The essentials
- Montañas del Fuego has no box-office sales; choose a date and time online and arrive 15 minutes before it.[1][2]
- The ticket, from €30.00, includes a 35-minute coach route, the geothermal demonstrations and access to Islote de Hilario.[3]
- CACT advises a cap or sun protection from June to September, and warm clothing from October to April because the site is windy.[3]
- El Diablo grills over a five-metre well where the ground reaches around 250 degrees, and it takes no reservations.[3]
- The Mancha Blanca Visitor Centre gives free access to its exhibition and audiovisual programme on the park.[4]
| On your own | Half-day tour | Full-day tour | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Booking | Online in advance, fixed date and time[1][2] | Reserve now & pay later[5] | Reserve now & pay later[6] |
| What is included | Coach route, geothermal demos, Islote de Hilario[3] | Pickup, live guide, skip the ticket line[5] | Pickup, guide, stops at Jameos, Cueva de los Verdes[6] |
| Changes | No changes or refunds[1] | Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead[5] | Free cancellation up to 24 hours ahead[6] |
| Time needed | About 1 hour 15 minutes, per CACT's guide[3] | 5 hours[5] | 9 hours[6] |
| From | from €30.00[3] | from US$68[5] | from US$102[6] |
We recommend photographing the geyser area, the natural oven, the Devil figure and the Route of the Volcanoes.
Comfortable clothing and footwear are recommended. In summer, between June and September, a cap or sun protection is advisable.
On your own with a timed ticket, or on a guided tour
Before setting off
Timanfaya National Park tips for booking and arrival
Montañas del Fuego sells no tickets at the box office: tickets must be bought online in advance, and choosing a date and time is mandatory when you buy.[1][2] If the entry time you want is not available, the quota for that slot is already full.[1]
Plan to arrive 15 minutes before your booked time. There are no waiting areas inside the site or in the surrounding area for early arrivals, you cannot enter before or after your slot, and arriving outside it makes the ticket invalid, with no changes or refunds.[1]
The official pages give different hours for the same site: CACT's ticket page 09:30 to 15:45, Turismo Lanzarote's sightseeing page 09:00 a.m. to 04:45 p.m., and MITECO 9:00 to 17:00.[3][8][9] Turismo Lanzarote's visitor listing names 1.00 p.m. as the recommended time for the visit.[4] For questions before the day, CACT's customer service line for its centres is +34 928 84 84 84.[1]
What the ticket includes
CACT lists the general visit from €30.00, and children aged 0 to 6 enter free.[3] The ticket includes a 35-minute coach route, the geothermal demonstrations, access to Islote de Hilario and a volcanic landscape viewpoint.[3] CACT's visitor guide puts the whole visit at approximately 1 hour and 15 minutes, while its booking card shows a 90-minute slot.[3]
The camel ride is not on that list. The Ayuntamiento de Yaiza charges from €11 per person per trip, and children from age 4 pay, while an older Turismo Lanzarote page gives €12 per camel for 2 people.[3][4][10] The Ayuntamiento recommends riding between 9:00 and 15:00, every day except 25 December and 1 January, and puts the route at between 20 and 25 minutes.[10]
CACT also sells the Insólita Experience, a small-group upgrade from €46.30 that starts at 08:45 and runs for 120 minutes, on Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays only.[3]
Volcanic craters in the landscape of Timanfaya National Park
A guide to Timanfaya National Park, stop by stop
What to see in Timanfaya National Park begins on the road in, where the devil sculpture that is the park's symbol welcomes visitors to Montañas del Fuego.[3] From Islote de Hilario the view opens onto a sea of lava with more than 25 craters concentrated in just a few square kilometres.[3] The full-day tour booked from this site continues from Timanfaya National Park to Cueva de los Verdes and Jameos del Agua.[6]
The coach route was conceived by César Manrique and comes with an audio narrative, and CACT says the buses leave Islote de Hilario every 20 minutes.[1][3] On the route, the Valle de la Tranquilidad is named after the Moon's Sea of Tranquility, where Apollo 11 landed, and CACT notes that Timanfaya has been used to prepare astronauts for planetary expeditions.[3]
The geothermal demonstrations show the heat still in the ground: cold water poured into boreholes creates an artificial geyser, and plants placed in a hole catch fire.[11] IGME's description gives about 250°C at the surface and more than 600°C at 13 m, while its own scientific section gives 100 to 120°C at the surface and 610°C at 13 m, and it explains the heat by a residual magma chamber 2-4 km down.[11]
What to wear and bring
CACT's visitor guide recommends comfortable clothing and footwear. In summer, between June and September, it advises a cap or sun protection, and in winter, between October and April, warm clothing, because this is a windy area.[3]
The AEMET climate normals quoted here are for the Lanzarote Airport station. August is the hottest month there, with an average daily maximum of 29.1°C and essentially no rain, while December is the wettest, with 29 mm and a mean temperature of 18.6°C.[12] The station averages 111 mm of rain and 2,986 hours of sunshine a year.[12]
For families, CACT notes that access with a pushchair can be difficult and recommends a baby carrier, and the restaurant and cafeteria have high chairs.[3] The Route of the Volcanoes has adapted coaches, Montañas del Fuego has two accessible toilet cabins, and pets are not allowed except assistance dogs.[3][13]
15 min
How early CACT asks you to arrive before the entry time you booked, with no waiting area on site.[1]
Where to eat
Islote de Hilario, the core of Montañas del Fuego, has a cafeteria and a restaurant alongside its car park, souvenir shop and toilets.[9] The restaurant is El Diablo, whose dining room, conceived by César Manrique, looks out over the malpaís lava field through a large circular glass wall.[3]
Its grill sits above a five-metre well where the earth's natural temperature reaches around 250 degrees.[3] El Diablo does not accept reservations and assigns tables first-come, first-served.[3] Mains of meat cooked in the heat of the volcano range from €18.00 for chicken thighs to €26.00 for entrecôte, and the kids menu runs from €7.00 for spaghetti bolognese to €9.00 for breaded chicken.[14]
In the centre of the restaurant, the Jardín Muerto is a small glazed garden with the skeleton of a dromedary and a dry, burned tree trunk on the volcanic ash, a tribute to the legend of Hilario.[3] CACT says all of its centres offer restaurant or café services except Cueva de los Verdes.[1]
Rules inside the park
To protect the fragile ecosystem, the park may not be explored freely by car or on foot, and drivers must remain inside the vehicle from El Taro to the car park on the Islote de Hilario.[1][3] It is not possible to walk over the lava or other volcanic material, and the park's own rules invite visitors to keep to authorised roads and paths.[4][15]
MITECO's list of forbidden activities includes hunting or carrying weapons, collecting plants, animals or rocks of any kind or size, caving, outdoor sports and loud sound equipment, and professional photography or filming needs a special permit from the park offices.[7]
The visit rules also ask visitors to avoid drones, hang-gliders, parachutes, kites, balloons and fireworks, to protect wildlife.[15] Spanish national parks law separately bans overflight below 3,000 metres without express authorisation or force majeure.[16]
Beyond the coach route
The Mancha Blanca Visitor Centre, 4.5 km along the LZ-67 from the Montañas del Fuego gate, gives free access to an exhibition and an audiovisual programme.[4][17] Its exhibition covers volcanism and the birth of the Canary Islands, a Simulation Room recreates the sensations of an eruption, two audiovisual programmes run for about 30 minutes in four languages, and an elevated walkway crosses lava that reached farmland in 1730-36.[18]
MITECO gives the centre's hours as 9:00 to 16:00 every day since 1 July 2023, while Turismo Lanzarote gives 9.00 a.m. to 4.45 p.m.[4][18] The park authority's free Tremesana walk is 3.5 km, guided, of low difficulty and about 3 hours, meets at Plaza de los Remedios in Yaiza, and must be booked online at least 25-30 days in advance.[19]
The short coastal route is 2 km, guided and of medium difficulty, taking about 2.5 hours from El Golfo to near Playa del Paso, and the long coastal route is a self-guided 9.75 km with free access.[20][21] The Ayuntamiento de Yaiza counts the camel ride as one of the five authorised routes in Timanfaya.[10]
How long each Timanfaya activity lasts
Minutes as each source states them; the coach route is also given as 40 and 45.[1][3][18][22][23]
Price a guided Timanfaya visit for your group
Each amount is that listing's own "from" price in US dollars, and the calculator applies the same listed figure to every traveller.[5][6][24][25][26]
When to plan each part of the visit
Your visit, in order
Book a date and time online
Selecting a date and time is mandatory for Montañas del Fuego when buying online.[2]
Arrive 15 minutes early
There are no waiting areas on site, and arriving outside your slot voids the ticket.[1]
Ride the Route of the Volcanoes
The included coach route was conceived by César Manrique and has an audio narrative.[3]
Watch the geothermal demonstrations
Cold water poured into boreholes creates an artificial geyser at Islote de Hilario.[11]
Eat at El Diablo
It takes no reservations, and volcano-grilled mains range from €18.00 to €26.00.[3][14]
Finish at Mancha Blanca
The visitor centre, 4.5 km along the LZ-67, gives free access to its exhibition.[4][17]
Book a Timanfaya tour with pickup and skip-the-line entry
from US$103Reserve now & pay later
