Experience Lanzarote – The Volcanic Island of Fire

The Canary Islands are often regarded as little more than a package holiday destination. But whilst these seven specks of Spain, located off the coast of Morocco, do attract over 9.5 million visitors every year they are by no means all birds of a feather. The smaller islands, such as Lanzarote, have still managed to retain plenty of their original character and identity.

Most of Lanzarote's stunning beaches have white or golden sand

Indeed on Lanzarote visitors won’t even find any high rise buildings. These were banned back in the 1970´s – after a local artist called César Manrique lobbied for restrained development, having seen much of the Spanish Costas submerged in cement. This has left the island today largely as nature intended, with all construction limited to the height of a Canarian palm tree.

Which is just as well, as Lanzarote boasts some of the most surreal scenery in the world. During the 1730´s the island was rocked by massive volcanic eruptions. Which decimated farmland and villages, remodelling the terrain of around one third of the island and carpeting much of Lanzarote in lava.

These seismic shocks obviously caused widespread devastation at the time, with many Lanzaroteños forced to abandon their farms and head off in search of a new life abroad. Today though, the island’s volcanic region - with its spent volcanic cones and mile after mile of lava fields - is Lanzarote´s number one tourist attraction. Welcoming over 900,000 visitors every year. It’s even possible to go hiking across this lunar surface – although the majority of visitors tend to tour the park in coaches.

LagOmar (Omar´s Lake) with Bar La Cueva is a great way to spend a Wed, Fri or Sat night!

The ubiqituous Manrique also had a hand in creating a series of unique visitor attractions, as he sought to illustrate that there were viable alternatives to just building water parks and golf courses. Instead he sought to fuse the volcanic terrain with his own creativity, resulting in sights such as the Jameos del Agua, a huge collapsed lava tunnel which the artist transformed into a subterranean nightclub and concert venue - replete with tropical gardens, sea water lagoon and bars and restaurants.

The opening of the Jameos del Agua helped to bring Lanzarote to the attention of a number of VIP visitors in the early 1970´s – such as Hollywood legends Rita Heyworth, Peter Sellers and Omar Sharif. Indeed the latter was so enamoured with the island and Manrique´s creations that he commissioned the artist to build him a holiday home. Which the actor then promptly lost in a game of bridge. Today this property, LagOmar (Omar´s Lake) is home to one of the most atmospheric eateries on the island as well as the excellent Bar La Cueva, where guests can party in this VIP setting into the early hours every Wednesday Friday and Saturday, admission free of charge.

The volcanic landscape of Lanzarote is often referred to as a 'moonscape'

A you’d expect on an island that has been welcoming tourists for over forty years there are plenty of accommodation options, ranging from good value basic apartments in the main resorts through to reasonably priced finca accommodation in the countryside. Lanzarote is also serviced by many of the UK´s leading low cost airlines such as EasyJet and Ryanair making it very accessible to independent travellers.

As well as the volcanic region the island boasts over ninety great beaches and is sometimes referred to as the Hawaii of Europe. This is further backed up thanks to the fact that it’s one of the continents best surfing locations - with most of this board based action taking place on the North West coast in and around the picturesque village of Famara.

Island tourism is expected to receive a boost this summer with the release of the new Pedro Almodovar movie – Broken Embraces which stars Penelope Cruz and which was largely shot on location on Lanzarote effectively showcasing the island and the creations of César Manrique to great effect.

Find out more about Lanzarote and the creations of César Manrique by visiting the Lanzarote Guidebook website. Where visitors can also download a 96 page guidebook to the island free of charge.

http://www.lanzaroteguidebook.com

Nick Ball is the editor of Lanzarote Guidebook, the in-depth island information guide