If you read nothing else
- You cannot tour Timanfaya in your own car. The lava fields are seen from the park's Route of the Volcanoes coaches, which are adapted for the route.[1]
- Tickets for independent entry to Montañas del Fuego can only be purchased online and for a specific time slot.[2] Decide your day before you drive.
- The standard adult entrance ticket for Montañas del Fuego costs 30.00 EUR, while the three-site guided tour is from US$102.[3][4]
- Puerto del Carmen and Timanfaya National Park are about 22 km apart directly, with a road distance of about 23.5 km.[5]
- The tour booked here runs 9 hours and takes in Timanfaya National Park, Cueva de los Verdes and Jameos del Agua, with pickup from 61 locations.[4]
| Self drive and park coach | Guided day trip | Bus and taxi | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Travel there | Your car to Montañas del Fuego | Pickup from 61 locations[4] | Line 60 passes through Yaiza[6] |
| Entry | 30.00 EUR standard adult ticket[3] | Skip the ticket line[4] | Online only, with a time slot[2] |
| Time needed | Your own pace, plus the coach loop | 9 hours[4] | Bus times plus a taxi each way |
| The caves | Drive north yourself afterwards | Cueva de los Verdes and Jameos del Agua[4] | A separate leg to plan |
| Booking | Buy online before you drive[2] | Reserve now, pay later[4] | Check bus times before you go |
Before starting the visit, we advise you to check out the Visitor Centre located in Mancha Blanca, which gives free access to an exhibition and an audiovisual programme offering a complete overview of the Park in several languages.
Guided coach or your own car?
Prepare for the day
Why you cannot drive through the park yourself
The first thing to understand about Timanfaya is that the park is not somewhere you tour in your own car. The lava fields, craters and ash plains at its heart are seen from the park's own bus, the Route of the Volcanoes, which uses the narrow roads between the cones. Those coaches are adapted for the job.[1] You leave your car at the visitor area at Montañas del Fuego, and the coach does the rest. What you roll through is bare and strange: black and rust-coloured rock, drifts of orange sand, hollows where the roof of a lava tunnel has fallen in, and almost nothing green except lichens and a few stubborn plants where the wind drops.
The park covers about 51 square kilometers (20 square miles).[9] Timanfaya became a National Park under a decree of August 9, 1974, published in the Official State Gazette on September 17 of the same year.[10] Visiting is a structured affair: a ticket, a car park, a coach, a set loop and a short stop where the ground itself is the show. That structure rewards planning, whether you drive yourself or join a guided day trip. Arrive with a time slot and the day runs smoothly. Arrive hoping for the best and you will spend much of it waiting, with the sun on your back and no shade anywhere.
The park's own coach: what the ride is like
The Route of the Volcanoes has adapted coaches.[1] You board at the visitor area and stay seated, rolling past craters, collapsed lava tunnels and cones that still look freshly made. The windows matter more than walking shoes here: the whole pleasure is the view from the coach as it climbs, turns and dips through the malpaís. There is a stop at Islote de Hilario, where the heat under the surface is impossible to miss, and where everyone gathers to watch the ground answer back. Photography from a moving bus is a lottery, so shoot quickly and then enjoy the ride.
The numbers behind that heat are startling. At Islote de Hilario, surface temperatures reach around 250 ºC, and they can even reach more than 600 ºC at 13 m deep.[8] Close by, El Diablo Restaurant uses natural heat from the subsoil, where temperatures exceed 600 °C just 15 meters below the surface, cooking meat and vegetables without fire or electricity on a grill placed over an open cavity in the rock.[11] It is an odd place for lunch and a memorable one, looking out over ground with no soil, no trees and no shade.
Black lava, drift sand and a road that only the park coaches take.
Driving to Timanfaya yourself: tickets and timing
Puerto del Carmen and Timanfaya National Park are about 22 km apart directly, with a road distance of about 23.5 km.[5] A Timanfaya National Park self drive is simple in outline: head south west to Montañas del Fuego, park, and join the park coach from there. The part people get wrong is the ticket. Tickets for independent entry to Montañas del Fuego can only be purchased online and for a specific time slot.[2] The standard adult entrance ticket costs 30.00 EUR.[3] Decide your day before you set off, and build in slack for the last few kilometres, where traffic slows as everyone photographs the same crater.
Before you reach the park, the Centro de Visitantes e Interpretación de Mancha Blanca is open Monday to Sunday from 9:00 to 16:00.[7] It gives free access to an exhibition and an audiovisual programme offering a complete overview of the park.[12] That is a sensible first stop if you want context before the coach ride, and a cool place to spend half an hour if the weather is doing its worst. The Termesana Route does something different again, bringing visitors into close contact with the volcano and the culture of Lanzarote's inhabitants during the 1730-1736 eruptive period.[13]
Driving here is easy but slow. The roads are well surfaced and the signs are clear, and the landscape keeps pulling your eyes off the tarmac. Fill the tank before you leave the resort, carry more water than you think you need, and allow more time than the map suggests. If you want an easy extra, the camel ride at the station near the park lasts approximately 20 minutes and gives you views out across the volcanic landscape.[14]
Public transport, taxis and the last stretch
Buses on Lanzarote will get you close to Timanfaya, but not to the door. Line 60 passes through Yaiza on its route between Arrecife and Playa Blanca.[6] From Yaiza you still need your own way to the park and back, which normally means a taxi or a booked tour. If there are two or more of you, a tour with hotel pickup often works out simpler and calmer than paying for the bus plus a taxi in each direction.
If you are staying in Playa Blanca, Puerto del Carmen or Costa Teguise, the practical answer for most people without a car is a tour with pickup. The trip booked here collects from 61 locations and drops off at the same 61 locations after a 9-hour day.[4] You see the volcano, the caves and the coast between them without working out a single connection, and somebody else handles the parking, the queue and the ticket line.
A taxi from the resorts is another option, and for a couple it can make sense on the way out. The return is the awkward half: you are leaving at the same time as everyone else, tired and sunburnt, with no plan B if the road is busy. A tour that starts and finishes at your hotel removes that problem entirely.
from US$102
The Timanfaya Park, Jameos Agua and Cueva Verdes tour takes 9 hours, picks up at 61 locations and skips the ticket line.[4]
Distances: Timanfaya and the northern caves
Timanfaya sits in the south west of Lanzarote. Cueva de los Verdes and Jameos del Agua are up in the north, near the coast road that runs towards Órzola, so a self-drive day that takes in all three means one long loop with the car parked at every stop, and the same stretch of island driven twice. The distances here are not huge, but the roads are slow, the turns are many, and the queue at the park entrance eats into the day.
Guided versions exist for exactly this shape of day. One full-day option covers Timanfaya Park and Jameos del Agua in 9 to 10 hours from US$86.[15] The tour booked here takes in Timanfaya National Park, Cueva de los Verdes and Jameos del Agua in 9 hours from US$102, and includes pickup.[4] Both take the driving and the ticket line off your hands and leave you free to look out of the window instead of at the road signs.
Combining all three sites in one day
Doing all three under your own steam is possible. You book a timed entry for Montañas del Fuego, arrive early, ride the park coach, then drive north for Cueva de los Verdes and Jameos del Agua. The clock is the thing to watch: a timed slot fixes your morning and everything else has to fit around it. Keep the caves for the afternoon, skip the wine tasting if you are short of time, and plan to eat near your hotel rather than halfway home.
The guided version removes those decisions. Pickup runs from 61 locations, the route takes in Timanfaya National Park, Cueva de los Verdes and Jameos del Agua, and entry uses the skip the ticket line option.[4] The whole day lasts 9 hours, with drop-off back where you started.[4] For a first visit it is the least fiddly way to see three very different places in a single day, and it leaves the evening free.
What a guide adds beyond self-driving
A driver sees the landscape. A guide tells you what happened in it. The tour booked here runs with a live tour guide in English, French, German and Spanish, and covers the volcano, the caves and the coast in one loop.[4] That context matters in a place like this: several films inspired by other planets have been filmed in Timanfaya, including Enemy Mine, Krull, Mission Stardust, Stranded and Operation Ganymed.[16] On your own, you would pass those places without ever knowing.
There is also the practical side. The tour has free cancellation up to 24 hours in advance, and you can reserve now and pay later.[4] It is rated 4.47 from 2,662 reviews, with guide scores of 4.5, transportation 4.6 and value for money 4.4.[4] If the weather turns or your plans shift, that flexibility is easy to appreciate. Self-driving keeps its own joys all the same: the empty road at dawn, the stop nobody else makes, the picnic above the coast.
How long the main Timanfaya tours last
Durations as listed on GetYourGuide for these tours.[4][17][18][19]
Compare from-prices for guided Timanfaya days
From-prices per person on GetYourGuide.[4][15][17][19]
When to go, and what to book
How to plan the day
Work out what you want to see
Timanfaya alone is a half day. Add Cueva de los Verdes and Jameos del Agua in the north and you have a full one.
Book your park entry
Tickets for independent entry to Montañas del Fuego can only be purchased online and for a specific time slot.[2]
Check the ticket price
The standard adult entrance ticket for Montañas del Fuego costs 30.00 EUR, and guided day trips are priced separately.[3]
Plan the northern leg
Cueva de los Verdes and Jameos del Agua are a long way from the park, so give them their own slot in the day.
Consider a guided day instead
The tour booked here covers all three sites in 9 hours, with pickup from 61 locations.[4]
Let a guide handle the tickets and the driving
from US$103Reserve now & pay later
