Timanfaya, La Geria and El Golfo Day Tour Lanzarote

Timanfaya National Park and the Fire Mountains

Between 1730 and 1736, a chain of eruptions buried about a quarter of Lanzarote under lava and ash, covering villages and farmland. A smaller eruption followed in 1824. The result is Timanfaya National Park, created in 1974 and covering around 51 square kilometres of craters, cones and frozen lava rivers in shades of black, red and ochre. Locals call the area the Montañas del Fuego, the Fire Mountains.

To protect the fragile ground, visitors cannot walk freely through the park. The only way to see its heart is the Volcano Route, a narrow road of about 14 kilometres that winds between craters and lava fields. On this Timanfaya National Park tour you travel it by coach for about 40 minutes with commentary, and your skip-the-line entry saves the long queues that form at the park entrance in high season.

Islote de Hilario and the geothermal demonstrations

Islote de Hilario is the visitor area in the middle of the park. Just a few metres underground, the temperature reaches several hundred degrees Celsius, a reminder that the volcanic system is still alive. Park staff show this in simple, striking demonstrations: dry brush pushed into a hole bursts into flames, and water poured into a pipe in the ground shoots back up as a geyser of steam within seconds.

There is also a viewing terrace with wide views over the cones and lava fields, and a building where food is grilled over the natural heat rising from the earth. Is Timanfaya worth visiting? For most travellers it is the single most memorable sight on Lanzarote, and the combination of the drive and the demonstrations gives a clear picture of what happened here three centuries ago.

El Golfo and the Green Lagoon (Charco de los Clicos)

El Golfo is a small fishing village on the west coast, at the edge of the lava fields. Next to it lies one of Lanzarote's most photographed sights: the Charco de los Clicos, a lagoon inside a volcanic crater whose seaward half has been eroded away by the Atlantic. The water is a vivid green, thanks to algae and minerals, and it contrasts with the red and ochre layers of the crater wall and the black sand beach between lagoon and sea.

The lagoon is a protected area, so you admire it from the viewpoint above rather than walking down to the water. The tour stops here first in the morning, when the light on the crater cliffs is soft. The village of El Golfo itself has a short seafront with small fish restaurants facing the waves.

The camel station and the slopes of Timanfaya

Camels, or more exactly dromedaries, were brought to Lanzarote from nearby Africa centuries ago and were used to plough the fields and carry loads. Today they live at the Echadero de los Camellos on the southern slopes of Timanfaya, where visitors can ride them in a short caravan up the volcanic hillside.

The tour stops at the camel station so you can watch the animals and take photos of the volcanic landscape. The ride itself is optional and paid on the spot, as it is not included in the tour. The small visitor centre here also explains the role of the camel in the island's rural life. Watching a line of dromedaries crossing the dark volcanic slopes is one of the classic images of Lanzarote.

Yaiza and La Geria

Yaiza is a whitewashed village at the foot of the volcanoes, with flower-filled gardens, green doors and the church of Nuestra Señora de los Remedios. It has often been praised as one of the most beautiful villages in Spain, and it is where the tour pauses for lunch. Lunch is not included, which lets you choose a simple café or a sit-down meal of Canarian dishes such as wrinkled potatoes with mojo sauce.

The last stop is La Geria, a protected landscape between Yaiza and the centre of the island. After the eruptions, farmers learned to dig round hollows through the volcanic ash down to the fertile soil, then build low semicircular stone walls around each plant to shield it from the trade winds. The ash holds the night dew and keeps the roots moist. Thousands of these hollows cover the black slopes and form one of the most unusual farming landscapes in the world.