Timanfaya National Park, Canary Islands, Spain

5SussexChris 5:00 PM Mar 1, 2023

Amazing but go by tour bus
We have been here lots of times and just revisited Feb 2023. When we first went in 2008 we just drove there, paid our entrance fee and took the bus tour from the carpark. (You are not allowed to drive your own car round the park). This time we didn't have a car so booked on a tour from our resort and we were so glad we did. The queue for cars was enormous with a queuing time from the gate of over 2 hours and even more to get to the gate. Apparently they tell you on arrival how long you will need to queue for but cars were waiting for hours just to get to that point and there is nowhere safely to turn round once you start up the road towards the park so do yourselves a favour and go on an organised bus tour. These buses bypass the queues, you get your own demonstrations and you go on the same bus round the park so no need to change coaches. The scenery is impressive if you are interested in geology or volcanoes. Where else can you drive through a volcanic park where the ground in places is too hot to walk on? Its amazing, even when you have been several times. Sit on the right hand side of the bus if you can and hold your camera right against the window glass to minimise reflections. You cannot go to Lanzarote and not visit this amazing place.

4Jasmine38Chichester UK 5:00 PM Apr 7, 2022

Overall worthwhile
Suggest you arrive early as by 10am there was quite a queue and the car park is not that big. However, although the website states the park opens at 9am they didn't open the gate until 9.25 except for tour buses. We enjoyed our visit overall but felt organisation could be better. There is no info when you arrive. Basically you just need to head to the buses parked up and hop on one as soon as space is available. The bus ride around the park takes 35 min with commentary repeated in various languages. Interesting but we saw almost as good volcanic scenery driving around the island. Outside the cafe/restaurant there are a couple of demos to show hot it is beneath the service every couple of minutes so you can breeze through quite easily in an hour or so if you're limited for time and there are no queues. Whilst Lanzarote is a windy island it was super windy here and very cold so dress accordingly. Confusingly the visitor centre with the museum are 4km further on from the park and are free to enter irrespective of whether you paid the 12 euro park fee. Worth a stop for explanation on Timanfaya and volcanoes in general.