Lanzarote is a small island, you can drive across it in about one and a half hours. That sounds like it should make planning easy, but the sheer variety of things on offer means that without a kind of plan, you end up either cramming too much in or drifting between resorts, wondering what to do next. Neither is ideal when you have one week and want to come home feeling like you actually saw the place.
Step 1: Figure out what kind of holiday you actually want
Before you look at a single attraction, answer this honestly: are you here to relax or are you here to explore?
Because Lanzarote does both brilliantly, but they require different approaches.
If you want mostly beach time with a few days out, my recommendation is to base yourself in Playa Blanca or Puerto del Carmen, book Timanfaya for one day and leave the rest loose. You will still have a brilliant holiday.
If you want a proper exploration of the island: volcanoes, caves, vineyards, the north, the art,... all of it. Then you need a car, an early alarm on at least three mornings and some kind of structure to your days. The good news is that even a rough plan makes a massive difference on an island this size.
Step 2: Go to Timafaya early, very early
Timanfaya National Park is the one thing on Lanzarote that is worth getting to early. The volcanic landscape looks like nothing else on earth, the underground temperature sits at around 600 °C and they still cook food using the geothermal heat, which sounds made up but is completely real.
Gates open at 9:30 am and the queue builds fast once the tour buses arrive around 11 am, by midday the car queue can stretch for two hours. Go first thig and it is a completely different experience. Alternatively, book a tour bus, they skip the car queue entirely and the park entry and the entry fee are usually included in the price.
Step 3: Hire a car for at least two days
You do not need a car every day, but without one for at least two days, you will miss half of the island.
Papagayo beaches in the south, the vineyards of La Geria, Jameos del Agua and Cuevas de los Verdes in the north. El Golfo, with the surreal green lagoon on the wet coast, none of these is properly accessible without a car and all of them are worth the effort.
Step 4: Split the island into Zones
The easiest way to plan Lanzarote without backtracking or wasting time is to think in zones rather than individual attractions. The south has the best beaches, Papagayo especially. The centre is all about the volcanic landscape and Timafaya. The north has the César Manrique sites, the lava tunnels and Famara beaches and the capital Arrecife is worth at least a half day if you want to see a side of the island that most tourists miss entirely.
A roughweek might look like this: two days settling in and exploring your resort area, one full day Timafaya and the centre, one day driving north, one day south and two days completely unplanned. That last bit matters, the best things that happen on holiday usually happen when you stop following an itinerary.
Step 5: Check what is on while you are there
This is the bit most guides skip, and it is genuinely one of the best ways to have a better holiday.
Lanzarote has a constant calendar of local markets, food festivals, live music and events. Particularly in the villages away from the main resorts. A Sunday market in Teguise, a local fish festival, live music at the marina… These things are not in most travel guides but they are exactly the kind of thing you remember when you get home.
The easiest way to find them is on VidodoGuide. Every event happening on the island is listed in the app, updated regularly, so you can see what is on during your exact dates before you even land.
VidodoGuide has every beach, restaurant, attraction and event in Lanzarote in one free app. Download on IOS and Android before your trip. It takes 3 minutes to plan a full day out.
One more thing. Do not overplan
Everything above is a framework, not a schedule. The mistake most people make with Lanzarote is trying to see everything and ending up exhausted. You cannot see everything in a week, and you should not try. Pick the things that actually matter to you: volcanoes, a particular beach, the art, the food…, and so those well. Leave room for a long lunch that turns into an afternoon, for a drive that goes somewhere unexpected, for doing absolutely nothing for a day because you are on holiday and that is allowed.
Lanzarote rewards the people who slow down enough to actually notice it.
