Best Hikes in Lanzarote:
Trails & Routes Guide

Starting from the small village of Mancha Blanca, the path crosses a wide field of dark, crunchy malpaís lava rock before reaching the base of one of the best-preserved volcanic craters anywhere in the world — roughly 1,200 metres across and almost perfectly circular. Most visitors walk to the rim and partway around it; completing the full loop adds real distance but rewards you with 360-degree views over the entire northern half of the island, including the patchwork vineyards of La Geria laid out below like a contour map.

We did this one in both January and July, and the difference is stark. In winter, a light jacket and decent boots are all you need, and the crater floor often has a faint green tinge from recent rain. In July, there is genuinely nowhere to hide from the sun for the entire 9.5 kilometres — this is flat, exposed, treeless terrain from start to finish, and we'd only recommend a summer attempt starting before 9am.

The Famara massif forms the dramatic backdrop you see from every beach in the island's northwest, and walking along its top edge is a different experience entirely from admiring it from below. The cliffs drop close to 600 metres in places, and on a clear day the view across the strait to La Graciosa and the smaller islets of the Chinijo archipelago is one of the best in the Canaries. This is also one of the windiest stretches of trail in the islands — the same consistent trade winds that make Famara beach below a renowned surf and kitesurf spot funnel hard along the ridge.

We'd treat this as a "calm day only" hike. The path itself isn't technical, but it runs close to unfenced edges in several places, and strong gusts at the cliff edge are genuinely unsettling rather than just uncomfortable. Paragliders launch from sections of this ridge on the right days — if you'd rather experience the cliffs from the air than the edge, a tandem paragliding tour is a genuine alternative worth timing a visit around.

At 670 metres, Peñas del Chache is the highest point on Lanzarote — modest by Canary Islands standards, but the approach from near the Mirador del Río access road is short, clear, and genuinely easy, making this one of the simplest "highest point" hikes in the entire archipelago. There's a military radar installation at the actual summit, which keeps the very top fenced, but the approach ridge still delivers sweeping views over the Famara massif and out to La Graciosa.

It's worth combining with a stop at Mirador del Río, the César Manrique-designed viewpoint a short drive away, since both share the same general access road and the contrast between Manrique's architectural restraint and the raw landscape around it is worth experiencing in the same outing.

This volcano's eruption thousands of years ago is what created the lava tube system running underneath it — the same tube that's now split into the tourist attractions of Cueva de los Verdes and the Jameos del Agua further along its length. Walking the crater rim above ground gives a completely different perspective: a stark, reddish-brown cone rising from the surrounding malpaís, with views across the strait toward La Graciosa on a clear day.

The path is rougher underfoot than Caldera Blanca's, with loose volcanic scoria in places, but the distance is shorter and the payoff comes faster. We'd pair this with a visit to Jameos del Agua afterward — seeing the cave system from inside after walking above where it formed adds genuine context that most day-trippers who only do one or the other miss entirely.

From the hilltop village of Femés, this trail follows a ridge through the Los Ajaches hills before dropping down to Playa Quemada, a quiet black-sand beach with a couple of low-key seafood restaurants and none of the resort development found further south. The contrast between the dry, rugged hills and the sudden appearance of the Atlantic at the bottom makes this one of the more satisfying one-way hikes on the island.

Because it's one-way, logistics matter: either arrange a pickup at Playa Quemada — a pre-booked transfer back to Femés saves backtracking the whole route — walk back the way you came, or treat it as a there-and-back from Femés if you don't want to coordinate transport. For the swimming and beach conditions waiting at the end, our Best Beaches in Lanzarote guide covers Playa Quemada in more detail.

Near Tinajo, a short path leads onto and partway into this distinctive reddish-black crater, with a small natural arch and collapsed section that lets you actually walk down into part of the cone rather than just around the rim. It's small enough to feel manageable for young children but dramatic enough to not feel like a consolation prize compared to the bigger craters on this list.

This is genuinely our pick for "if you only have 45 minutes and want one volcanic landscape photo that captures what Lanzarote looks like," it's this one over Caldera Blanca — less driving, less walking, similar visual payoff.

Near Órzola, the island's northernmost ferry port for La Graciosa, this red volcanic cone sits right by the coast with an easy path to its modest summit. The reward is a clean view across the strait — locally called El Río — to La Graciosa's dunes and the smaller uninhabited islets beyond it, plus a good vantage point for watching the ferries come and go.

It works well as a short add-on either side of a La Graciosa day trip rather than a standalone destination — pair it with lunch in Órzola, known locally for some of the freshest seafood on the island.

This protected natural monument in Lanzarote's southeast gets a fraction of the visitors of the island's more famous volcanic sites, despite genuinely rugged, eroded hill terrain that feels older and wilder than almost anywhere else on the island. Trails through the area are less clearly marked than Caldera Blanca or Volcán de la Corona, which is part of the appeal if you're after solitude, and part of the reason we'd only send confident, well-prepared hikers here.

Femés sits at the edge of this range and works as a natural base or starting point — combine a Los Ajaches loop with the Playa Quemada descent trail if you want a fuller day rather than two separate short outings.