El Golfo
El Golfo is the one stop on this island where the inside of a volcano is on open display without anybody having to dig. A cone once stood on the west coast; the Atlantic removed the seaward half of it and left the rest standing as a dark curved wall, and in the hollow at the foot of that wall sits the green lagoon that people come to photograph. It takes minutes to see and it is on the route of several tours rather than sold on its own — from $56 for a short run out of Arrecife to $58 for a full island day. This page explains what you are actually looking at, which listings name it, and why nobody sells a swim there.
Quick answer
The short answer. El Golfo is a stop, not a day. The quickest way to it is $56, two and a half hours from Arrecife taking in the park and the green lagoon, rated 4.6 across 2,155 reviews. For more time on the same pairing, $70 runs four and a half hours in the morning. And if you want the west coast as part of a wider island route, $58 is the nine-hour day, rated 4.7 across 3,303 reviews.
How it works
Volcanic cones are built in layers, and normally you only ever see the outside of one. At El Golfo the sea has done what no visitor centre can: it has cut one open. The seaward half is gone, eroded away over a very long time, and what remains is a curved wall of layered rock facing the water, with the floor of the old crater in front of it. The wall is the cross-section. The bands running along it are the layers, and they are legible from the path without anybody explaining them.
The water. In the hollow at the base sits the green lagoon. It is salt water — the Atlantic is metres away through porous volcanic rock — and the colour comes from what grows in it, which is why the shade shifts with the light and the season and why photographs of it never quite agree with each other. On a bright day with the sun behind you it is startling. Under cloud it is a duller olive, and people who arrive expecting the postcard on a grey morning say so.
The black beach. Between the water and the sea there is a bank of dark volcanic sand. That strip is why the view works: ochre wall, green water, black sand, blue Atlantic, in four horizontal bands. There is nowhere else on the island where those four sit in one frame.
Why it is always part of something else. Seeing El Golfo takes a matter of minutes. Getting there takes considerably longer, because it is on the west coast and the roads run around the volcanic fields rather than through them. That arithmetic is why no operator on this site sells it alone: it goes with the park, on $56 and $70, or with the island, on $58.
Every trip, current fare
Six listings compared. The two at the top name the lagoon in their own titles; the island day covers the west coast inside a wider route; the rest are here so you can see what a park-only day costs by comparison. The cost-per-hour column puts a two-and-a-half-hour run and a nine-hour day on the same scale.
| Tour | Length | Price | What is included | Cost per hour | Rating |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Arrecife: Timanfaya and Green Lagoon for Cruise PassengersArrecife: Timanfaya and Green Lagoon for Cruise Passengers | 2h 30m | $56 | A short run from Arrecife to the park and the green lagoon | $22.40 | 4.6 · 2,155 |
| Timanfaya And El Golfo For Cruise Passengers (Mornings)Timanfaya And El Golfo For Cruise Passengers (Mornings) | 4h 30m | $70 | A morning run from the port to the park and El Golfo | $15.56 | 4.6 · 1,076 |
| Lanzarote: Full-Day Island Highlights TourLanzarote: Full-Day Island Highlights Tour | 9 h | $58 | A full-day loop of the island highlights, the park included | $6.44 | 4.7 · 3,303 |
| Lanzarote: Timanfaya National Park - Half day tourLanzarote: Timanfaya National Park - Half day tour | 5 h | $68 | Half a day around the park, with the coach route inside it | $13.60 | 4.4 · 2,785 |
| Lanzarote: Timanfaya National Park TourLanzarote: Timanfaya National Park Tour | 6 h | $68 | A six-hour run to the park and the south of the island | $11.33 | 4.4 · 1,019 |
| Lanzarote: Guided Off-Road Volcano Buggy TourLanzarote: Guided Off-Road Volcano Buggy Tour | 2 - 3 hours | $172 | A guided off-road buggy you drive yourself, over volcanic tracks | $68.80 | 4.7 · 5,513 |
Seeing it properly
It is a viewpoint. You look at the lagoon from the path above and along the shore. That is the visit. Nobody is taking you down into the water, no listing on this site offers a swim there, and the pool is small — it reads bigger in photographs taken with a wide lens from the right spot than it does when you arrive.
The light decides everything. Morning tours such as $70 reach the west coast with the sun behind them, which is the direction that makes the colour work. Later routes arrive with the light coming off the water instead. Neither is wrong, but if the green is the reason you are going, the morning listings are the ones built around that hour.
The village is next door. El Golfo is also the name of the small place on the shore beside it, and tours that stop for longer tend to give people time there. What your listing includes in that stop is printed on the listing, and it differs between operators, so read it rather than assuming lunch.
The coast nearby does the same trick differently. A short way south the lava reaches the sea in cliffs and blowholes at Los Hervideros, and several west-coast routes take both in the same stretch of road. Where a listing names it, it is in the itinerary; where it does not, we are not going to promise it.
Before you book
The lagoon itself never changes. What changes is when you arrive, how long you have and what else is attached, and those four things are printed on every listing.
| What to check | Where it lives | Why it matters | If you skip it |
|---|---|---|---|
| Whether the lagoon is namedor only the park is | The title and the itinerary | $56 and $70 name it; park-only days do not | A west coast you drove past on the way to somewhere else |
| What time you arrivemorning or afternoon | The departure time on the listing | The colour reads strongest with the sun behind you, which favours morning routes | A photograph that looks nothing like the one that made you book |
| How long the stop isminutes or a proper pause | The itinerary | Short runs give you the viewpoint; longer days give you the village as well | Being back on the coach while everyone else is still walking |
| Where it startsArrecife, a resort or the port | The inclusions | The cruise-passenger listings start from Arrecife; others collect from resorts | A transfer to the start that costs more than the difference in fare |
| What the walking ispath, steps and loose sand | The requirements | The approach is on uneven volcanic ground, and operators state this themselves | Smooth soles on a slope of black grit |
Book direct
The listings above with their current fare, rating and review count. Every tour on this site has free cancellation, and on the short runs that matters more than usual, because plans on a travel day move.
★ 4.6 · 1,076 reviews
★ 4.6 · 2,155 reviews
★ 4.7 · 3,303 reviews
★ 4.4 · 2,785 reviews
★ 4.5 · 2,845 reviews
★ 4.7 · 5,513 reviews
What to expect
All of it is what the place is, or what the listings on this site actually describe. Nothing here is promised on your behalf by an operator.
The pool is modest. The drama comes from the wall behind it and the colour contrast, not from scale, and people who arrive expecting a lake are the ones who leave disappointed.
Bright sun gives the green everyone photographs. Cloud gives a flat olive. Both are the same water on the same day of the week.
Layer after layer of volcanic material, exposed in one clean curve. Once you have been told what the bands are, you cannot stop seeing them.
Not dark grey. It is the same material as the fields inland, broken down and pushed up the shore by the Atlantic.
The west coast is exposed. A layer that felt unnecessary in the resort makes sense on that path, and hats leave with the wind rather than with their owners.
Every listing here that names the lagoon names Timanfaya as well, because the two sit on opposite ends of the same short stretch of the south-west.
It applies to every tour on this site, which is worth having for a stop whose whole appeal depends on the sky.
When to go
This is a coastal viewpoint on an island with a mild year. The variables are light, wind and how many coaches are in the car park when you arrive.
Winter mornings
The light is at its most forgiving and the west coast is quiet. $70 runs in the morning and lands in exactly this window.
Spring
The best conditions for seeing the layers in the wall and the whole sweep of coast at once.
Summer midday
The sun overhead takes the depth out of the colour, and this is the hour when the island days all arrive together.
Autumn afternoons
Pleasant to stand in, harder to photograph. Good if the stop is one of several on a day such as $58.
The verdict
For the most time on the pairing, book $70. Four and a half morning hours taking in Timanfaya and El Golfo, rated 4.6 across 1,076 reviews.
For the quickest version, book $56. Two and a half hours from Arrecife to the park and the green lagoon, rated 4.6 across 2,155 reviews.
For the west coast inside a full island day, book $58. Nine hours, rated 4.7 across 3,303 reviews, with the stops printed on its own listing.
If the park matters more than the coast, book $68. Five hours concentrated on Timanfaya, rated 4.4 across 2,785 reviews.
And for the volcanic ground at close range, book $172. Two to three guided off-road hours with 5,513 reviews behind it at 4.7 — the most reviewed listing on this site.
Inland from the coast the ash turns into farmland: vines growing in hollows dug into volcanic grit, one plant to a pit.
See La Geria→Common questions
The colour comes from what lives in the water rather than from the rock around it, which is why the shade changes with the light and the time of year.
No listing on this site offers swimming there, and the visit is made from the path and the shore. Treat it as a viewpoint rather than a beach stop.
It varies by listing. The short runs from Arrecife give you the viewpoint; longer days such as $70 and $58 allow more time on the coast. The itinerary on the listing is the place this is stated.
They show different things. The park is the scale of the flows; El Golfo is the inside of a single cone, opened up by the sea. Most listings that include one include the other for exactly that reason.
It is on the west coast, away from the resorts, so independent visits mean a car. The listings here exist because the driving is the expensive part of the day in time.
$70 runs in the morning, which is when the sun is behind you on that coast and the green reads strongest.
Go deeper
Twenty-two ways to see the lava, by what they reach and what they cost.
TimanfayaThe coach route inside the park, and why you cannot simply walk in.
Buggy toursDriving the lava tracks yourself, and what the day is like.
Volcano hikesWalking on the lava outside the park, with a guide.
The park busWhat the 14-kilometre coach loop shows you, and what it does not.
The 1730 eruptionSix years of lava, and the landscape it left behind.
Lanzarote: Guided Off-Road Volcano Buggy Tour
★ 4.7 · 5,513 reviews · Free cancellation 24 h