Lanzarote Holiday Guide about La Graciosa - Famara - Maguez - Craters - Beaches - Montanas.

Sightseeing Guides, Walks and Photos in and around Lanzarote's Lava and Volvanic areas.

Walks or just sightseeing days out you can do whilst on holiday on Lanzarote - going inside craters, visiting rugged coastlines and beaches and up into the mountains walking via tracks and paths.

Risco de Famara
This is a fairly shortish stroll of about 6.5kms and simply takes you for a wander along one of our favourite Lanzarote beaches and returns via a track which wanders along about a third of the way up the high cliffs that dominate the wild and rugged beach of Playa de Famara. The far end of this beach is by far the nicest since it is really unspoilt - you can reach it by car by taking the coast road out of Caleta de Famara which goes directly towards the cliffs - where the road forks go left and follow the road as it passes by the outside of some houses to reach a t-junction.
Here the road becomes a terribly bumpy and sometimes pot-holed track - turn sharp left and follow this track as it goes fairly steeply down to reach the beach. You can park off the track anywhere along the beach - if you are really lucky you will find plenty of vacant rock wind-breaks available - usually the beach is quite deserted during the week. We have enjoyed quite a few naturist afternoons swimming, sunbathing and wandering around on this wild Lanzarote Beach.

Facing the sea head right along the track (or the beach if you prefer walking on sand and the tide is out). When you pass an old derelict building the track goes up quite steeply for a while and reaches a t-junction. Turn left and follow this track down and around as it hugs the cliffs and ends up at a small pebble beach. (if you have walked along the beach then pick the track up here for your return). Return back as far as the t-junction but this time keep straight on and follow this track as it goes up into the cliffs a little and then continues right along the cliffs - passing a couple of buildings - and eventually end up at a track junction.

Turn right and follow the track back down to the beach and your car and force yourself to keep your sun-bathing appointment in your wind-break.

 

Montana de las Lapas del Coerso This little walk has to be included even though it's only about 3km, since you get the opportunity to actually be inside a crater where unlike for instance the Montana Roja at Playa Blanca, the scenery is really rough and gives the feeling nothing much has changed since it blew it's top. Also you don't have to even walk 3km - you can just walk over to the part of the crater where you can easily get inside however we first walked clockwise round it and this gave us great views of the surrounding countryside and several of the crater's neighbours

Take the Uga to Madasche road (it's road number 30 on the AA map) which goes through the La Geria area, and then turn left onto the Tinajo road (about 8kms out of Uga). There is limited roadside parking just after the stone Principality sign (Montana de las Lapas del Coerso is on your left in the lava fields), but better parking can be found just a few hundred metres up the road on the right hand side.

The well trodden black sandy track is clearly visible heading across the lava to the crater - when you get to the side of the crater you can either go clockwise round which walks you through some very heavy lava and then on the far side gives you great views of the surrounding countryside, or simply turn right and follow the track round to where the side of the crater is very low - then obviously just walk into it and enjoy the sights - it is really impressive inside.

 

Mancha Blanca - Tinajo - Mancha Blanca This 12.5 km circular walk is relatively flat and takes you through some nice stone-wall lined roads, then round a crater and finishes off with more little lanes as it returns back into Mancha Blanca. The walk starts on the outskirts of Mancha Blanca on the road to La Vegueta by the church Muestra Senora de los Volcanoes which is situated in a quite large square and where there is plenty of parking available. Walk back along the road into Mancha Blanca and at the road junction turn right and take the lower road and follow it around the houses (or you can cut through the houses to pick up the road after it loops back on itself). This road leaving Mancha Blanca is the way to Montana del Fuego - just after you leave the houses, at the bottom of a hill and on a bend, turn right into a small stone-walled lane heading through fields and gradually climbing to reach another road junction after about 5 minutes walking.

Turn left to take this lovely stone walled lane as it meanders along through fields towards Montana de Tenza and reach a t-junction beneath the Montana after around another 25 minutes; (if you go left you can go to either Playa de la Madera (a track going through lava fields) or Tenesar (tarmac) but both of these are quite a long walk). Turn right and follow the road with Montana de Tenza on your left and fields on your right to walk towards Tinajo - look out for the caves in the side of the Montana. Eventually walk into the outskirts of Tinajo and continue to the main road - cross this road and head right and shortly note a supermarket on the corner of a road junction - turn left and head out of Tinajo.

Ignore turnings to left and right and stay on this road (you will shortly see another quite busy main road running parallel on your left - you do not want to be on it). Once past houses you come to a cemetery on the right and shortly after this some sort of builders merchant's site (?) on your left - continue past these to arrive a road fork, take the right hand fork and follow this up hill to a saddle - you will see the military aerials etc up on Montana Tinache high above you on your right. Cross the saddle and continue on the same road as it turns back and completes a semi-circle of the Montana and heads back along as a nice little stone-wall line road towards Mancha Blanca.
As the church becomes visible turn left to take a tarmac'd lane which cuts across to the main road - turn right and follow this back to the church.

 

Maguez - Ye - Maguez The following 14.5km circular walk was one of the nicest we did on Lanzarote - stone wall-lined tracks, countryside, great views, craters and a couple of very steep climbs.
Start the walk by taking the road out of Maguez and passing the church on the left, after a couple of minutes (just after passing a large garden) turn left up a quite steep village road. Ignore a road near the top coming in from the right - continue straight on until the road bears left where you will find a branch track going off virtually straight on - the track is lined with palm trees. Continue on the track as it gently goes up towards the Montana Corona in front of you - the track goes through fields and is lined with stone walls. At the top you will find a large concrete thingy which we think is for catching and storing water and also what appeared to be a couple of (dis-used?) military bunkers - just after this there appears to be a very black scree path going up the crater (this is also shown on the map as a path and our gps did tie up with it as in the correct place) however it looked far to slippery to bother with.

Simply stay on this main track as it goes right round the Montana - ignore a cross track and later two tracks going off to the right. The area becomes much more volcanic - the track descends - ignore another track going right - eventually note a large villa sat up on the crater side on your left. Just before reaching the main road the track splits - go left and continue on down to the road.

Go left on the road and walk uphill - passing some huge gates on the right - and at the next sharp bend (about 6 minutes along) there is a stone-walked track going off on the right and heading towards another (hopefully extinct) volcano. You can see the track as in turns right and circles the volcano called La Quemada - eventually you arrive at the Orzola road.

La Graciosa (island) The small island of La Graciosa lies close to the northern coast of Lanzarote and is reached by a shortish (25 minutes usually) ferry ride from Orzola. The boat leaves Orzola at 10am, 12 midday and 5pm daily and from Caleta del Sebo in La Graciosa at 8am, 11am and 4pm - the cost was 13 Euros return (this was as of late February 2004 so obviously the timetable and prices may well alter in the future). The ferry itself is a twin-hulled boat (only takes passengers) - and you have to admire the seamanship as they bring the boat very very close to the rocks and into Orzola harbour - there is a very narrow channel for them to use and the sea just there seems always to be very rough. We could not find anywhere near the harbour in Orzola to buy any bread rolls etc but fortunately Caleta del Sebo (on the island) has a few restaurants, a small supermarket but also a nice little baker's shop selling rolls and lots of cakes (this is a few yards to the left of the supermarket on the corner).

The walk described below was of around 17.5 kms, and is quite easy to follow and no climbs of any note to struggle up. With your back to the harbour you can see the track out of the village just slightly to the left of you (goes past the bakers shop), simply follow this straight ahead through the houses out and slowly up into the open countryside - Montana Pedro Barba is ahead and slightly to the right of you and Montana del Mojon ahead and slightly to the left of you.
After about 30 minutes you come to a junction, turn right here and follow the track as it goes slowly up and around the base of Montana Pedro Barba - eventually the track goes over a crest and then descends to reach the track junction - this about 75 minutes into the walk. The right hand track takes you down to Pedro Barba village if you think you have time for this diversion (bearing in mind the last ferry time and that they do not wait).

You can continue round the island on the main track but because we were unsure of how much time this might take and we wanted to spend a little while on the beach we decided to cut across the island. The map shows a footpath which goes closely round the base of Montana Pedro Barba but we could not find this - presumably the wind had sanded it over. However we could see the massive Montana Bemerja clearly in front of us and we made our way across the open countryside aiming for it's left side - walking was fortunately quite easy underfoot. Once near the coast the main track became visible and so did unfortunately the local rubbish tip; keep the rubbish tip on your left and keep going straight across to the sandy beach - the tiny but very imposing island of Montana Clara is in front of you. At the beach there are several stone wind-breaks you can use and you will probably be unlikely to see any other person anywhere near you so fine for some nude sunbathing - it is a very nice beach.
As always the time of the last ferry is probably in your mind a little and we reckon you can get from the beach to the ferry in about an hour without too much effort.

Leaving the beach pick up the black sandy track which heads initially right and passes the rubbish tip, and then goes off between Montana Pedro Barba now on your left and Montana del Mojon on your right - after about half an hour you re-join the outbound track at the junction, and from here you can simply continue down to the port. If you still have plenty of time left half way down to the port take a sandy track going off to the right - follow this passing through the goat station and head towards the coast - you can see the large white crematorium up the hill on your right. There is an interesting tidal lagoon at the end of track to explore - once finished looking round return along the coastline passing lots of rock pools etc. and back to the port where hopefully the ferry has not left you behind.

Our other Lanzarote pages :- Lanzarote Home Page - Lanzarote Walks

We have quite a few more topics about holidays and travel for the Canary islands - please see our Home Page.
Visit our Resources topic if you wish to Email Us - via that page there are also links to a series on England - wildflowers, churches, canals and walks plus more holiday and travel guides about Cyprus, Egypt - Cairo, Aswan, Luxor and Sharm, Greek Islands and Athens, Touring India, New Zealand, The Algarve and in the Far East places including Singapore, Hong Kong and Bali.
Also via the Resources page you will find our Site Policy re adverts and cookies.

www.canary-islands-guide.co.uk