Car hire in Lanzarote

Not for a beach week in Puerto del Carmen, Costa Teguise or Arrecife. Hotel Fariones has stops three to seven minutes away for IntercityBus's line 161, which runs to the airport and Playa Blanca, and line 2 to Arrecife; La Isla y el Mar is two minutes from the Balcón del Mar stop, served by lines 161 and 162 from Terminal 1; Paradisus Salinas has lines 1 and 3 at the door; and Hotel Lancelot is a city hotel seven minutes from the airport, where a car is for days out rather than for getting about.

Two need one. Hotel César Lanzarote stands among the vineyards at La Asomada with nothing practical in walking distance, and La Casa de los Naranjos is in Haría, which no bus reaches direct from the airport; lines 7, 7-D and 8 come up from Arrecife. Four more are far easier with one: Princesa Yaiza and Barceló, at the southern tip in Playa Blanca, Secrets at Puerto Calero, whose bus stop is 18 minutes' walk, and Palacio Ico in inland Teguise.

For the odd trip, taxis run on the meter. By day, the airport to Puerto del Carmen comes to about €20, to Costa Teguise about €25 and to Playa Blanca about €45, estimates from the official tariff and the routed distance.

Lanzarote has one airport, César Manrique-Lanzarote, 5 km from Arrecife: Terminal 1 for international and mainland flights, Terminal 2 for inter-island ones. Aena lists nine firms with desks at both terminals: AutoReisen, Cabrera Medina, Cicar, Europcar, Goldcar, Hertz, Payless, Sixt and TopCar, with Hertz and TopCar also in the Terminal 1 car park at level P0. Other offers come with a free shuttle to a depot outside the airport. On expedia.ie on 18 October 2026, of the 136 offers for a week from 8 June 2027 whose desk was shown, 92 had it in the terminal and 44 used a shuttle; for the February half-term week, 90 of 150 were in the terminal and 60 used a shuttle. A shuttle adds a transfer at both ends, so allow for it before a flight home.

At the desk, the main driver needs a full driving licence, a passport or ID card and, normally, a credit card in their own name for the deposit: a debit card may not be accepted. Before you drive off, walk round the car with the agent, make sure every mark is on the condition report, and take photographs. Do the same on return. The airport's own petrol station, for a full tank on the way back, opens from 07:00 to 23:00.

On expedia.ie on 18 October 2026, a week from Lanzarote Airport cost from €81 with a manual gearbox and €107 automatic for 8 to 15 June 2027, and from €99 and €130 for the February half-term week. Taxes, basic damage cover and free cancellation are included.

What they leave out is the excess, the share of any damage you pay before the cover takes over, and the deposit blocked against it, normally on the main driver's credit card. Two firms' terms show how: Goldcar's terms set a small car's excess at €2,300 and hold €950 of it as a deposit, and TopCar's deposit with basic cover runs from €900 to €4,000, by car and rate. The firm's own cover, sold online or at the desk, cuts or removes both; cover bought elsewhere does not lift the deposit. Check the exclusions, which often include windows and wheels.

On fuel, choose full to full. Extra drivers and child seats can cost extra; a young-driver charge must be in the total price at booking, so give your real age.

Two Canarian firms sell direct, not through Expedia. Cicar's Canary terms include cover without excess, extra drivers, child seats and drivers aged 21 to 25; AutoReisen's, zero-excess cover with no deposit, a second driver and standard child seats, for drivers from 23.

A UK photocard licence is valid in Spain without an international driving permit; a paper licence may need updating to a photocard, and a provisional one is not valid. EU and EEA licences are valid while in date. The legal minimum age is 18, but hire firms set their own: Cicar asks for 21 and AutoReisen 23, each with two years' driving.

The drink-drive limit is 0.5 g per litre of blood, or 0.25 mg per litre of breath, and lower in the first two years after passing. Children up to 135 cm tall ride in an approved child seat in the back, unless other children fill the rear seats or there are none. A phone may be used only hands-free, with no handset or earpiece. Unless signs say otherwise, a car may do 120 km/h on autopistas and autovías, the motorways, and 90 on other roads outside towns; in towns, 50, 30 or 20, by the type of street.

Since 1 January 2026 the connected V-16 beacon has replaced warning triangles. The car's owner, here the hire firm, must supply it: check the glovebox. After a breakdown, switch it on, put it on the roof and call 112 or the firm's assistance line, as it calls no one. Outside towns, wear a reflective vest on the road.

The LZ-2 is the spine of the south, from Arrecife past the airport to Yaiza and Playa Blanca; the LZ-3 ring road takes you round Arrecife; and the LZ-1 runs north towards Arrieta and Haría. Off-peak, like every time here, the airport is 34 minutes from the ferry port at Playa Blanca and Hotel Fariones 31, while Hotel Lancelot, in Arrecife, is 33 minutes from La Casa de los Naranjos in Haría.

Inland, the LZ-67 crosses Timanfaya National Park between Yaiza and Mancha Blanca. For Montañas del Fuego, buy a timed entry online first: €30, under 7 free. You drive your own car from El Taro to the car park on the Islote de Hilario, without leaving it; the park cannot be toured freely by car, and the Ruta de los Volcanes is by the Centros Turísticos' coach, included in the ticket. César Lanzarote is 24 minutes from the Islote off-peak and Barceló Playa Blanca 32; Bodega La Geria is nine minutes from César.

In the south, the Papagayo beaches lie inside the Monumento Natural de Los Ajaches: €3 at the entrance for non-residents, by card only, 12 to 15 minutes from Princesa Yaiza. Some hire terms, AutoReisen's and TopCar's among them, rule out unsurfaced roads, so read yours before you leave the tarmac.

Four of our ten park you free: Hotel César Lanzarote; La Isla y el Mar, in its car park beside the hotel; La Casa de los Naranjos; and Palacio Ico, whose lane in Teguise is pedestrian, so ask the hotel where to leave the car. Two charge without publishing a price: Paradisus Salinas, which also offers valet parking, and Barceló Playa Blanca, where Royal Level guests park free when spaces allow. Secrets lists parking on site, so ask the terms when you book, while Princesa Yaiza and Hotel Fariones publish nothing on parking, so ask both before you arrive. Hotel Lancelot, in Arrecife, has none of its own: a paid public underground car park is three minutes' walk away.

Teguise's Sunday market, with more than 400 stalls, fills the streets of the old town from 09:00 to 14:00, around Palacio Ico. If you are driving in from the coast, arrive early; IntercityBus also runs market lines to Teguise from Costa Teguise, Puerto del Carmen, Playa Blanca and Arrecife.

At Timanfaya, the car park is on the Islote de Hilario, on a slope: the Centros Turísticos ask you to open the doors with care, as they may swing into the next car. At Papagayo, the €3 is paid at the entrance to Los Ajaches, by card.

Only if your firm allows it, and the terms differ. Goldcar's Spanish terms let its cars travel between the Canary Islands with its Cross Border cover, €12 a day up to €156 a hire, a little more in its busiest weeks. TopCar allows it only with its prior authorisation, which needs its Super Cover plus its Multi-Island Cover, €50 at the counter, and only to islands where it has an office, Fuerteventura among them; the car must come back to Lanzarote. Sixt's Spanish conditions forbid moving a car between islands without the firm's written authorisation, and AutoReisen's terms say the same.

The crossing readers make is Playa Blanca to Corralejo, on Fuerteventura's northern tip. Fred. Olsen Express sails it in 25 minutes by fast ferry, with up to 12 departures a day; its Bocayna Express takes cars, while the Buganvilla Express carries foot passengers only. Baleària Canarias, the former Naviera Armas, sails the same route. With a hire car on Fred. Olsen, book with 'Hire' as the make and model and 0000XXX as the plate, and send the real details no later than an hour before you sail. The port is four minutes by car from Princesa Yaiza and Barceló Playa Blanca, and 31 from Hotel Fariones, off-peak.

The alternative is to cross as a foot passenger and hire a second car in Corralejo.