Places To See While In Lanzarote

Posted on December 25, 2008
Filed Under Africa

If you are looking for attractions to visit when you have booked a Lanzarote villa to help you escape from the beach, then going to Timanfaya Volcano Park is a must and could be top of your list if it is your first visit to the island.

You are taken up to the top of the mountain, or drive in a hire car, to the car park at the visitor centre. The journey through the park is the start of the experience. It is described as being a lunar scene and that is honestly the im pression that you do get as you gaze across fields of solidified volcanic lava that have been untouched since they were laid down. The area is now a protected park to help preserve this landscape.

Once you arrive at the car park at the top of the visitor center there are plenty of uniformed guides to entertain you. They will demonstrate how a bucket of water emptied down into a bore hole erupts seconds later as steam, heated ashtonishingly quickly just by the temperature of the rocks below the ground. Another favorite demonstration is to place some brushwood into the rocks and then it is pulled out burning not long later. Again, this is just the heat of the rocks.

Also within the visitor centre is a fairly unique restaurant. There are no standard ovens. Instead the food is cooked from the heat given off by a hole in the rocks. The demonstrations of the heat given off from the subterranean rocks are certainly varied!

There is also a guided coach tour from the visitor center that shows tourists a little more of the area and the rock formations. All of this makes Timanfaya, Fire Mountain, worthy of a visit!

A favorite spot to visit, especially for my little girl, is the Cactus Garden, designed by local artist Cesar Manrique. There are a wide selection of cactus plants on show, well over a thousand species in fact, in this sunken display that can be sheltered from the hottest of the elements. There is also a restored white windmill to visit within the gardens, which includes the site’s café for a welcome refreshment or snack.

Also worth a quiet visit is El Golfo, a semi-circular volcanic crater. The crater has been half erroded by the sea, hence not being complete, and filled with sea water that has filtered through the black sand that separates the sea from the crater. The water in the crater has created a green lagoon, which is the result of the algae thriving in the water and it contrasts spectacularly with the surrounding black sand.

Another favorite, and the destination of many coach tours, is the Cave of Los Verdes. These are a complex of underground caves that were left in the lava some 3,000 years ago and were used as shelter to the early inhabitants when the pirates of old came sacking. They are well worth a visit, even if only to discover what the secret is of Lanzarote. You only get to see it by visiting the cave and I’m not about to tell you now!