The Mini Rough Guide to Lanzarote & Fuerteventura (Travel Guide eBook)

Rough Guides

• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Year: 2022
• ISBN:
  9781839058110
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

This pocket-sized guide is a convenient, quick-reference companion to discovering what to do, what to see and how to get around Lanzarote & Fuerteventura. It covers top attractions like Teguise market, Timanfaya volcanic landscape and Fundación César Manrique, as well as hidden gems, including Arrecife, Mirador del Rio and La Graciosa, and Parque Nacional de Timanfaya. This will save you time, and enhance your exploration of this fascinating islands. This title has been fully updated post-COVID-19. In this travel guide you will find: RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EVERY TYPE OF TRAVELLER
Experiences selected for every kind of trip to Lanzarote & Fuerteventura, from cultural explorations to family activities in child-friendly places or chilled-out breaks in popular tourist areas. TOP TEN ATTRACTIONS
Covers the destination's top ten attractions not to miss and a Perfect Day/Tour itinerary suggestions. COMPACT FORMAT
Compact, concise, and packed with essential information, with a sharp design and colour-coded sections, this is the perfect on-the-move companion when you're exploring  Lanzarote & Fuerteventura. HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL INSIGHTS
Includes an insightful overview of landscape, history and culture. WHAT TO DO
Detailed description of entertainment, shopping, nightlife, festivals and events, and children's activities. PRACTICAL MAPS
Handy colour maps on the inside cover flaps will help you find your way around. PRACTICAL TRAVEL INFORMATION
Practical information on eating out, including a handy glossary and detailed restaurant listings, as well as a comprehensive A-Z of travel tips on everything from getting around to health and tourist information. STRIKING PICTURES
Inspirational colour photography throughout.

Out and About

Lanzarote

Lanzarote is a small island, but it packs a lot of contrasts into a limited space. From the awesome, unearthly Montañas del Fuego in the Parque Nacional de Timanfaya to the verdant ‘Valley of a Thousand Palms’ around Haría; from the tranquillity of La Graciosa to the razzmatazz of Puerto del Carmen, there is always something to surprise the visitor. One thing is consistent, however: the building limits proposed by artist César Manrique and imposed by the island government have ensured that, with a few exceptions, the architecture consists of low white buildings with green, blue or brown balconies and shutters, which complement the indigenous architecture of the island.

Neil Buchan-Grant/Apa Publications

One of Playa Blanca’s inviting beaches

Lanzarote is an easy place to get around. For the sake of simplicity this guide starts with the capital, Arrecife, then divides the island into three areas: north, south and centre. However, distances are so small that you may find yourself straying from one region to the other on a single trip. Just follow your own instincts and you won’t go far wrong.

Arrecife

Arrecife 1 [map] lies 8km (5 miles) east of the airport, from where it is well served by inexpensive taxis. Buses (guaguas) run every 20 minutes to Costa Teguise and Puerto del Carmen, and taxi fares to both resorts are very reasonable. The town has a long history, as its two sturdy fortresses demonstrate. Castillo de San Gabriel was built in the second half of the 17th century to reinforce the town against attacks from the sea; it was the work of Genoese engineer Leonardo Torriani, who also built Teguise’s Castillo de Santa Bárbara. The Castillo de San José dates from about a century later, when pirate attacks were still a problem. It was also a work-creation project, as the islanders were suffering great poverty following periods of drought and the eruption of Timanfaya, which had destroyed farmland in the most fertile part of the island. For a long time it was known as the Castillo del Hambre (Fortress of Hunger). In 1852, when links with Spain’s American colonies meant that it made more sense to have a capital on the coast, Arrecife took over from Teguise as the capital of Lanzarote.

Arrecife is a down-to-earth, working city, home to almost half the island’s population. It has few buildings of architectural interest and not a great deal in the way of culture, but it is well worth a visit to see a slice of island life, away from the resorts or the picture-postcard villages. It has a few decent tapas bars, an excellent restaurant in the Castillo de San José, food to be purchased in the market and local shops that is cheaper and more varied than in the resorts, and an excellent curved beach – Playa Reducto – with golden sands and calm, safe waters. If you want a quiet holiday there is a lot to be said for making a base here in one of the seafront hotels.

Shutterstock

Quiosco de la Música

Exploring the Town

If you come to Arrecife by car, get off the circunvalación (ring road) at the west (airport) end of town, where you can park in a large car park at the end of the beach, opposite the smart Cabildo Insular building, and thereby avoid the narrow streets and one-way system of the city. Looming at the other end of the beach is the 17-storey Arrecife Gran Hotel & Spa. This was the building that so upset Manrique when he returned from New York that he took steps to ensure that Lanzarote’s skyline would not become disfigured by similar high-rises. Although it breaks all the rules, it is a sleek, well-designed building. Take the glass lift to the top, where a there’s a restaurant and a café that offers views over the town and down to Puerto del Carmen.

Neil Buchan-Grant/Apa Publications

Crossing the shore in front of Castillo de San Gabriel

Newly planted gardens and a wooden walkway lead towards the town centre. On a corner, opposite an attractive Canarian-style building belonging to the Cabildo, old men sit in a little square playing dominoes. A broad promenade runs east from here. The statue at the beginning is of Blas Cabrera Felipe (1878–1945), an eminent scientist who was born in the town. There are seats in flower-decked bowers, and egrets squawk and flap in the palm trees. The circular wooden Quiosco de la Música, where a band sometimes plays, also serves as the town’s tourist information office. On the other side of the road, the Avenida de la Marina, is the post office and the Casa de Cultura Agustín de la Hoz A [map] , which contains early murals by César Manrique discovered during the course of renovation.

Cross a little bridge to the Castillo de San Gabriel B [map] , with a rusty cannon standing outside. The sturdy little fortress now houses the Museo de Historia de Arrecife (Mon–Fri 10am–5pm, Sat 10am–2pm), with information about the Guanches (or Majoreros), the island’s original inhabitants, its fauna, flora and history. You can cross back to the seafront via a parallel bridge, the Puente de las Bolas, named for the cannon balls atop its twin pillars. Follow the promenade (now called Avenida Coll) a short way to the right (towards the port), passing the Ayuntamiento (Town Hall), then cross the road to the Charco de San Ginés C [map] . This pretty little tidal lagoon, where boats bob serenely on the water, is surrounded by brightly shuttered buildings, several of which house restaurants. There is a traditional fair held every Wednesday and Thursday. The only incongruous feature is a large, four-screen cinema (Multicines Atlántida) but local people are probably glad of the entertainment.

León y Castillo

You may wonder why most towns and villages in Lanzarote have a street or square called León y Castillo. This has nothing to do with lions or castles, but pays homage to two brothers, Fernando and Juan, who were born in Telde, Gran Canaria, where there is now a museum devoted to them. Fernando, who became foreign minister in the Spanish government in 1881, implemented a programme of improvements to the port of Las Palmas, the plans for which were drawn up by his engineer brother Juan. This made it the major port in the archipelago and an important stop on the new steamship route to the West Indies, and changed the ailing fortunes of Gran Canaria and, by extension, of Lanzarote and Fuerteventura.

Neil Buchan-Grant/Apa Publications

Charco de San Ginés

You can walk all the way round the lagoon then off into the town to the Plaza de las Palmas, and the parish church, the Iglesia de San Ginés Obispo (daily 9am–1pm, 5–7pm), with a distinctive white cupola topping its bell tower. It is dedicated to the town’s patron saint, whose festival is celebrated here in August. There is a simple interior, with a good Mudéjar ceiling of dark wood. If you find the church closed, it’s still worth taking the time to sit on one of the benches in the shady square, listen to the burble of a central fountain and admire the exterior of the building.

Narrow lanes lead from the square into the centre of the town, focused on the pedestrianized shopping street, Calle León y Castillo, running back from the seafront. Here, branches of well-known stores such as Zara and...

Table of contents

• 10 Things Not To Miss
• A Perfect Tour of Lanzarote
• Overview
• History and Culture
• Out and About
• Things To Do
• Food and Drink
• Where To Eat
• A–Z Travel Tips
• Where To Stay