Lanzarote before you book: the practical facts we checked

César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport (ACE) is 5 km from Arrecife: Terminal 1 for international and mainland flights, Terminal 2 for inter-island ones, with taxis and buses outside on Floor 0 of both. There are no fixed airport fares: journeys to another town run on the Canary Islands' interurban meter, set by the Gobierno de Canarias order of 14 March 2023 (BOC 59). From 06:00 to 22:00 on working days the minimum is €3.85, covering the first 1.5 km, then €1.35 a kilometre; at night and on Sundays and holidays, €4.25 and €1.55; a pick-up at the airport adds €2.10. On that meter, by day, Puerto del Carmen comes to about €20, Costa Teguise to about €25 and Playa Blanca to about €45: estimates from the tariff and the routed distance.

IntercityBus's lines call at Terminal 1 and a minute later at Terminal 2, and the driver takes a bank card or cash, with change for notes up to €10. Line 161 leaves at 07:30 and 08:30, then every 30 minutes from 09:00 to 16:30 and hourly to 21:30, reaching the Apart. Caletón Blanco stop in Puerto del Carmen in 18 minutes, Puerto Calero in 25 and Playa Blanca bus station in 47. Line 162-D leaves at 20 past the hour from 10:20 to 19:20, except 11:20 and 18:20, and reaches Playa Blanca in 20 minutes. Lines 22 and 23 go to Arrecife, and line 61 makes one late run south at 22:30. Nine car hire firms have desks in both terminals. Drive times below are routed from the Terminal 1 arrivals kerb, with the roads clear.

Away from the resorts, hire a car. The LZ-2 is the spine of the south, from Arrecife past the airport to Yaiza and Playa Blanca; the LZ-1 runs north from Arrecife towards Arrieta and Haría; and the LZ-67 crosses Timanfaya National Park between Yaiza and Mancha Blanca. Montañas del Fuego, on the Islote de Hilario, is the way into the heart of the park: the ticket includes a 35-minute coach along the Ruta de los Volcanes through the craters, with commentary in English. It is sold only online, for an entry time between 09:00 and 15:45; be at the ticket office 15 minutes early, and stay in the car from El Taro to the car park.

IntercityBus also links the resorts with Arrecife: lines 1 and 3 serve Costa Teguise, line 2 Puerto del Carmen, lines 24 and 25 Puerto Calero, lines 7, 7-D and 8 Haría, and lines 7 and 10 Teguise, while Playa Blanca's town line, 30, runs every half hour. The Bono General card costs €2 and takes 10% off every ride, with top-ups of €5 to €50, and one card can pay for several people; under-4s ride free.

On foot, Puerto del Carmen's seafront runs from Playa de los Pocillos to Hotel Fariones, at the western end of Playa Grande, in 44 minutes, with the old harbour 13 minutes beyond. In Playa Blanca, the church to Marina Rubicón is 25 minutes; in Arrecife, Hotel Lancelot to the Charco de San Ginés is 16. La Geria, Teguise and Haría need a car.

The Canary Islands charge IGIC, their own sales tax, instead of VAT, and hotel stays pay the general rate of 7% under the consolidated IGIC law of 2025, Decreto Legislativo 1/2025. Quoted room rates include it.

Lanzarote has no tourist tax. None of the councils of the ten, Arrecife, Teguise, Tías, Yaiza and Haría, charges one, and the Canary government has not introduced one.

What goes on top is the board and the extras. Paradisus Salinas sells all-inclusive only, though drinks at its Beach Bar cost extra. Secrets and Barceló Playa Blanca start with breakfast and sell half board and all-inclusive above it; Princesa Yaiza, Fariones and La Isla y el Mar include breakfast, with half board the step up; César Lanzarote and La Casa de los Naranjos include breakfast on every rate; at Palacio Ico and Hotel Lancelot, check whether your rate includes it. The spas charge: at Secrets the circuit costs extra on every board, all-inclusive too, and at Fariones it is €65 for two hours. Minimum stays are common: two nights at César Lanzarote and La Casa de los Naranjos, two or three at Palacio Ico, and four on many dates at Paradisus Salinas and for most rooms at Fariones and Princesa Yaiza outside July and August.

AEMET's 1981 to 2010 normals for Lanzarote Airport give an average high of 20.7°C (69°F) in January and 29.1°C (84°F) in August, and an average low of 14.0°C (57°F) in January. Rain falls on about 19 days a year, 111 mm in all; December is the wettest month, with 29 mm on 3.8 days, and June to August are dry. The sun shines for 2,986 hours a year, from 196 hours in December to 308 in July.

Costa Teguise's Playa de las Cucharas is a windsurfing beach, and at Timanfaya the Centros Turísticos advise warm clothes from October to April because it is a windy area, and a cap and sun protection from June to September. Calima, Saharan dust that hazes the sky, comes in episodes; AEMET says dust over the Canaries peaks in February, with a smaller rise in summer, and counts 1.7 episodes a year of three days or more in the islands, the most of any region of Spain.

Prices follow the northern winter. In 2027 the peaks are Christmas and New Year, the February half-terms, 15 to 19 February in Surrey, Arrecife's carnival, whose theme is The Thousand and One Nights but whose dates had not been published by October 2026, and Easter, on 28 March. The cheaper stretches are May and June, and September and October before the English half-term, 25 to 29 October 2027 in Surrey.

Spain uses the euro, and cards, mainly Visa and Mastercard, are very widely accepted, the island buses included. A shop or bar may set a minimum spend for cards if a sign says so, but Spanish law bars any surcharge for paying by card. Cash payments to a business must stay under €1,000, or under €10,000 for a visitor whose tax home is outside Spain. Prices must be shown with tax included, and in the Canary Islands that tax is IGIC, at a general rate of 7%.

Tipping is not obligatory, since service is included in the price, but Turespaña says tips are common in bars, restaurants, hotels and taxis, usually between 5 and 10%.

The Canary Islands are in the EU but outside its VAT and excise area, so travellers leaving them have allowances, as from a country outside the EU. Flying home to Great Britain, the allowance is 42 litres of beer and cider, 18 litres of wine, and 4 litres of spirits or 9 litres of drinks up to 22%, plus 200 cigarettes, 50 cigars or 250 g of tobacco, and other goods worth up to £390. Flying on to mainland Spain or another EU country, the limits are lower: 16 litres of beer, 4 litres of still wine, 1 litre of spirits or 2 litres of drinks up to 22%, 200 cigarettes, and other goods worth up to €430 by air or sea, €150 for under-15s. Neither allows alcohol or tobacco under 17.

The Canary Islands are part of Spain and of the Schengen area, so British citizens need no visa for a short visit: up to 90 days in any 180, counted across the whole Schengen area. The passport must have been issued less than 10 years before the day you arrive and be valid for at least three months after the day you plan to leave the Schengen area.

Passport stamps have given way to the EU's Entry/Exit System, which registers non-EU visitors at the border: passport details, a photograph of the face and, for those who need no visa, four fingerprints, though children under 12 are not fingerprinted. It began on 12 October 2025, came in border by border, and has been fully operational at every external crossing since 10 April 2026. It costs nothing and needs nothing done in advance, but the checks take longer, so allow extra time at the airport on the way home, where flights to the UK go through passport control in Terminal 1. The record lasts three years.

ETIAS, the EU's travel authorisation for visitors who need no visa, is not yet in operation, and the EU says it will announce the start date several months ahead. When it begins it will cost €20, with under-18s and over-70s applying free, last up to three years or until the passport expires, and be applied for only on the official ETIAS website or app.

At Timanfaya, the Centros de Arte, Cultura y Turismo now sell Montañas del Fuego only online, each ticket for a set date and entry time, with no sales on the day at the ticket office, and the adult ticket is €30, children aged 7 to 12 €15. Cueva de los Verdes works the same way. Jameos del Agua and Cueva de los Verdes are €17, the Mirador del Río and the Jardín de Cactus €9. Book Montañas del Fuego before you drive out, especially in the winter peaks, and arrive 15 minutes before your slot.

On the buses, IntercityBus changed line 22, between Arrecife and the airport, from 1 October 2026: it runs longer hours on weekdays, from 05:55 to 23:35 from Terminal 1, and the 22-D no longer runs. At the border, the Entry/Exit System began on 12 October 2025 and has run in full since 10 April 2026.

Among the ten, the newest is Barceló Playa Blanca, which took its first guests on 1 December 2023, and Paradisus Salinas Lanzarote reopened in 2023 after a refit of about €15 million that kept César Manrique's gardens and lagoon pool. Hotel César Lanzarote, opened in 2023, holds One MICHELIN Key in the 2026 guide. In Haría, La Casa de los Naranjos announced a state-subsidised expansion in August 2025 that will add rooms, a restaurant and a pool; work was under way in 2026, with no completion date, so ask what is happening on site before you book. No council on the island has introduced a tourist tax.