Lanzarote Holidays Guide

If you are thinking about taking my advice and booking your own Lanzarote holidays, remember that my beloved island is just one of seven island in the island chain. The other islands are: Tenerife; Gran Canaria; La Palma; La Gomera; El Hierro; and Fuerteventura. So when you are planning your trip to Lanzarote, you are really planning you Canary Island holidays, too. It  is so easy to get around to the other islands, that it would be silly not to!

Lanzarote and Fuerteventura are close neighbors so you could plan even an afternoon trip to visit the island. It is a great place for bird watching and has amazing looking surfing. I know I’m not adventurous enough to ever try surfing, but Fuerteventura is known as the place.

Gran Canaria is in the center of the island chain and well worth a day trip or longer. The small island has several microclimates so you can experience desert and rain forest in the same afternoon! Gran Canaria also has a beautiful cathedral — Church of San Juan Bautista. And of course, if you go in Winter, you may get to be a part of Carnival. We have not ever gone to Carnival – even before we had kids, I was not interested in being in a huge crowd like that. Give me a quiet garden or a sunny afternoon feeding the pigeons and I’m happy.

Many Lanzarote holiday packages will include time spent on the other islands. Getting to visit them, even for a few hours is really fun because each one is so different from the others. Each island is known for a certain crafty item, so it can be very fun to visit each island and see the craftsmen (and women!) at work. It is amazing to see some of the workshops. Some of them look like they’ve been around since the 1800s. People treasure their history here. It’s one of the things I love about all of Europe. It’s not all new like in the US.

If you have a little scientist in the group (like our Sydney), you may want to spend time on La Palma. The island’s caldera is pretty amazing to see from the air and the height of the mountains makes it a prime place for observatories. There are several key astronomical observatories situated on La Palma. You can plan the family holidays: Lanzarote around the time of year to make sure that everyone gets a chance to do their thing.

But you know, one thing I’ve learned from traveling with the kids — you can only plan so much. You have to let go. I’ve told you about my “cruise director” nickname, but I’m learning to let go sometimes.

One of my favorite memories of our travels, I think ever, is one afternoon when all of our plans fell through. We had this big excursion planned — we were going to go to Fuerteventura for a special craft show. Kyle got sick, the kids were cranky and I left all of them in the hotel room and went by myself! It felt really selfish, but I had the best time. The show was just OK, but just kicking around the island was a blast.

I watched an impromptu boat race and I had a long lunch at a little beach side cafe. It was really a lovely afternoon. And I learned that unexpected trips can be the most fun.