Seeing Lanzarote underwater: submarine, sea trek, first dive or snorkel?
Updated October 3, 2026 · 9 min read
The short answer: if anyone in the group can’t swim, is very young or simply doesn’t want to get wet, book the real submarine dive at Puerto Calero — €65, one hour, 4.6 out of 5 from 1,447 reviews, and by a wide margin the most-reviewed underwater experience on the island. If you want to breathe underwater but have never dived, the beginner dive at Playa Chica is €75 with a perfect 5.0 from 382 reviews. If you want to walk on the sea bed with your head dry, the sea trek in Costa Teguise is €80 for 30 minutes. And if you only want to look at fish, a guided snorkel is €55.
See times and prices for the submarine dive
| Experience | Duration | from | Rating | Best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Real submarine dive, Puerto Calero | 1 hour | €65 | 4.6 from 1,447 reviews | non-swimmers, small children, anyone who stays dry |
| Guided snorkelling trip with a dive instructor | 2 hours | €55 | 4.9 from 101 reviews | confident swimmers who want the cheapest real look |
| Beginner scuba dive, no experience needed | 2–2.5 hours | €75 | 5.0 from 382 reviews | anyone who wants to breathe underwater for the first time |
| Underwater sea trek, Costa Teguise | 30 minutes | €80 | 4.8 from 193 reviews | people who hate masks and don’t want to put their face in |
| Beginner dive at the Museo Atlántico | 3 hours | €165 | 4.8 from 110 reviews | anyone who came for the underwater sculptures |
The question that sorts all of them
It is not price and it is not nerve. It is this: does your head have to go under?
The submarine is a dry cabin. The sea trek puts a helmet over your head and your hair stays dry. The beginner dive and the snorkel both mean a mask on your face and salt water on your skin. Decide that first, and four options become two.
The submarine: an hour, 30 metres, and nobody has to be able to swim
Submarine Safaris runs the Sub Fun Tres out of Puerto Calero marina. The operator describes a descent to 30 metres past three shipwrecks, a cabin with 44 seats and 22 large windows, and an audio guide in ten languages with headphones provided. The booking page makes a point worth repeating: the cabin is kept at normal atmospheric conditions, so pregnant travellers and people with heart or ear conditions are not affected by pressure.
According to the booking page the operator cannot take children under 2 years, for reasons of the safety equipment on board — otherwise it is the one experience here with essentially no fitness requirement. Included are the dive, a personalised dive certificate, a fish chart and free time at the marina afterwards; food and drinks are not.
One scheduling detail that catches people out, and it is on the booking page: pickup is tied to the dive time. The 11:00 AM and 1:00 PM dives are served from Playa Blanca only; the 12:00 PM and 2:00 PM dives from Costa Teguise and Puerto del Carmen only. You are asked to be at the marina 30 minutes before your dive time.
See availability and prices for the submarine
The sea trek: 30 minutes, and you pay for the helmet
Native Diving’s sea trek is the strangest of the four and the one people describe best afterwards. A helmet with a panoramic visor sits on your shoulders; the air comes down a hose from a small boat on the surface. You walk. Your hair does not get wet and you never put your face in the water.
It is €80 for 30 minutes, which is the highest price per minute in this comparison, and it is limited to eight participants. Photos and videos are included — which is just as well, because the booking page lists cameras among the things not allowed. According to the booking page, the minimum age for participation is 8 years, and the experience is not suitable for pregnant women, people with mobility impairments or anyone who has had recent surgery.
See availability and prices for the sea trek
The first dive: no boat, which is the point
Both the beginner dive and the guided snorkel use Playa Chica in Puerto del Carmen, the sheltered bay that is Lanzarote’s shore-diving site. For a first dive, walking into the water from the beach rather than rolling off a boat removes the two things that spoil most introductory dives: the swell on the way out and the queue of strangers waiting for you.
The €75 beginner dive runs two to two and a half hours with a maximum of four participants and, in the operator’s words, strictly one instructor per two people. Full equipment, diving insurance and HD video are included. The booking page lists the exclusions frankly: not suitable for pregnant women, for children under 8 years, or for people with high blood pressure, epilepsy, heart conditions or haemophilia. The operator will also ask for height, weight and shoe size by message after booking, to have the gear ready.
And one line on that page decides which day you book it. The operator states you should wait at least 12 hours after diving before flying. If your flight home is a morning one, the dive cannot be the afternoon before.
See availability and prices for the beginner dive
The Museo Atlántico: the only one you can’t do elsewhere
The underwater sculpture park off the south coast is the reason some people learn to dive at all, and there is a beginner programme that takes non-certified divers to it: three hours, €165, with training first and a ten-minute boat ride out to the museum.
That is two and a half times the price of a first dive at Playa Chica, and the honest comparison is this: at Playa Chica you are paying to find out whether you like breathing underwater. At the museum you are paying for one specific thing to look at while you do it. If the sculptures are the reason you are going under at all, pay the difference. If you are not sure you will enjoy any of it, don’t find out at €165.
See availability and prices for the Museo Atlántico dive
Where the snorkel wins
Two hours with a dive instructor in the water at Puerto del Carmen is €55, rated 4.9 out of 5 from 101 reviews, and nothing about it is a compromise if you are a comfortable swimmer. You see the same bay, the same volcanic rock and much of the same fish life as the first-timers on scuba — from above instead of alongside. It is also the only option on this page you could repeat three times in a week without the price being silly. More trips of this kind are listed under snorkelling and diving.
Our recommendation
For most visitors, and for any group with mixed ages or mixed confidence: the submarine. €65, one hour, 4.6 out of 5 from 1,447 reviews — more than every other option on this page put together. Nobody is excluded for being a weak swimmer, nobody has to be brave, and everybody sees the same thing at the same time.
Book a time for the submarine dive
If you want to actually be in the sea: the beginner dive at €75, 5.0 from 382 reviews — shore entry, four people maximum, and the cheapest honest way to find out whether diving is for you.
Don’t pay for the sea trek if you are a confident snorkeller. You will spend €80 for half an hour to see less than the €55 snorkel shows you in two. It earns its price only for the specific person it was built for: someone who wants to be under the sea and cannot stand a mask on their face.
And don’t book any of the in-water options for the last day of the holiday — not just because of the operator’s 12-hour rule on diving before flying, but because all of them are weather-dependent, and a cancelled Saturday has nowhere left to move to. Put them early in the week; the things to do on Lanzarote that do not care about the sea state can fill the end.
Inclusions, exclusions, participation limits, pickup arrangements and the advice on flying after diving are as published on the GetYourGuide booking pages of Submarine Safaris, Native Diving Lanzarote and the dive operators named. Ratings and review counts are from GetYourGuide. Subject to change.
