Lanzarote is the most northeasterly of the Canary Islands, about 125 kilometres off the coast of Morocco, and it looks unlike anywhere else in Europe. An eruption between 1730 and 1736 buried a quarter of the island under lava and created the field of craters that is now Timanfaya National Park, and the ground there is still hot enough a few metres down to set brushwood alight. What grows here grows in black volcanic gravel, including the vines at La Geria, each one sitting in its own hollow behind a semicircular stone wall built to shelter it from the wind.
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Those walls are the clue to the packing. The trade winds blow across Lanzarote more or less permanently, which is why the island is a windsurfing centre and why an afternoon on an exposed beach is a different experience from the same temperature somewhere sheltered. The other defining fact is the artist Cesar Manrique, who spent decades persuading the island to ban high rise building and roadside advertising and to paint itself white with green or blue woodwork, which is why it looks coherent in a way the other Canaries do not.
What Makes Lanzarote Different to Pack For
Warm all year, and windy all year
Temperatures barely move: 20°C to 26°C most of the year, reaching the low thirties in an August calima, the hot dusty wind off the Sahara. It almost never rains, with under 150 millimetres a year in places. The constant is the wind, which takes the edge off the heat and makes everything feel cooler than the number suggests.
A packable rain jacket here is really a windbreak, and it is the most used layer in the bag. A merino wool base layer for women covers the evenings, which cool off quickly once the sun drops.
The ground is abrasive
Lava rock, picon gravel and volcanic clinker destroy footwear and skin alike. A stumble on lava leaves a proper graze. This is the argument for real shoes rather than sandals anywhere off the paved coast.
The sun is subtropical and the wind hides it
Lanzarote sits at 29 degrees north, and the UV is strong all year. Because the wind keeps you cool, people burn badly without noticing, which is the single most common Canarian injury.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
The Lanzarote Packing List
Footwear
Waterproof hiking shoes or sturdy trainers with a thick sole for the volcanic ground. Caldera Blanca, the Camino de los Gracioseros and the paths around El Golfo are loose clinker and sharp rock, and thin soled shoes are miserable on them. Sandals for the beach and the evening, which is the second pair.
Wind and sun
A windproof layer, sunglasses that stay on, and a hat with a chin strap, because an ordinary wide brim sun hat will be gone in the first gust. High factor sunscreen reapplied through the day, and lip balm.
Beach and sea
Swimwear and a quick drying towel. Many beaches here are black or dark gold volcanic sand, which gets extremely hot underfoot, and some of the best swimming is in natural rock pools. Water shoes are more useful here than on a mainland beach. A windproof beach layer, since the trade wind makes lying still surprisingly cold.
Clothing
Light layers, nothing heavy. Two merino tops cover a week. The island is casual, with resort dress the norm, and nothing here requires formality beyond covered shoulders and knees for the churches.
What to Wear at Key Sites
Timanfaya National Park
The Montanas del Fuego are reached only by the park's own coach tour along the Ruta de los Volcanes, because independent walking is prohibited across almost all of it to protect the lichen and the terrain. At the visitor centre they demonstrate the geothermal heat by dropping brushwood into a pit where it ignites, and pouring water into a borehole to produce a geyser.
Practically: you stay on the coach for the route itself, so the visit is less physical than people expect, but the visitor centre area is fully exposed. Booking ahead is effectively required in season. The one guided walk, the Ruta del Tremesana, must be reserved separately and in advance.
The Manrique sites
Jameos del Agua and the Cueva de los Verdes are volcanic tubes formed by the La Corona eruption, the first turned by Manrique into a concert hall and pool complex, the second left largely raw. The Mirador del Rio is a viewpoint cut into a cliff 475 metres above the sea looking at La Graciosa.
Practically: the cave floors are wet, uneven and dimly lit, with low ceilings in places, so grippy shoes and care. The Mirador is cold and extremely windy at that height even on a hot day.
La Geria and the wine country
The vines grow singly in pits dug into black picon with crescent walls around them, and the landscape of thousands of these hollows is the strangest agricultural sight in Europe. Several bodegas are open for tasting along the LZ-30.
Practically: the ground is loose gravel, it is unshaded, and the wind is constant. A hat you can secure and closed shoes.
Teguise and the market
Teguise, the old capital in the centre of the island, holds a large Sunday market that draws most of the island and a good share of the visitors, spilling through the white streets around the church. Above it, the Castillo de Santa Barbara on a volcanic cone houses a museum of piracy, which is less frivolous than it sounds given how often this coast was raided.
Practically: the Sunday market means heavy traffic and difficult parking from mid morning, so arrive early. The castle is a short steep climb with no shade and the wind at the top is considerable.
The beaches and La Graciosa
Papagayo in the south is the picture postcard set of sheltered coves, reached down a rough unpaved track that rental agreements often prohibit. Famara in the northwest is a vast Atlantic beach below cliffs, spectacular, wind blasted and with serious current. La Graciosa, the small inhabited island off the north, is a ferry from Orzola and has sand roads rather than tarmac.
Practically: Famara is for surfing and walking rather than casual swimming. Check rental car terms before any unpaved track, since damage on them is routinely excluded.
What Not to Bring
Leave thin soled shoes, which the lava will finish. Leave a hat without a strap. Leave the expectation of rain gear as rain gear; here it is a windbreak.
Leave plans to walk freely in Timanfaya, which is not permitted. Leave the assumption that a warm island means calm water, because the Atlantic here has genuine current and swell.
Essential Resources for Women in Lanzarote
Emergency numbers in Spain: 112 is the single emergency number and operators handle English. National police 091, Guardia Civil 062, and maritime rescue on 900 202 202, which is the relevant one on an island with strong currents.
Tourist support: Spain's Policia Nacional runs a foreign visitor reporting service on 902 102 112 and online, with the written denuncia collected in person. The resort municipalities have local police used to dealing with visitors in English and German.
US Embassy and consular agency: the embassy is in Madrid at Calle de Serrano 75, telephone +34 91 587 2200, at es.usembassy.gov, and there is a US consular agency covering the Canary Islands for routine matters. Enrol in the Smart Traveler Enrollment Program at step.state.gov before you travel.
Main hospital or clinic: the Hospital Doctor Jose Molina Orosa in Arrecife is the island's public hospital with a 24 hour emergency department, and there are private clinics in the resorts. Complex cases go to Gran Canaria or Tenerife. EU visitors should carry the European Health Insurance Card; everyone else needs travel insurance.
Official health authority: the Spanish Ministry of Health at sanidad.gob.es.
US State Department travel advisory for Spain: current advisory level and detail. Read it directly rather than relying on this page.
UK FCDO travel advice for Spain: entry requirements, safety and health guidance, which carries Canary Islands specific notes including sea safety.
Official tourism authority: Turespana at spain.info, with the island tourism board at turismolanzarote.com for Timanfaya booking, the guided walk reservations and the status of the Manrique sites, several of which close individually for maintenance.
Solo women safety assessment: Lanzarote is a very safe island for a woman travelling alone. Crime is low, the infrastructure is European, English is widely spoken in the resorts, and there is nothing unusual about travelling, eating or hiking alone here. The resorts at Puerto del Carmen, Playa Blanca and Costa Teguise are family oriented rather than party destinations, so the nightlife risks are milder than on Tenerife or Ibiza, though the usual sense about drinks and getting home applies in the bar strip at Puerto del Carmen. Opportunistic theft from beaches and rental cars is the main property risk, so nothing valuable left visible in either. Every serious risk here is environmental. The Atlantic is the first and the most important: Famara and the north and west coasts have powerful current, undertow and sudden large swell, several beaches are unpatrolled, and people drown off the Canaries every year, so swim where there is a lifeguard and a flag and treat an empty beach as a warning rather than a find. Rock platforms are hit by unexpected waves. The second is the terrain, since lava is sharp and unstable, walking routes are unshaded with no water anywhere, and phone signal drops in the interior; tell someone your plan and carry more water than you expect to need. The third is the sun and the calima, the Saharan dust wind, which brings genuine heat and reduces air quality. Finally, the unpaved tracks to beaches like Papagayo are rough and usually excluded from rental insurance, so check before driving one.
Reading On
Lanzarote is the strangest looking of the Canaries and the easiest to drive around. The Spain travel guide for women is the parent for the whole country, and the Spain packing list for women covers a mainland trip, which is a very different proposition. Next door, the Tenerife packing list for women and the Gran Canaria packing list for women cover the larger islands, and the Ibiza packing list for women and Mallorca travel guide for women cover the Balearics. On the mainland, the Madrid travel guide for women is the usual connection. The travel packing guide for women is the parent for all destinations. For why merino suits a windy evening after a hot day, the best merino wool base layers for women explains the fibre, and the Roman Trail collection is where the tops themselves live.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
