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Lanzarote & Fuerteventura

Canary Islands, Spain · Europe · northern hemisphere

SwimmingLakes & CoastlineHiking

Lanzarote & Fuerteventura is at its best for hiking in November to April. Good but not prime in May and October.

JFMAMJJASOND
Swimming
15
11
11
18
43
66
70
90
90
90
64
41
Lakes & Coastline
55
92
95
95
79
42
15
15
79
95
85
55
Hiking
84
93
99
99
69
51
29
0
33
65
87
81

No reliable monthly crowd data for this destination — the proxy used elsewhere did not pass its checks here, so nothing is shown rather than a guess.

Swipe the table sideways for the rest of the year.

primegoodpossibleoff-seasoncrowds, on this place’s own scale

The short version

Genuinely warm in January by European standards — and the water is Atlantic, so it peaks in September and October rather than August, which is the opposite of the Mediterranean

What the walking is like

Day walks over lava and dry ravines, flat to moderate, with no shade. Inside Timanfaya only the coastal path is free to walk.

When not to come

Assuming August is the only swimming month. The sea here is coldest in February and March and warmest in September and October — later than the Mediterranean at the warm end

Busiest

December through March, and northern European school holidays

With children

Very little. Short transfers, reliable weather and calm beaches on the sheltered sides. The Atlantic-facing coasts have serious surf and undertow — Fuerteventura’s west side is not a swimming coast.

Where to stay

Playa Blanca, Corralejo and Puerto del Carmen are the resort ends. Haría and the villages of northern Lanzarote are a different island entirely — whitewashed, quiet, and half the price.

Dates that matter

  • Carnival (Feb–Mar) — the Canaries’ biggest event, though Tenerife’s is the one people fly in for
  • Ironman Lanzarote (May)
  • Calima dust events (variable, most common Dec, Feb and Aug)

Walks

  • Caldera Blanca, Lanzarote — a walk across black lava to the rim of a white crater, no shade at all
  • Volcán de la Corona and the Malpaís de la Corona — lava fields above the north coast
  • Barranco de los Encantados, Fuerteventura — a dry ravine walk through fossil sand dunes, carved into pale rock

This is desert walking on volcanic rock. There is no water and almost no shade anywhere; the season is the northern winter, which is exactly when nobody thinks to hike. Timanfaya’s lava routes go with park staff and must be booked ahead.

See everything else at its best in Mar

Elsewhere in Europe

ChamonixZermattThe DolomitesJungfrau RegionZakopane & the TatrasChianti & TuscanyDouro ValleyRioja