Centro de visitantes e interpretación de Timanfaya — Attraction in Tinajo

Lanzarote's landscapes are impressive and special at the same time. Part of this magic exudes the Timanfaya National Park, a unique national park in the Spanish network, characterized by its outstanding geographical features, the result of three volcanic eruptions in 1720, 1736 and 1824.

The lack of vegetation, the shapes in their extreme robustness, the abundance of colors, the silhouettes of the volcanoes and the cliffs, all this gives Timanfaya an extraordinary beauty.

This nature reserve offers a variety of options to explore and enjoy new, breathtaking views that will never cease to amaze you. Near the LZ-67 road, which connects the municipalities of Tinajo and Yaiza, there are various facilities and infrastructures that I would like to introduce to you in more detail here:

Visitor Centre

Before you start your visit, I recommend that you stop by the visitor center in Mancha Blanca, where you can get an overview of the entire park for free through an exhibition and an audiovisual program in several languages.

The center is accessible to people with reduced mobility and has a shop/bookstore.

Montanas del Fuego

In the Montañas del Fuego, visitors can immerse themselves in a volcanic world. The visitor center can be reached via the Taro de Entrada (road LZ-67), where you can also get the entry tickets (information about the tariffs). The price includes valet parking, geothermal demonstrations, and a bus tour of the Volcano Route.

Camel Resting Place

If we continue on the LZ-67 road towards Yaiza, we will reach the camel resting place. Here you can take a dromedary tour. At the rest area there is also a museum/information point that shows an exhibition about the national park, the traditional use of dromedaries and agricultural equipment. The museum is accessible to people with reduced mobility. It is open Monday to Friday from 9:00 a.m....

Visited today 10/10/22. The place is pretty suggestive as you are literally in the middle of the lava.

Tickets are 12€ per person and you can either purchase it online or on spot, but it actually doesn’t make a lot of difference as there is only one entrance and you have to stay in line also of you already have one. The ticket includes the entrance into the natural park and the bus tour, as you can only go by car until the parking spot.

The bus tour around the Timanfaya park is around 30/40 minutes, during which the driver (Very skilled driver, I was impressed on how he could drive in this narrow roads on the very edge of the street) will take you around the park to show the craters, the black lava sand and the lava rocks.

During the tour there is a recorded voice giving information in english, spanish and german about the things we were seeing. The only downside is that we could only take pictures from the window as we weren’t allowed to get off the bus.

After the bus tour finished we could experience some interesting shows that took place next to the restaurant, like the hot rocks that are just 2 meters under the surface or the food cooked on a “volcanic” grill (See last picture)

I had a great experience overall and this place is worth to visit.

IMPORTANT INFORMATION: If you are not going on an organized tour, I REALLY recommend you to be there before the place opens. I was almost the first to arrive and everything went fast and smooth for me, but right after my tour ended there was already a long line of people with at least 1h wait to...

READ CAREFULLY :-)

Whilst Timanfaya is of course an utterly incredible place to visit, BE PREPARED FOR ORGANISATIONAL CHAOS!!

Within school holidays, the morning queues are beyond a joke. The access road is single lane from BOTH directions, and crazily the security gates are JUST off this road. This GUARANTEES road chaos every time. Be prepared for queue jumpers, general stress, and crazy 3 point turns on a very narrow road... Just to get in! Recommend arriving no later than 8.30, for a 9am opening. BE PREPARED TO QUEUE.

The car park at the top is equally chaotic and dangerous, so be very careful with children.

There is no room for sitting or relaxing at the summit - nor taking in the views - so jump (or queue) on the first available tour bus... Which also runs from the car park (hence the chaos).

The tour bus is utterly remarkable - with unparalleled views around the volcano, and even THROUGH the lava channels - but be prepared for precipitous drops and incredible bus driving :-). After the bus tour is a brief 15min guided tour of the active lava spouts (burning tumbleweed and hot water spouts) - plus a hilarious chicken BBQ over lava heat spouts.

After all this - call it 45mins - there is nothing left to do but hide in a tiny cafe or wait for the BBQ chicken at lunch. As utterly packed, we just left by 10.45.

I guess you HAVE to visit here - but go there prepared for a...