Heather Cowper

But look beyond the popular holiday resorts and you’ll find plenty of things to do in Lanzarote, from vineyards and volcano tours to the many cultural attractions designed by artist Cesar Manrique. a day trip of cycling and swimming One of the fun things to do in La Graciosa is to rent bikes and cycle through the volcanic landscape to discover golden beaches such as Playa de las Conchas and Playa de la Francesca. If you continue your drive around the coast, there’s a car park on the headland with access to the black volcanic sand beach of Playa de Janubio. Although it was closed when we visited, it’s well worth a visit to see the place that Cesar Manrique himself designed, built into a series of lava bubbles left from the volcanic eruptions.

Visiting the Lanzarote vineyards is a unique experience, with the vines making green mounds against the black volcanic gravel, protected by low walls in circular patterns that spread like fish scales across the landscape. Before the wine tasting, our excellent guide Dan walked us through the Lanzarote vineyards, to explain a bit more about the history and culture of wine in Lanzarote. Having said that Wine Shop Lanzarote, sister company of Wine Tours Lanzarote, have taken some of their most popular Lanzarote wines and made them available for shipping to the UK, so you can still buy your favourite wines from them. Similar wines are available from the Wine Shop Lanzarote who have a warehouse in the UK, so that you can make your own tasting of Lanzarote wines at home.

While the Timanfaya National Park covers around 50 square km of the whole volcanic landscape, it’s worth knowing that the less well known Parque Natural de los Volcanes covers a further 100 square km around Timanfaya, offering even more opportunities to experience the Lanzarote volcanoes. In a separate location beside the main road that runs through the park, and a short drive from the Montanas del Fuego in the direction of Mancha Blanca, is the Timanfaya park visitor centre. The Caldera Blanca trail runs from Mancha Blanca where the Ruta Volcan Caldera Blanca takes you west out of the town to a car park, from where you can walk the rest of the trail past the smaller Montana Caldereta to the volcanic cone of Caldera Blanca. The trail is also known as Los Islotes (the islets) since the rivers of lava from the 1730s flowed round volcanic cones from earlier eruptions, these older volcanoes standing out like islands in a sea of lava.

In the middle of the La Geria wine region of Lanzarote sits Finca Malvasia, an oasis of green palms and low white buildings set in a stark, volcanic landscape. Wine lovers will find themselves in the middle of a working vineyard, in the heart of La Geria wine region and can visit numerous bodegas nearby for wine tastings. A little further, the coast road reaches El Golfo, a seaside village on the edge of the lava field created by the eruptions of the 1730s, with another of the black beaches for which Lanzarote is famous From the car park on the southern edge of the village, walk a little way along the coastal path to a viewpoint where you can see the curious green lagoon known as Charco de los Clicos, glowing in the sun like an emerald against the black sand. The main Papagayo beach has a large car park and a couple of beach restaurants, but you can easily drive or walk along the cliff path to the other adjoining beaches, such as Playa de la Cera and Playa del Pozo.