Lanzarote things to do in november: 25 AMAZING THINGS TO DO AND SEE IN LANZAROTE, SPAIN
What to do in Lanzarote (with Map) 🇮🇨
By Roberto (Updated Nov 22)
⏱ 6 min
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Why visit Lanzarote?
Before asking what to do in Lanzarote, I’d like to mention why you should visit this island. Simply, you’ll fall in love in Lanzarote if you appreciate or are looking for:
- A unique island with its own personality
- Volcanic landscape
- A varied trip, with many small stops
- Good food and aesthetic roads
- Some small beaches
On the contrary, I would suggest checking other destination in case you are expecting to find:
- Paradisiacal beaches
- Huge resorts with full-included
- Crazy parties
For us, Lanzarote is unique in many aspects but the main highlight is being in and around volcanoes. Those dark mountains at the background everywhere will stay in your memory forever. In addition, the island can be explored in some days and it offers a decent amount of plans and locations to visit. So yes! we really recommend its visit. =)
How many days do you need to visit Lanzarote?
Unless you are a volcano enthusiast or want to discover all the places in the island, we would suggest that 3 to 5 full days are enough to discover the island. In our case, we spent a 3 and a half days in a non-strop trip, and visited many things in the island.
What to do in Lanzarote?
It’s hard to make a top things to do in Lanzarote list, but there are some MUST things to do in our opinion. Following a South to North location, we strongly recommend visiting the following places.
Playa del Papagayo
For us, the best beach in Lanzarote is, without hesitation, Playa del Papagayo. It’s a sandy beach with incredible blue water in a shell shape protected by rocky cliffs. The water, if cold, remains calm and swimming is safe.
Since the beach is a bit isolated, is not so crowded, and the views from the top of the lookout are stunning. Definitely you should spend a couple of hours here. Getting here takes around 50 min from Arrecife.
Los Hervideros
A must stop in a What to do in Lanzarote list, is a visit to Los Hervideros (the boilers). It’s hard to explain the concept but imagine abrupt volcanic coves with holes where the waves come in and out, and make huge noises with the splashes.
The terrain is SO unique, it’s free and the atmosphere and landscape around it are very particular. We encourage to go there around golden hour, to take some pictures around instagrammable roads and volcanic rocks.
Also, next to it there is the famous Lago Verde or Green Lake. A volcanic lake that is green due to the sulphuric chemicals. We ended our evening there with a nice sunset.
Timanfaya National Park by foot or bus
A top thing to do in Lanzarote is a visit to Timanfaya National Park. There are two options to do this, either visit the park by foot or by bus. We have a dedicated post talking about this with detail.
We absolutely recommend its visit, because it has some of the best conserved volcanoes and lava in the island. The road LZ-67, that goes from Yaiza to Mancha Blanca, is one of the most beautiful roads I’ve ever driven.
Caldera Blanca Hike
Consider visiting Caldera Blanca in case you want an easy-medium difficulty hike that bring you to the top of the biggest crater on the island. The walk to the bottom of the crater goes trough lava rocks and information boards and brings you to a huge crater. Both the views and the experience are worth the visit and it’s a good plan to fill some hours. It takes 2-4 hours, depending on the length of the route you want to do.
Cueva de los Verdes
Located on the north of the island, this unique place offers a visit to the interior of a volcanic cave. Inside, they offer an explanation about its origin and its use. Make sure to go during the Visiting hours (10.00 – 16.00) otherwise you’ll miss the chance like us! We didn’t visit this location but saw pictures from friends and everyone says there’s a charming view.
La Graciosa
Some people say that a visit to Lanzarote without exploring La Graciosa is not a complete visit. I’d say that if you have a day to spend in your agenda, then go ahead 😎. It’s a nice plan to spend a full morning and part of the evening discovering the island.
The visit to La Graciosa includes taking a ferry from Lanzarote, riding bikes around the island, and chill at some locations. We’ll dedicate a full post soon to this plan.
Mirador del Río / Nahum
Both places are lookouts located on the north of the island that face to La Graciosa. If you get a clear sky the views over the island are epic. Mirador del Río costs 5€ while Mirador de Nahum offers basically the same exact views but is free. Moreover is located just 100 meters from the other! Don’t pay for Mirador del Río and keep your money for another site.
Note: some of the different plans in Lanzarote have a 5€ entrance fee if you buy the ticket separately. In case you know the places you want to visit, buy the “combo” ticket from one of the official websites to get a discount.
More things to do in Lanzarote
In case you are staying more than 3 days or want other ideas about what to do in Lanzarote, we have other extra plans. We have them all in our What to do in Lanzarote map:
Puerto del Carmen
A touristic, yet cute, town on the South East coast of Lanzarote. Puerto del Carmen has tons of restaurants, stores and accommodation options. We were a bit shocked when saw all the English Breakfast options they had. It was even hard to find a local bar. We stayed at the AirBnB Casa Lomaverde, with a great location and views of Playa del Carmen.
One restaurant that we loved was La Chalana, with unbeatable quality/price local food and huge portions. The octopus and the papas arrugás were super delicious.
Jameos del Agua
We didn’t visit this natural space that is another volcanic cave with decoration from César Manrique. With a unique blind crab specie and some pools, this place offers an interesting stop where you can learn about the concepts of nature and art integrated.
Playa de Famara
Playa de Famara is probably the best beach for sunset photos in Lanzarote. It’s a long beach where the mountain meets the ocean and the atmosphere is quite relaxing.
While it’s not an epic beach for swimming, grabbing some beers and laying on the sand there sounds like a good plan. In addition, there is another lookout called Mirador Risco de Famara with amazing views of the beach.
Las Grietas
Located more or less in the middle of the island, next to Montaña Blanca, Las Grietas have become quite popular. They are a picturesque Instagrammable spot, with huge and long cracks in rocks, on the ladder of the mountain. There is no exact place since there are so many grietas. Park your car around the location in Google Maps, and have a walk through the cracks. I recommend using a wide lens for the pictures for the wow factor.
Scuba Dive
Lanzarote has a number of dive sites accessible by boat or from the shore. There are dive sites suitable for all levels of divers. The underwater topography of Lanzarote is unique, made up of rock and volcanic formations.
You can expect to see a variety of marine life including macro life like nudibranches and seahorses, and larger fish like Angel sharks, groupers, and various rays. One of the most visited sites is Playa Blanca, where you can also see the Museo Atlantico, an underwater museum.
More posts about the amazing
Canary Islands:
15 fun things to do in Lanzarote with kids – Travel Loving Family
Having visited Lanzarote many times before having children it wasn’t until my recent visit that I realised how well the island caters for families. Not only does the island offer an average year round temperature of 22C, short flights from the UK (a very doable four-hours with even energetic toddlers) and great beaches, the island also has MANY fun attractions for kids of all ages. Here are 15 of my favourite things to do in Lanzarote with kids… (if you scroll down to the bottom there’s a video featuring all of these attractions too).
Timanfaya National Park
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No visit to Lanzarote is complete without visiting the islands national park, often called the Mountains of Fire (Las Montañas del Fuego). Whether you are staying in a hotel or calling into the island onboard a cruise ship a visit to Timanfaya is an experience I recommend you book as a guided excursion, to fully make the most of your day.
Meet Clive (in front) and his best buddies sat behind, Bill and Bob!
Most of the excursion programmes offer the chance to ride a camel, (well a dromedary if you want to be absolutely correct which means only one hump not two). The guides help riders sit down on seats on either side of the hump and lead you up the exclusively reserved volcanic dunes for a bumpy ride you and your kids will never forget!
A fantastic opportunity to give your kids a geography lesson with a difference! The Timanfaya visitors centre exhibition includes a seismograph, meteosat and meteorological station which wannabe geologists will be absolutely blown away by.
Kids who thrive on hands-on interactive fun will be astounded when water poured into a 10-metre deep hole erupts seconds later as steam (like a mini geyser) and dry bushes burst into flames when thrown in a hole in the volcanic ground. If your kids are brave, they can also hold some volcanic ash, although they may not hold onto it for very long!
For lunch with a difference book a table at El Diablo restaurant which overlooks many of the islands 300 volcanos and unique Martian like lava fields. You can guarantee your kids will rave to anyone who will listen about their chicken lunch cooked by a volcano!
The ‘Ruta de los Volcanoes’ is a 14 km protected route permitted only by guided buses. The buses cannot stop along the route (so you may decide against experiencing with energetic toddlers) but older children will love driving through the moon like landscape listening to eery music and visualising themselves as characters in Planet of the Apes!
Cueva de Los Verdes is one of the longest lava tubes in the world, formed 4,000 years ago when La Corona Volcano erupted and its lava flowed to the sea. Kids will enjoy pretending to be one of the thousands of locals who hid in the lava tubes to protect themselves from pirates in the 16th and 17th Century. They will also enjoy discovering the huge underground echoey atriums and exploring the narrow passages.
Top tip – I don’t want to give away the lava tube secret so all I will say is make sure you arrange to visit with a guide. (You cannot go inside unaccompanied). Our guide Ruth (+34 606 35 12 89) was absolutely brilliant and made our visit one of the highlights of our press trip. You also need to wear flat shoes, preferably trainers.
Los Jameos del Agua was also created by the eruption of La Corona Volcano. If you are looking for a unique place to dine check out the very cool underground restaurant and enjoy your dinner whilst watching the small albino crabs who have taken over the cavern lake. It’s also a very cool live music venue, bar and concert hall for a kid free romantic date night.
Top tip – If you wish to experience a concert make sure you visit in the autumn or winter. Unfortunately there is no swimming permitted in the pool.
Jardin de Cactus was created by the islands late legendary artist and architect, César Manrique. It’s a fascinating place which kids of all ages will enjoy checking out (just tell them to watch out for prickles!) We visited towards the end of the day and watched the sunset over the 4,500 specimens of cacti. There is a onsite bar to enjoy a glass of local vino (or two) too whilst taking in the views over the entire picture perfect garden.
Views at sunset from Jardin de Cactus
Top tip – Visit at sunset for incredible views and exceptional light. As a bonus, you will also avoid the cruise ship passenger crowds.
Aquapark Costa Teguise has lots of attractions for kids, especially younger kids with fun toddler slides and shallow pools. Older kids will enjoy racing down the Aqua Racer (see below) and the thrills of the Kamikaze, Black Hole and Hydrotub rides. In the summer season the park also offers zip lining, paint balling and an adventure park circuit for racing electric cars and so even kids who are not particularly fond of the water are well catered for here.
Top tip – We visited on the last day of the season (park closes mid Nov to beginning of April for maintenance over the winter every year) and to be honest we didn’t see the park at it’s best. It was however a great time to visit to avoid the crowds as we had the park to ourselves. Make sure you pack swimsuits, towels. Lockers are provided for a small extra fee and refreshments are available on site.
Rancho Texas, is a zoo and water park which puts on several shows daily featuring birds of prey, sea lions, dolphins and cockatoos. I absolutely loved Rancho Texas. It’s a immaculately maintained park with beautiful cactus gardens, a variety of animals, entertaining shows and a water park. (Which although much smaller than Aquapark Costa Teguise has something to offer kids of all ages with a big water play area, huge pool and fun water slide).
Top tip – Take sun hats for kids. I found there was very little shade at both the birds of prey show and the dolphin show. It’s also worth visiting on a Sunday as this is when the popular Teguise market takes place so the park is often quiet so make the most of it!
Rancho Texas offers the unique chance to interact with sea lions. Kids from 7 years old can get in the water with the creatures, give and receive kisses and even enjoy a hug! Awwww.
I’ll be honest I was dubious about our visit to the Biosfera Plaza and didn’t think that a shopping complex could have much to offer for kids… how wrong I was! The plaza is set over 5 floors, 3 floors of shops (Zara through to local handicraft stores which are perfect for picking up unique souvenirs), the 4th floor is a food court and perched on top is the coolest cinema I have ever seen.
The Starlight Open Air Cinema offers two shows daily – a classic film and a new release. Kids will love their own buzzer to call the waiting staff for refreshments and parents will enjoy having a sneaky cocktail whilst watching the sunset over Puerto del Carmen.
Top tips – Next to the cinema is a crazy golf range which is currently being renovated and will soon reopen with dinosaurs and dino special effects. Great for little dino fans. Every Sunday evening there is live music at the shopping complex which kids will love bopping along to.
Kids (and big kids!) who are interested in the islands volcanic landscape will love the 6D cinema simulator experience which takes riders on a journey around the island. The video was shot by a small plane and drone and includes unique footage of whooshing in and out of volcano craters and along the waves of the ocean.
With more than 3,000 hours of sun annually and a year round average temp of 22C it’s a beach day nearly every day in Lanzarote. The best beach for families is the La Garita (north of the island) with golden sands and gentle slopes. Wannabe surfer dudes will enjoy watching the wave riding pros at Famara (in the north-west).
And last but certainly not least, as experiencing new foods is one of the main reasons my family and I love about travelling… It would be a crime to visit Lanzarote and not try the traditional cuisine or make the most of the unique dining experiences. If you fancy dining in a cave, sipping cocktails in a swish hotel with incredible views or a retro dinner of hot dog under the stars check out this post – Where to eat in Lanzarote, 5 unique restaurants on the island.
So there you have it. 15 fabulously fun and unique things to do in Lanzarote with kids. If you have other recommendations to add please pop them in the comments below.
Further reading for visiting Lanzarote with kids
Reacquainting myself with Lanzarote – Ten years on
Review: Hotel Grand Teguise Playa, Lanzarote – A Modern Mother
Volcanoes in Lanzarote the Best Day Ever! – Actually Mummy
The Cactus Garden in Lanzarote – Extraordinary Chaos
Disclaimer – I was invited to visit Lanzarote by BritMums and the Lanzarote tourist board.