Lanzarote full-day island tour from €51: three options, three entry tickets, one time-slot problem

Only one tour on Lanzarote has more reviews than the full-day tour to the island’s highlights: the buggy tour from Costa Teguise. 3,265 reviews, 4.7 stars, 9 hours, €51 per person, run by LANZAROTEGUIDES S.L. For that, the bus calls at two lava caves in the north, a viewpoint over La Graciosa, Haría, La Geria, Timanfaya National Park and the green lagoon at El Golfo.

The operator’s short description names the three big targets in one sentence: “Explore the attractions of Lanzarote, including Timanfaya National Park, Cueva de los Verdes, and Jameos del Agua”. It doesn’t say that you might pay extra for exactly these three. Only further down the booking page does it say there are three options: without entry tickets, with two tickets, and with all three.

What the €51 pays for

As included, the booking page lists the air-conditioned bus, the guide, the stop in La Geria, the Green Lagoon and – depending on the option – the tickets for Timanfaya, Jameos del Agua and Cueva de los Verdes. Listed as not included are the camel ride and lunch, and the description text says the same.

The page only shows the prices of the options once you’re in the selection screen. Even so, you can work out which variant the €51 is. According to the island authority CACT, the three tickets together cost €64 per adult: €30 for Timanfaya, €17 each for Jameos del Agua and Cueva de los Verdes. That’s more than the whole starting price. Even the two cheapest tickets, Jameos and Cueva, add up to €34 – which would leave €17 for nine hours of bus and guide. So the €51 is, in all likelihood, the option without entry tickets.

Comparing the three options properly

Which two tickets are in the middle option? The page doesn’t say, and it makes a difference. Only the ticket for Jameos del Agua can also be bought at the door. Timanfaya and Cueva de los Verdes are sold exclusively online by the CACT. Miss either of the two, and you have the same problem as with no tickets at all.

The surcharge. If the option with all three tickets costs less than €51 plus €64, you save compared with buying separately. If it costs more than €89, you get the same three tickets more cheaply with the tour to Timanfaya, Jameos and Cueva de los Verdes – with fewer stops.

Children. In the national park, children aged 7 to 12 pay €15, and children up to age 6 pay nothing; at the cave, children aged 7 to 12 pay €8.50. Whether the option price reflects that only shows up once you’ve entered the ages.

At the top of the page, the operator advertises a separate entrance with no queuing. What’s left of that without tickets is another question for them.

The time-slot problem

Book the cheapest option and buy the tickets yourself, and you run into a CACT condition: tickets for Timanfaya and Cueva de los Verdes are sold online only, tied to a date and time. For the national park, the CACT rules out rebooking and refunds, and you’re expected at the ticket counter 15 minutes before your slot. So you’d need to know when the bus gets there.

The booking page doesn’t say. The order of the stops is explicitly for guidance only. The page doesn’t even agree with itself: the description has the La Geria wine before the lunch break, while the itinerary has La Geria only after Haría, where the break happens. The WhatsApp message the day before, around 3 pm, gives the pickup point and pickup time – whether it also states the times at the cave and the park is stated nowhere.

There’s also a mismatch on cancellation: the tour can be cancelled free of charge up to 24 hours beforehand, a Timanfaya ticket can’t. Change your plans, and €30 per adult is gone on that alone. Whether a Cueva ticket can be returned isn’t stated on the CACT site.

It’s also left open what you do without a ticket while the group spends an hour in the cave, and how the national park works without an entry ticket. Anyone who wants the option without tickets should get written confirmation from the operator beforehand of exactly what time the group will be at Timanfaya and Cueva de los Verdes.

The day, stop by stop

According to the booking page, order not guaranteed:

• Cueva de los Verdes, one hour, on foot through the lava tunnel.
• Jameos del Agua, one hour.
• Mirador de Guinate, 15 minutes, a view from the cliffs across to La Graciosa.
• Haría in the Valley of a Thousand Palms, 45 minutes, usually with free time for lunch at your own expense.
• Monumento al Campesino, a drive-by only.
• La Geria, 20 minutes, with a tasting at a wine producer; the page doesn’t mention a surcharge for it.
• Timanfaya with the Islote de Hilario, one hour: steam demonstrations, then the volcano route.
• Camel station in the national park, a 25-minute ride, optional, for an extra charge.
• Charco de los Clicos at El Golfo, 25 minutes.

Added up, the stops come to just under five hours. The remaining four-plus hours go on pickup, the return drive and the roads in between.

Excursion buses usually drive the volcano route in their own coach. What happens in the park is covered in the half-day Timanfaya tour, the background in What to see in Lanzarote. Anyone who wants to linger longer at one stop will find dedicated trips: wine tasting in La Geria, day trips to La Graciosa and tours to the Manrique sights.

This booking page doesn’t give a price for the camel ride; the €87 tour (below) states around €12 in cash for 25 minutes. One guest of this tour writes that the ride looked bad for the animals – a single voice.

Big coach, several languages

As the guide’s languages, the page names English and Spanish, not German. One guest describes a coach with English-, Spanish-, Italian- and German-speaking guests, with the guide having to rush to translate everything. Another mentions around 80 fellow passengers, and a third wishes the guide had a microphone. These are single voices, but together they paint a picture: a big coach, several languages, a tight schedule. A German translation isn’t promised.

Punctuality and how much you see in one day are praised. The sub-scores on the booking page: guide 4.6, transport 4.8, value for money 4.6.

Pickup points are Costa Teguise, Playa Blanca, Playa Honda, Puerto del Carmen and Arrecife. The operator sends the meeting point by WhatsApp, and according to the page it isn’t always your accommodation.

The alternatives: €89, €87 or a hire car

€89, all three tickets included. The tour to Timanfaya, Jameos del Agua and Cueva de los Verdes, 4.5 stars from 2,756 reviews, 9 hours. You don’t book any time slots yourself, and German is on the list of guide languages. After deducting the €64, €25 is left for the bus and guide; Guinate, Haría, La Geria and El Golfo are missing. More in the article on this tour.

€87, Timanfaya, Jameos and El Golfo. The full-day tour through Timanfaya Park and Jameos del Agua, 4.5 stars from 2,050 reviews, 8 hours. The tickets for Timanfaya and Jameos are included according to the booking page; Cueva de los Verdes is missing.

Hire car. €64 in entry tickets per adult, plus the car – but you choose the time slots yourself instead of guessing them. You’re not allowed to drive the volcano route in your own car; at the Islote de Hilario you switch to the park bus, which is included in the ticket. The viewpoint at El Golfo costs nothing. An order for the north is set out in What to see in North Lanzarote.

If you only want the national park: the Timanfaya volcano crater tour takes 5 hours and costs €59, 4.4 stars from 2,740 reviews. More under Timanfaya volcano tours.

Who this tour isn’t for

Anyone who dislikes sitting on a coach. Nine hours, a good four of them on the road.

Families with young children. One family with a four- and a five-year-old was happy but found the coach cramped – a single voice. What works at which age is covered in Lanzarote with kids and Lanzarote with a toddler, and for older children in Lanzarote with teenagers.

Anyone who wants to linger somewhere. 15 minutes at Guinate, 20 at La Geria, 25 at El Golfo – an overview, not a day in one place.

Anyone who struggles on their feet. The operator advises comfortable shoes, because part of the tour goes on foot through caves; the page says no more than that. One guest with limited mobility found the caves difficult but the guide patient. Get confirmation from the operator beforehand of what’s required along the way.

Anyone who wants to see as much as possible in one day, can get by in English and works out whether the option with all three tickets beats the €89, gets a packed itinerary. Everything else bookable is under Things to do in Lanzarote.