The Best Things to Do in Lanzarote

The best things to do in Lanzarote are touring the Timanfaya fire mountains, exploring Cesar Manrique's extraordinary volcanic art sites, tasting wine in the black-ash vineyards of La Geria, browsing Teguise's Sunday market and swimming at the Papagayo beaches. Lanzarote is the most distinctive of all the Canaries: a lunar landscape of volcanoes and lava fields where one visionary artist, Cesar Manrique, shaped the whole island into a work of art. Here is our ranked pick of what to do, each linking onward to the full guide, so you can plan the perfect trip to Lanzarote.

The best things to do in Lanzarote, ranked

1. Tour the Timanfaya fire mountains

Timanfaya National Park is the unmissable highlight: a raw, Mars-red expanse of craters and lava born of the great eruptions of the 1730s. To protect it, you explore by an included coach tour along the "Route of the Volcanoes", with demonstrations at the visitor centre where staff pour water into a borehole to send up a geyser of steam and grill food over the natural heat just metres below the surface. Buy tickets and arrive early, as this is the island's busiest attraction and the car park fills fast.

2. Descend into Jameos del Agua

Jameos del Agua is the most beautiful of Manrique's creations: a series of collapsed volcanic caverns turned into a magical space of a turquoise underground lagoon (home to tiny blind albino crabs found nowhere else), lush gardens, a dazzling white pool and a concert auditorium inside the lava tube. It is calm, cool and genuinely enchanting, and a masterclass in Manrique's belief that art and nature should be one.

3. Explore the Cueva de los Verdes

Part of the same six-kilometre lava tube, the Cueva de los Verdes is a guided walk through a vast underground tunnel formed by flowing lava, once used by islanders to hide from pirate raids. The lighting is theatrical, the acoustics extraordinary, and there is a clever visual surprise near the end that we won't spoil. It pairs perfectly with Jameos del Agua, just up the road.

4. Wander the Jardin de Cactus

Manrique's final major work, the Jardin de Cactus, is a beautifully sculpted cactus garden set in a former quarry, home to thousands of species arranged in tiers around a restored windmill. It is smaller and quicker than the other sites but photogenic and serene, a lovely stop that shows the artist's eye for turning an industrial scar into something graceful.

5. Take in the view from Mirador del Rio

Carved discreetly into a cliff 475 m above the sea at the island's northern tip, the Mirador del Rio is Manrique's spectacular clifftop viewpoint, its curved white interior opening onto a breathtaking panorama over the strait to the little island of La Graciosa and the salt pans below. On a clear day it is one of the great views in the Canaries.

6. Visit the Fundacion Cesar Manrique

To understand the man who shaped it all, visit the Fundacion Cesar Manrique, his former home built astride five volcanic bubbles in the lava field at Tahiche. The lower rooms are literally set inside lava bubbles linked by tunnels, half-house half-artwork, and the collection includes his own paintings and pieces by artists he admired. It is the key to reading the whole island.

7. Taste wine in La Geria

Lanzarote's volcanic soils gave rise to one of the world's most extraordinary wine regions: La Geria, where vines grow singly in scooped hollows of black ash, each ringed by a low stone wall to trap moisture and shelter from the wind. Driving through this striped moonscape of pits and walls is a sight in itself, and several bodegas offer tastings of the crisp local Malvasia. Learn more in our guide to Canary wine.

8. Browse the Teguise Sunday market

The former capital, Teguise, is a handsome, low-rise historic town that comes alive for its huge Sunday morning market, one of the biggest and most atmospheric in the Canaries, with hundreds of stalls of crafts, food and music filling the old streets. Any other day it is a quiet, elegant place to wander; on Sundays it is a proper occasion.

9. Swim at the Papagayo beaches

At the island's southern tip, the Papagayo beaches are a string of sheltered golden coves backed by low cliffs in a protected natural area, the finest beaches on the island and a world away from the resort strips. The water is calm and clear, ideal for swimming and snorkelling. For the wider picture, see our guide to the best beaches in Lanzarote.

Fitting it all in

Lanzarote's sights are spread across the island, so a hire car transforms your trip: it lets you string the northern Manrique sites (Jameos, Cueva de los Verdes, Mirador del Rio) into one day, then tackle Timanfaya, La Geria and Papagayo from the resorts of the south and centre. If you would rather not drive, most attractions are also covered by organised excursions. The main resorts, Puerto del Carmen, Playa Blanca and Costa Teguise, all make comfortable, well-connected bases. For a full breakdown, read our guide to where to stay in Lanzarote.

The bottom line

If you do only a few things in Lanzarote, tour Timanfaya, visit at least two or three of the Manrique sites (Jameos del Agua and the Cueva de los Verdes above all), drive through La Geria and finish with a swim at Papagayo. That itinerary captures what makes the island unique: a volcanic landscape and a single artist's vision fused into one. Add the Teguise market on a Sunday and a few beach days, and you have a Lanzarote holiday like nowhere else. Start planning with our complete guide to Lanzarote.