Quiet on Lanzarote is mostly a question of where you sleep. The noise is in the resorts: Puerto del Carmen's nightlife runs along the Avenida de las Playas and around the harbour, the Pueblo Marinero in Costa Teguise has live music at night, and Arrecife is a working town with a city's traffic. Inland the island goes silent. La Geria is vines in pits of black ash with no street life at all, Teguise is busy only on Sunday mornings, when the market fills the old quarter until 14:00, and Haría's evenings are village-quiet.
The price of that silence is a hire car and a drive to the sand; all three inland houses park you free. Choose by what you want around the quiet. A pool and dinner without leaving the grounds points to La Geria; a stroll to a village square points to Teguise or Haría; and if you want to walk to the sea, take a calm hotel above the resort rather than one on its front.
Hotel César Lanzarote is a former Manrique family house with 20 rooms, for guests of 16 and over, on the Camino del Barranco Por la Vegueta, a quiet country road at La Asomada. The village is scattered houses and vineyards on the hills above Puerto Calero, and the nearest bar is a 23-minute walk along the road. Nothing at the hotel runs late: the Pool Restaurant serves from 11am to 7pm and the Sunset Bar from 5pm to 7pm, both for residents, and dinner at César Restaurant ends at 9.30pm.
The days are built for staying put: a pool facing down the hillside towards the coast, massages given in the old aljibes where the house once stored its water, and yoga on request. When you do want the sea, Playa Grande is 12 minutes away by car.
The room to book
Superior Room with Terrace and Sea View
about 30 m², plus a 15 m² terrace€523 a night
A private 15 m² terrace facing the sea and the volcano, so the evening outside is yours rather than the pool's; the house has two.
La Casa de los Naranjos has eight rooms in a rescued 19th-century manor on Calle Rincón de Aganada, a few streets west of Haría's square, at the foot of the mountains that close the valley. With so few guests, the salon, the library of 19th-century volumes, the patio and the roof terrace over the palms feel like your own house. Evenings are village-quiet: dinner is candlelit on the nights the kitchen opens, with the last seating at 8.30pm, and the square is 5 minutes away on foot.
The house is being extended, with new rooms, a restaurant and a pool, and no end date has been published, so ask which rooms are furthest from the works when you book. The Casa-Museo César Manrique is 8 minutes' walk away.
The room to book
Room 6 Double w/ terrace
€336 a night
The only room with a large terrace of its own, facing the mountains and the village, so you can sit out without sharing the roof terrace.
Hotel Boutique Palacio Ico keeps nine rooms around the courtyard of a manor house of around 1690, on Calle El Rayo, a pedestrian lane in Teguise's historic centre. No traffic reaches the door, and nights in the old town are silent, which is what guests remember. The church bells do reach the courtyard, which is part of living in the old capital.
The evening needs no drive: the dining room, recommended by MICHELIN, serves dinner from Monday to Friday, and on Saturday Ikarus is a minute's walk away. The one busy time is Sunday morning, when the market fills the streets around the house from 9:00 to 14:00; by mid-afternoon the stalls have gone.
The room to book
Room 07
€282 a night
An interior room lit by skylights, with no window onto the lane: real silence, for anyone who would trade a view for a deeper sleep.
La Isla y el Mar Hotel Boutique is 81 adults-only suites in low buildings of volcanic stone that step down the hill among palms and boulders, about 40 metres above Puerto del Carmen's seafront. That height is the point. The bars of the Avenida and the harbour are below, close enough to walk down for fish at La Tiñosa in about eight minutes, and far enough to leave behind when you come back up.
No suite is smaller than 50 m², each has its own terrace or balcony, and guests single out how large and quiet they are. The heated pool runs all year, the wellness centre has a sauna and a hot tub, and Kentia Gourmet Club pairs its set menus with Canary Island wines, so a calm evening never has to leave the hotel.
The room to book
Classic Suite Superior
about 50 m²€285 a night
The entry suite's 50 m² with a partial sea view, sold as being in a quieter part of the hotel, for a small step up.
Paradisus Salinas Lanzarote is adults only, 16 and over, and runs as a calm resort rather than a lively one. Dinner at the buffet and at all three à la carte restaurants ends at 9.30pm, and the evening belongs to César Manrique's gardens: water falling in steps under the octagon, his murals in the Ginger Lobby Bar, planted terraces that open onto the shore. The Pueblo Marinero, where Costa Teguise's music plays at night, is 15 minutes away on foot.
The lagoon pool is the one almost everyone uses, so for a quieter day by the water, The Reserve, the hotel within the hotel, has its own pool and bar, its own lounge and a private breakfast.
The room to book
The Reserve Premium Ocean Front
about 32 m²
The sea-facing 32 m² room inside The Reserve, which adds the quieter pool with its own bar, a lounge and a private breakfast.
Secrets Lanzarote Resort & Spa is for adults of 18 and over, in a quiet setting at the western edge of Puerto Calero above a rocky shore. Its arcaded hydrotherapy hall and heated pools on terraces above the sea suit a calm spa week with a hire car.
From about €200 a night
Questions people ask
Good questions about Lanzarote
Where is the quietest place to stay in Lanzarote?
Inland. La Geria, the wine country in the middle of the island, has no beach and no street life, and Hotel César Lanzarote stands beside it on a country road at La Asomada, with 20 rooms for guests of 16 and over. Teguise, the old capital, is calm outside the Sunday-morning market; Hotel Boutique Palacio Ico has nine rooms on a lane closed to cars. Haría, in the valley of palms in the north, has village-quiet evenings and La Casa de los Naranjos, with eight rooms. All three need a car.
Is Puerto del Carmen noisy at night?
Along the front, it can be. The nightlife runs along the Avenida de las Playas and around the harbour, and Playa Grande is a busy beach. To have the resort without the noise, stay above it: La Isla y el Mar Hotel Boutique's 81 adults-only suites step down the hill about 40 metres above the seafront, behind walls of volcanic stone. The harbour restaurants of La Tiñosa are about eight minutes' walk down, and the hotel's heated pool, wellness centre and Kentia Gourmet Club cover the evenings you stay in.
Which quiet hotels in Lanzarote are adults only?
Three on this list. Hotel César Lanzarote takes guests of 16 and over in its 20 rooms by La Geria. Paradisus Salinas Lanzarote is for 16 and over too, all-inclusive, with dinners that end at 9.30pm and César Manrique's gardens at the heart of the building. La Isla y el Mar Hotel Boutique keeps all 81 of its suites for adults, on the hill above Puerto del Carmen. Off this list, Secrets Lanzarote Resort & Spa at Puerto Calero is for guests of 18 and over.
Does the Sunday market make Teguise noisy?
For one morning a week. Every Sunday from 9:00 to 14:00 one of the most popular markets in the Canary Islands fills the old quarter, with more than 400 stalls in the streets around Hotel Boutique Palacio Ico, and some bars keep live music going after it. By mid-afternoon the stalls have gone, and the rest of the week the lanes are calm, so on a Sunday plan to arrive after 2pm.
Do I need a car for a quiet stay in Lanzarote?
For the inland houses, yes. Hotel César Lanzarote, Hotel Boutique Palacio Ico and La Casa de los Naranjos all need a car, and all three park it free. With the roads clear, they are 13, 21 and 36 minutes from the airport. Without a car, La Isla y el Mar Hotel Boutique works: buses 161 and 162 stop two minutes from the door, and the harbour is on foot. So does Paradisus Salinas Lanzarote, 18 minutes from the airport, with Las Cucharas beach 3 minutes' walk along the front and lines 1 and 3 at the Hotel Salinas stop.
How did you choose these hotels?
Independently, through extensive research, trusted sources and first-hand visits. Hotels cannot pay to be included, and every one of the ten has to exist for a different reason.
The escape
