Timanfaya
Twenty-five volcanoes rise in an inferno of ash and silences, where the scarlet earth holds the burning breath of fire.
29°02′N · 13°38′W
Male escort in Lanzarote
Another planet, just steps from the sea.
Lanzarote is a primordial canvas where the black of the lava embraces the blue of the Atlantic. Here the land holds the memory of the devastating eruption of 1730-1736, when the volcanoes of Timanfaya remained active for six years, burying a quarter of the island under a blanket of lava. Out of this lunar setting, the artist César Manrique shaped a unique identity: a landscape free of skyscrapers, dotted with low white houses, where architecture blends naturally into the rock. Today this perfect harmony between people and nature is protected by the whole island, recognised as a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve.
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- Biosphere Reserve
- Timanfaya National Park
- César Manrique’s island
What can we do together?
Not to be missed
Jameos del Agua
A spiral staircase descends into a lava tube, down to a black lake and a white pool designed by Manrique.
Bodega La Geria
The winery in the middle of the La Geria vineyard, where the vines grow one by one in pits of black ash, each sheltered by a low half-moon wall.
Papagayo
A string of golden coves in the Los Ajaches Natural Monument, where the water shades from green to turquoise.
Landscapes and nature
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Cueva de los Verdes
The volcanic gallery where islanders hid from pirates, lit like a stage, complete with an auditorium carved into the rock.
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El Golfo
Half a crater swallowed by the sea and, at its foot, the Charco de los Clicos: an emerald-green lagoon separated from the ocean by a strip of black sand.
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Los Hervideros
Caves and tunnels in the lava where the ocean surges in roaring and bursts into columns of spray that seem to boil.
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Salinas de Janubio
A geometric mosaic of multicoloured pools stretches across the black earth, where seawater evaporates in the sun and salt is made by traditional methods.
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Famara
A very long beach at the foot of the Risco de Famara, the island’s highest cliff, with its surfers’ village and fresh fish cooked the Canarian way.
Outline © OpenStreetMap
Art, history and culture
Museums and theatres
- Tahíche Fundación César Manrique The house Manrique built for himself on a lava flow from 1730, its rooms set inside five volcanic bubbles: today it is the foundation that preserves his work.
- Playa Blanca Museo Atlántico An underwater museum twelve metres deep, where the concrete statues sculpted by Jason deCaires Taylor become a refuge for marine life.
- Arrecife Castillo de San José An old eighteenth-century military fortress overlooking the port of Arrecife, converted by Manrique into a museum of contemporary art with a panoramic restaurant.
- San Bartolomé Casa-Museo del Campesino Manrique’s monument to the people of the land: a farmhouse with its crafts and a white sculpture that soars in the centre of the island.
- Tías Casa José Saramago In Tías, the house where José Saramago lived and wrote through his final years: the study, the garden and the library are just as he left them.
- San Bartolomé Bodega El Grifo Since 1775 the oldest winery in the Canaries has kept historic presses and century-old vines grown in the ash, beneath the iconic logo designed by Manrique.
Monuments
- Guatiza Jardín de Cactus In an old lapilli quarry, thousands of cacti from all over the world arranged on stone terraces: Manrique’s last great work.
- Haría Mirador del Río Carved into the rock almost five hundred metres up the cliff, Manrique’s viewpoint gazes down on La Graciosa and the whole Chinijo archipelago.
Villages and historic centres
- Teguise The island’s former capital: manor houses, convents and paved squares that preserve the essence of the town that once governed Lanzarote.
Unwinding together
Spas and thermal baths
- Thalasso Princesa Yaiza Playa Blanca A wellness centre a few steps from the Playa Blanca seafront, with thermal seawater pools at 34 degrees and natural therapeutic treatments devoted to relaxation.
The island, month by month
Choose a month on the timeline.
February, March
Carnaval
Arrecife in masks: murgas, parades and nights of music until morning.
July
Virgen del Carmen
The Virgin of the fishermen is carried in procession over the sea, followed by boats decked out for the festival.
Summer
The grape harvest
One of the earliest grape harvests in Europe: the bunches are picked strictly by hand, reaching down into the ash pits sheltered by dry-stone walls.
August
San Ginés
Arrecife celebrates its patron saint around the Charco de San Ginés, the seawater lagoon where the fishing boats bob.
September
Virgen de los Dolores
Our Lady of the Volcanoes, who tradition says stopped the lava: people walk here from all over the island, and the great craft fair is held around the shrine of Mancha Blanca.
Every week
- Sunday
- The Teguise market, the most famous in the Canaries
- Saturday
- The Haría craft market
- Wednesday and Saturday
- The Marina Rubicón market
At the table
Michelin stars Repsol Suns
Special mentions
- El Diablo Timanfaya At the top of the Montañas del Fuego, Manrique’s circular restaurant grills meat over heat rising straight from the volcano.
- Lagomar Nazaret A villa built into a volcanic rock quarry, with the legend that Omar Sharif lost it in a game of cards. Today guests dine and sip cocktails among its caves and ponds.
Lanzarote is an island that invites me to look beyond, to recognise beauty in the details and to let sensations fill the space between us. Here even what seems impossible finds a way to bloom. A landscape torn between the black of petrified lava and the white César Manrique used to give it back its light. The rest is left to a Malvasia born in the ash of La Geria: a glass at sunset, the two of us, and the whole evening ahead.
Lanzarote, with me
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