Discover Lanzarote – Island Of Fire
August 25, 2009 by Travel Guide Greg
Filed under Europe, Travel Guides
The Canary Islands are Europe’s most popular winter sun holiday destination.
Located in the Atlantic Ocean, around 80 miles off the coast of West Africa, these seven specks of Spain attract over 9 million visitors a year. Making the archipelago the most visited region in the country after Catalunya.
Yet despite the undoubted popularity of the islands the Canaries are by no means all birds of a feather. As each enjoys its own unique identity and character.
Lanzarote is the most easterly link in the chain and by comparison with the larger islands of Gran Canaria and Tenerife remains largely unspoiled. Thanks to strict local planning laws that prohibit high rise construction and the siting of advertising hoardings. The three main resorts of Puerto del Carmen, Costa Teguise and Playa Blanca are also all well contained. Leaving Lanzarote
largely as nature intended.
Which is just as well. As the island is blessed with far more than it’s fair share of breathtaking, if somewhat unconventional, natural beauty spots.
Chief among these is the awe inspiring Timanfaya National Park. Home to a series of massive volcanic eruptions during the 18th and 19th centuries which shook Lanzarote to the core. Remodeling around one third of the island and leaving a carpet of lava and 300 new volcanic peaks in its wake.
The scenery here is truly surreal – and is often likened to the surface of the moon. As evidenced by the fact that a number of famous science fiction movies such as A Million Years BC have been shot on location in the Park. Whilst Apollo 13 astronauts were shown pictures of Timanfaya in order to prepare them for their own lunar landing.
Elsewhere on the island a highly inventive local artist called César Manrique
fused this raw terrain with his own creativity in order to construct a series of alternative attractions for tourists. Manrique was determined to illustrate that on arid little Lanzarote it was possible to create ecologically friendly sights, instead of the water parks and golf courses that dominated elsewhere in Spain.
Manrique´s best known project is undoubtedly the magnificent Jameos del Agua. Where he converted a massive collapsed tube in the lava flow into a highly atmospheric underground auditorium and concert venue. Replete with tropical gardens and a swimming pool that is apparently reserved for the sole use of the King of Spain.
Accommodation standards on the island are high – as you’d expect after forty years of welcoming tourists. With the best selection of hotels and villas in Lanzarote available in the resort of Playa Blanca, which is located right at the southern tip of the island.
