Lanzarote
Camping Info On Lanzarote
General
We first went to Lanzarote Nov –Dec 2010 and were impressed. It is volcanic island, very dry, no water source except by de-salination, so not exactly green. Has some “young” lava fields which are still completely lifeless.
Very different scenery, places to walk, cycle etc. If you don’t have, would get body or surf boards for winter, not enough regular wind, but we could’ve surfed almost every day at Famara. 
Felt very safe and relaxed generally. Some areas are hugely touristy, it is obvious from the maps which these are, but it does mean you can get pretty much everything. Famara beach was best for staying (less touristy) but in 2026 the area under the cliff was not easily accessible to big motorhomes, surfing and sailing if it got right, also walks and tracks to cycle. Could cycle to Teguise if wanted to and other circular routes – you’d find all this out for yourselves. The island is a mixture of touristy areas, which are actually OK, it is not high rise at all and quite tasteful due to that “famous” artist Caeser Manrique, who got laws made about the buildings. You can always get away to some quite remote spots.
It was never an issue driving the van, in fact it is an excellent island to explore with a van. Most roads are good, the map makes it obvious which are tracks so then you make your choice whether to go down or not.
If you come from Cadiz you arrive at about midnight into Arrecife port. This is on the northeast of the town, so the easiest place to go for the night is to Costa Teguise Charcos beach car park (winter) or past to the cliffs and free camp.
We drove to the airport to get maps as we thought the parking would be easy (it was) but it is also easy in the resorts, so ask for a Tourist Office, or follow signs and pick up the town and resort maps as well as a tourist one of Lanzarote. Even though we bought a “proper” map, we actually used the tourist one the most, it was just as detailed and more accurate (and free)!
I think we were lucky with the time of year. It was very brown and dry when we arrived in mid Nov. We had a couple of afternoons and evenings of quite heavy rain and from that point on it just got greener, so much so that we thought we were seeing things – made it very pretty. Also think we were lucky with the weather – had temps from 22 to 26 (mostly the higher) and only 2 days where it rained enough to keep us in the van. A couple of days with the odd shower, but basically either full sun or sun with some cloud the whole time
Windsurf
Puerto Del Carmen and Playa Honda both flatish and easy entry to the water. Playa Honda has large car park, Puerto you have to come in between the hotels and park on the road, not ideal. Jameos, only really for pretty good wave sailors, the entry and exit is a nightmare. Famara was great for surfing, you could windsurf the whole of the beach, it depended on bit on tide, direction and wave size where people launched – in a SW wind/swell, nearer the town is smaller and windier! This end also has some beach at all states of the tide. Long shore break, a strong rip at various points, but fine if the wind is enough. Saw and sailed very nice waves, but we have only sailed Famara beach in SW and WSW wind, which is slightly cross off or cross shore. The predominant swell while we were there was west and north, caused by low pressures passing across the north of the islands, apparently this was happening more than is normal for this time of year and the prevailing wind over force 4 is still supposed to be North Easterly but wasn’t regardless of “Wind Finders” weather stats for the area! When the SW/WSW blew, it did work on the other coast (Costa Teguise/Playa Honda) but just made choppy water. In Costa Teguise when NNE/NE Chacos works well and can get big waves but a rocky shore entry, careful at low tide, Cucharas the town beach is a light wind entry and hard to park near.
Canoeing
We did none at all – mainly because of the surf, however could’ve at PapaGaya beaches and also at Los Cocoteros where we parked for two nights – has a ramp, bay and rocky edges so would’ve been good. I am sure there are other areas, we just were not there when it would’ve been right.
Site Seeing
Pick up info at the tourist office and make your choices. There are enough museums and sites to keep you occupied for several days, plus every resort/town seems to have a market on various days, some more local than others – we did not actually go to any. The Cactus Garden is worth a look.Great views from the castle at Teguise and the Radomes.
I found it fascinating, but really what you want to see is down to personal taste.
Cycling
Appeared to be really popular on the island, both road and mountain biking. We saw people riding all the time. Lots of tracks to explore and way marked in some areas – it did look really good in places.
Walking
Again, tracks and marked routes all over the place. Information on the www.canary-islands-guide.co.uk/Lanzarote_Walks web site which looked pretty good, but never used the info. as we left soon after we had discovered it!
Campsites
One on Lanzarote in PapaGaya National Park, but it was closed when we were there. It did have everything including proper fill and empty places. We were told there was another one but never saw it and tourist offices were no help – they said there were none!
Water, Empty and Fill
Use Park for Night.
Other Campers
Saw quite a few compared to 2010 but still okay only one English.
LPG/Gas
They have Disa or the CEPSA cylinders with the small tops to clip an conection on.CEPSA just give you the cylinder free no ID and gas was 19 Euro. DISA depot does refills for some countries but expensive at 3.50 Euro per litre.
Sim Card
Spanish Vodaphone cheap with passport.
Shopping
More than enough supermarkets, no issue with fresh milk in the tourist areas (see note below). Found most things eventually. Basically food is quite expensive. Wine an OK price, anything from 1 to 20, we were buying red and white at under €3 and it was all drinkable). Tea bags about 3 times the price (luckily we took 5 large bags as we had been warned). Best (and cheapest apart from LIDL) was:
EuroSpar (had good bread selection) on the outskirts of Arrecife – but not on the IKEA road.
LIDL on the outskirts of Arrecife, next to IKEA which is a bit of landmark
British Shop – had most non-perishable things, but not cheap, you could find most of the stuff in the normal supermarkets, on road from Playa Honda to San Bartolome.
HiperDino we also used – the big one near the airport on the main road outside Playa Honda.
Basically Hiper, EuroSpar and MaxCoop were the main three supermarkets.
DIY – Ferreterria – the largest one was TIAS, in towards town centre – keep going past IKEA to almost the roundabout and it’s on the left – room to park a camper. This is the one who sold the gas regulator.
Dentist/Doctor – plenty around who speak English in the tourist areas.
Note: Milk – only put this here because we found that the one “Granja Flor” in cartons without a screw top went off before we even opened it, even when well in date, so we stopped buying it. The others all seemed OK.
Laundry
In Costa Teguise there are at least 2.
Rubbish and Re-cycling
Bins everywhere and also recycling – they were very good with it!
Info from a poorly translated Canarias motorcaravan company Email
Fuerteventura and Lanzarote are really suitable for motorhomes campers.
You can sleep wherever you want following these 3 advices:
· the only you have to do is every night (when you go to sleep) to recover the lateral tent and the camping chairs, so you will be sleeping instead of camping.
· Don´t cross at night the coast line which is marked with white concrete marks along all the coast. Normally is about 20-50m from the water. During the day there is no problem, but at night park the motorhome behind this line.
· You are not allowed to stay more than 48 hours on the exact place, so move the motorhome 5-10m. and it will be enough for 48 hours more.
Following this recommendations, no one of our clients (700 rentals) had any problem in all the islands.
In Fuerteventura and Lanzarote you don´t have the motorhome areas you find in the rest of Europe or main Spain, but by the other hand you are able to sleep much more close to the beach (we add a photo of Fuerteventura). You will be able to fill the water tanks in some petrol stations ( in some of them it´s free and in others you will have to pay 1-3€) and in other places we will show you in a map (we have created 3 places in Fuerteventura for our clientes (north, center and south) and there are also 3-4 free places to fill water in Fuerteventura) . There are some places to empty the WC cassette along the island during all the year and from April to October; many types of council create some camping areas on the beach with places for the WC.
In Lanzarote, there are not some many places to fill water during the winter (From November to March) (2-3 petrol stations) and 2 places to empty the toilet. From April to October there are 2 camping areas with water and places for the WC,
Freedom doesn´t mean insecurity. After 700 rentals we did not suffer any robbery.
Useful Web Sites
weather forecast Wind - Spain - Lanzarote - WeatherOnline