Arrecife Guide

Lanzarote Airport is located between Arrecife and Puerto del Carmen. The airport serves frequent scheduled and chartered flights from destinations all over Europe and the world. The airport also offers internal flights connecting Lanzarote Airport to the other canary islands.

The beauty of staying in Arrecife is that the airport is on your doorstep. No 40 minute taxi trips to get to the airport.

Thursday is the main day for changeover flights on the island.  This makes the airport especially busy every Thursday. However, many flights now depart/arrive on other days throughout the week.

If you are looking for real time flight information, you can find it by visiting the official Lanzarote Airport website.

The airport now has two terminals. Terminal one services international flights. The new terminal for national and inter-island flights is in the old terminal building. This building has been recently refurbished.

An information desk is located on the departures floor.

The airport contains cafes, ATM facilities, restaurants and fast-food outlets.Foreign currency facilities are also available at Lanzarote Airport.

Disabled facilities at Lanzarote Airport include ramps, wheelchair accessible doors and toilets. The airport also offers suitable taxi services.

Transport

As Lanzarote is a tourist island, there are a plentiful supply of taxis at the airport, waiting taxis can be found outside the arrivals hall on the lower floor.

The standard of Taxis is generally quite good. You can find up to date taxi pricing on the official Lanzarote taxis website.

Lanzarote Airport Car Hire

There are a good number of hire car operators situated at Lanzarote Airport and further information is available at the main information desk.

Buses operate between the airport and all major towns. We found the bus services to be quite good. we use them all the time. Even to go to the Playa Blanca. Not a bad bus ride at all. Quite a nice trip.

This trip is a once in a life-time experience and is highly reccomended for the older traveller like ourselves or someone with a young family who want a day out.

We got the bus from the hotel. It picked us up in the early morning and took us to Orzola in the north. Its a really pretty fishing village. The coast on the way up is spectacular. Lots of little waves crashing in on the volcanic coastline. Didnt exactly look very swimmable.

Main Village on Graciosa island

We arrived in Orzola this pretty little fishing village with a high pier. Other buses had pulled in. The boat came in. Large powerful tourist boat. We got our tickets from the bus lady and all got on. She had taken our details in Arrecife and told us we would get the tickets at the port. We got a nice set on the top deck of the boat. There was a running commentary from a guide on board. She spoke in Spanish, English and a bit of German. Mostly Spaniards on board. We got talking to a couple fom Bilbao. They told us La Graciosa is really poplualr with Spaniards as it is a taste of real old Spain before the tourists. We felt a bit guilty. They smiled!

The boat ride out past the harbour was unplesant for 10 minutes. It gets really choppy until you round the corner of the island and head to La Graciosa. On your left the north coast of the island rises high into a Cliff. It is a sharp steep cliff/mountain face. Nonetheless, there is a steep path up the monster hillside that the fishermen and women used to take to bring their produce to market in Arrecife. A lon trek away I might add.

We arrived into the main port of Caleta del Sebo. The tour group split into two. They told us lunch was on our return to the boat. Half the group went to see the church and the other half (ourselves included) went to wander the island. It is really unspoilt. No major shops or appartments. I could see what the lasy was saying. Few stray dgos and cats. The kids looked so happy playing by the harbour. There was a coffee shop right at the port. We didnt go in but heard it was fine.

We walked to the local beach and wandered around. Few tents down there. It a rocky beach with some sand. Very pretty.

We got back on the boat for lunch. We were given some paella with fresh bread and drinks. The food was nice. We started off on our main trip to spend a day at one of the three remote exotic beaches. They were fabulous!

The water had inflated towers in the water for the kids to jump off. They had boats to bring  you in or you could swim. Our young tour guide decided to swim into the beach so myself and some of the others decided to follow her. They lowered a ladder at the front. My wife got the little boat in. We had a reat time on the beach and I snorkeled a bit. We later walked to the neighbouring beach beside this curious sulphur mountain. Montaña Amarilla looked amazing.

After a great day we got the boat back. On the way the boat pulled in to show us a curious nautral feature. A sleeping fisherman on the rocks (natural feature). It looked like a fisherman lying down. We all took photos but there was a rush for the side and i only managed to shoot pictures of the back of peoples heads.

La Graciosa Extinct Volcano

The boat pulled in and we got our connection back to Arrecife. It was a great day out and well worth the trip. You can book these trips at your hotel desk. Cheap enough by home standards.

El Charco de San Gines (place for fishermen). The Puddle as it tranlates in apparently the most original hub or hot spot in the town. Its not decadent colonial or anything of the sort. Plesant is the word. Few coffee shops and restaurants. It has a bit of culture but is also populated with their local property estate agents, shops cinemas etc. This is the real deal authentic town centre. Generally we found ourselves going here for lunch when we were not going to El Mercadillo.  El Mercadillo is the local glass covered “fancy dan” style shops.

Arrecife Fortress

El Almacén (Island Culture Centre) in the José Betancourt street. It features an art gallery amongst other things. Cesar Manrique designed  El Almacen (The Store House) at the centre of Arrecife. Its not too far away from the Casino Club Náutico. Today the building houses an alternative theater and small cafe. Its well worth a visit. Hard to believe it once was an onion store….! So the lady says anyhow. She could be codding me….;-)

Playa del Reducto, is beside the 2km long promendade and car park. Its a Blue Flag beach something many Spanish cities view with a gealous eye. Take a stroll down the promenade to the old Park or Park Garcia Sanabria. Its certainly pretty. We stopped here and ate ice cream we picked up in a local supermarket.

The two main hotels in the city are the the 3-star Hotel Lancelot and the 5 star Grand Hotel Arrecife. When it comes to Arrecife Hotels are not exactly abundant. You have to usually go up the coast. The Grand hotel has a fabulous garden park thats well worth a look.

Hotel Lancelot. Friends of ours stayed there on the last trip. They really enjoyed it. Nice buffet breakfast and clean surroundings. Sheets changed a few times a week. That was two years ago. Assume it’s still the same. They did the Grand Tour while they were there and enjoyed it. We did La Graciosa island together. To be honset we didnt see them too much as they did the bingo nights out alot. Not our cup of tea.

Arrecife Gran Hotel, was built in the 1960’s, and is the island’s tallest structure. To be honset it looks a little out of place but is impressive nonetheless. Cesar Manrique was heavily involved in limiting the number and types of structure on the island. So believe it or not they sneaked up the hotel while he was in New York. He did not want another “Choroville”. For 30 years this building was an incomplete shell out of place on the otherwise attrative seafront, Playa El Reducto. Thankfully, the recently re-opened hotel got away with it and now is very impressive. A bit outside our budget I might add. But when Arrecife Airport is only a short hop away one cannot complain, now can they?

The Cabildo of Lanzarote, is beside el Reducto. It is the highest authority on the island and is their form of Borough council I suppose. We will stay away from this place in case we get a parking ticket from the locals.

The Calle Real is the main commercial shopping street in town and is really called Calle Leon y Castillo. Plenty of clothes shops, watches, general goods and bazzars in this area. It is opposite the San Gabriel Castle. Again lost the missus here and some of my pension, frequently. They have Zara and Mango and other such big clothes shops in the town. The look is distinctly Spanish in their clothing we might add. Not for high street Manchester or Dublin if like us you have a not so Johanna Lumley figure at retiring years.

The Church of San Ginés or Saint Genesius is behind the Ayuntamiento. The church was built in 1574 and was subsequently flooded. It was further built up in the 18th and 19th centuries. They refurbished the church has images of St Peter and of course Saint Genesius who is the cities patron saint.