Buggy Tour Lanzarote Playa Blanca: Off-Road Volcano Driving

Buggy Tour Lanzarote Playa Blanca: What You Are Booking

A buggy tour swaps the promenade for dust, wind and bare lava. You climb into an open-sided machine with a roll cage, follow a guide in convoy and spend the drive looking straight at the volcanic south of the island instead of at it through a coach window. There is no special skill involved. If you can drive a car, you can handle a buggy on these tracks, and passengers get exactly the same views without having to watch the road. The pace is brisk but not reckless, with stops where the view opens up and time to swap seats if you want a turn at the wheel.

The tour booked from this site is the Guided Off-Road Volcano Buggy Tour. It runs 2 - 3 hours and is listed from US$173, rated 4.67 from 5,246 reviews.^[1] Groups are kept small, limited to 10 participants, and the live guide speaks Catalan, English, French and Spanish.^[1] You can reserve now and pay later, and cancel free of charge up to 24 hours in advance for a full refund.^[1] Pickup is available, with the options shown when you check availability for your date.^[1]

What the Off-Road Drive Actually Feels Like

Expect noise, grit and a lot of grinning. The route mixes packed dirt tracks with rougher stretches where the suspension earns its keep, and fine dust hangs in the air until the wind takes it away. Guides tend to stop where the view opens out, so you get out, stretch your legs, take photographs and then climb back in for the next section. Speeds are modest by motorsport standards and generous by holiday standards, which is about the right balance when the ground under your wheels is sharp volcanic rock that nobody has smoothed over.

The ground here is young in geological terms. The Timanfaya eruption lasted six years and covered 23% of Lanzarote in fresh lava and spatter.^[8] That is the surface you roll over: black clinker, reddish ash and cones that still look sharp-edged rather than softened by centuries of weather. Some tracks run beside low walls of stacked lava, and some cut straight across open malpais where little grows beyond the occasional fig or patch of lichen. It is a landscape that photographs badly and looks extraordinary in person, especially in low sun.

Buggy tyres, black ash and a sky that does most of the decorating in Lanzarote.

Who Can Drive, and What You Will Drive

The rules are firm and worth checking before you book. To drive a buggy on this tour, drivers need to be 20 or older, with a driving licence held for two years or more.^[2] Bring the licence with you on the day, and settle who is driving before you arrive so there is no debate at the briefing. If nobody in your group qualifies, look at the guided hikes and coach tours instead, where the driving is somebody else's job and the views are just as good.

Buggies are side-by-side machines with a steering wheel, seat belts and a roll cage rather than quad bikes, so the driving feels closer to a small car on a very bad road. For scale, the Can-Am Maverick X3 DS is a two-seat side-by-side whose engine delivers from 135 hp to 200 hp.^[9] You do not need to know that to enjoy the ride, but it gives you an idea of what sits under the bodywork. The guide sets the pace for the whole convoy, so nobody gets left behind on the climbs.

The Volcanic Landscape Around the Route

Lanzarote is listed as a Biosphere Reserve under UNESCO's Man and the Biosphere Programme, and the reserve comprises the northernmost island of the Canary Archipelago along with the northern islets.^[10] The tallest mountain on the island, Peñas del Chache, stands 672 meters (about 2,205 feet) above the sea.^[11] You will not be climbing it in a buggy, but it sets the scale of the place: a low, wind-scoured island where the sky does most of the decorating and the rock does the rest.

Further round the coast, Los Hervideros is a stretch of dramatic black lava cliffs where the Atlantic surges into a labyrinth of sea caves and blowholes and appears to boil among the rocks.^[12] Near Yaiza, the crater of an extinct volcano submerges into the Atlantic to form the Charco de los Clicos, known as the Green Lagoon, and it is a Natural Reserve.^[13] Inland, La Geria is known for its volcanic vineyard landscape, where the vines are grown in pits dug in volcanic ash, a centuries-old technique.^[14] Together they make the south-west of the island worth a slow afternoon as much as a fast morning.

Pickup, Transfers and Getting to the Start

Pickup is available on this tour, with the options shown when you check availability for your date.^[1] Playa Blanca sits 33 km from Lanzarote Arrecife Airport (ACE), while the airport is 12 km from Puerto del Carmen.^[3][15] That is a short transfer either way, so a buggy tour can fit into the day you land or the morning before you fly home, as long as the times work. If you are based in the north of the island, allow more time to reach a southern pickup point.

Ships dock at the Puerto de los Mármoles, 3 km (1.9 miles) from the city centre in Arrecife.^[16] That makes a buggy tour a realistic shore excursion when your call times line up with a departure, and a good reason to book an early slot rather than the last one of the day. Whether you treat the Playa Blanca buggy tour as a shore trip or a morning out from your hotel, leave a buffer at both ends of the day rather than cutting it fine.

When to Go, What to Wear and What It Costs

Lanzarote has a warm climate throughout the entire year, with an average annual temperature of about 21ºC.^[6] The island sits in the area of the trade winds, where the wind blows steadily from the north-east all year round, though its speed varies.^[7] In practice that means buggy weather in almost any month, with a breeze that keeps the heat manageable and dust that travels further than you expect. Mornings tend to be calmer and cooler out on the tracks, and the light is softer for photographs.

Lanzarote currently does not charge a general overnight tourist tax, so your budget is mostly the tour, your transport and your food.^[17] Prices for the Guided Off-Road Volcano Buggy Tour start from US$173.^[1] Pack closed shoes rather than sandals, sunglasses that stay on your face, and a light scarf or buff for the dustiest stretches. A thin windproof layer is worth having, and it is worth leaving white clothing at the hotel for another day.

Planning the Rest of Your Playa Blanca Stay

Playa Blanca is a comfortable base for the south, and the buggy tour slots neatly into a day that also takes in the coast. Pair it with El Golfo and Los Hervideros for an afternoon of black rock and Atlantic spray, or head inland to La Geria, where the vines grow in pits dug in volcanic ash, a centuries-old technique that uses the exceptional properties of that ash.^[14] Half a day in the north around Teguise and Famara is a different trip altogether, better saved for a separate morning.

Lanzarote receives just over 3 million holiday tourists per year, plus a further 500,000 day visitors arriving by cruise ship.^[18] Booking ahead rather than deciding on the morning is the safer habit, particularly in the busiest months. If you want a variation on the same idea, there are on-road buggy tours, larger multi-seat off-road buggies and Can-Am trail buggies on the island, plus shorter quad and jeep options, so it is easy to find something that suits the group you are travelling with.

Booking your buggy tour

1. Pick a date

   Starting times vary by day, so open the booking calendar and choose a slot that fits around your other plans.

2. Sort out pickup

   Pickup is available for this tour; check the pickup options shown for your date when you book.^[1]

3. Check the driver rules

   Drivers need to be 20 or older, with a driving licence held for two years or more.^[2]

4. Book with flexibility

   You can reserve now and pay later, and cancel free of charge up to 24 hours in advance.^[1]

5. Dress for dust

   Closed shoes, sunglasses and a buff help on the dusty stretches, and a light windproof layer is useful.

Answers before you go