teguise. Visitors flock from all parts. It starts at 09 hrs and you can try your hand at bargaining with the vendors. It is a very lively event.