JULY 2021, UPDATED 2025
For an all year great weather touristic holiday island you can find so many unspoiled spots in Lanzarote. Lanzarote is one of the least touristy islands of the Canary Islands. It feels like visiting Spain, offering Spanish culture. Some Canary islands are so well catered to British tourists, that you are more likely to experience British culture and cuisine. Lanzarote is developed very orderly, with brand new roads and beautifully decorated roundabouts, but you can still discover areas that you can have completely to yourself. I dedicated this first Lanzarote blog to the hidden gems that you can find on the island.

Hidden gems Lanzarote
Los Charcones
On the west side of Lanzarote you will find many charcones (rock pools). These rock pools are filled with water from the ocean, when the waves crash over the rocks during high tide. Because the pools are shallow, this water has sufficient time to heat up to a nice temperature. We visited the rock pools during low tide (in the morning in June). Visiting during high tide can be quite dangerous as the waves can pull you along into the ocean. We visited the rock pools near the abandoned hotel (hotel en ruinas on google maps), as these are some of the easiest to get to. You have to drive down a dirt road for over 15 minutes, but if you drive slowly this is doable.
You can park your car next to the hotel and you can hike down to get to the rock pools. Make sure you bring water and sunscreen as there is no shade. We brought little Huug along and hid him under an umbrella while we took a swim. When we visited we ran into about six other visitors, the area is incredibly large so you will have many rock pools to yourself. We didn’t bring our drone, as we found it a big enough challenge to visit with a baby. If you have a drone, this is THE spot to bring it. I found very detailed information about the even more exclusive rock pools on this blog.




Playa de Montaรฑa Bermeja
We originally planned to visit the black sand beach Playa de los Ciclos, but we found the entryway blocked. We therefore drove down the road back to Playa Blanca a little further and ran into this beach. Most people just bring a short visit to this beach, visit before lunch and you can snag the best spot all for yourself. The color of the water is an intense bright blue which contrasts greatly with the volcanic beach. From here you can also hike to Los Hervideros, which is another beautiful coastal area. You can see on our drone shots that there was nobody to be seen when we visited.


Punta Mujeres
If you are looking for an atmospheric, authentic place to stay, Punta Mujeres is the place for you. The natural pools are located next to this cute white village, so make a swimming stop in this little town. Most villages in Lanzarote are whitewashed with green window frames. Punta Mujeres changed the green for blue, reminding me of beautiful Greece. We put Huug on the rocks in his car seat, so we could take a dip!





Playa Caleton Blanco
This is a very fine white sand beach, that is surrounded by black volcanic rocks with crystal clear blue water that slowly gets deeper. The color ways reminded me of the Blue Lagoon in Iceland, but much cheaper to visit ๐ Because the water is very shallow, it also is perfect to visit with kids. My pictures don’t do this place justice, I wish we had brought the drone to capture the contrast. You have to trust me when I say this is a super dreamy place. We only ran into locals when we visited. A very nice feature of this beach is that you will find little coves of rocks, offering shelter from the winds on a windy day.




Yaiza
I have never read a single recommendation for Yaiza and we accidentally discovered this cute town when passing by. Yaiza is the uncrowned queen of bougainvilleas on Lanzarote. I just had to stop at every corner because of the enormous bougainvilleas. Besides bougainvilleas, Yaiza offers a few very good restaurants (La Bodega de Santiago is among the best of Lanzarote) and a beautiful main square.



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Besides hidden gems Lanzarote is also great with kids. I wrote a separate blogpost on visiting Lanzarote with kids, which you can find here.



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