What's on in Lanzarote

Lanzarote looks like nowhere else in Spain. The eruptions of the 1730s reshaped the island into a field of black lava, red cinder cones and the lunar badlands of Timanfaya National Park, and the islanders learned to farm it — most strikingly in La Geria, where vines grow in individual scooped hollows of black ash. The artist César Manrique shaped the rest, banning high-rise hotels and turning lava caves and craters into galleries, so the whitewashed towns and the volcanic landscape sit together in a way you won't find elsewhere. Beneath it all are fine beaches at Papagayo and Famara.

The summer calendar mixes wine, music and tradition. June is built around the harvest and the vines — the Wine Festival in Uga and the Wine Run through La Geria's lava fields — along with San Juan bonfires and a run of village patron-saint fiestas. Teguise, the old capital, holds its huge Sunday market every week, and the season carries on through the multi-day Regla Festival on tiny Alegranza, the Lava Live music festival in July, and the patron-saint Fiestas de San Bartolomé in August.

Lanzarote (ACE) airport near Arrecife takes flights from right across the UK and Ireland. Resort transfers cover Puerto del Carmen, Costa Teguise and Playa Blanca, but a hire car is what opens up the island — Timanfaya, the La Geria vineyards, the wild Famara coast and the northern villages around Haría all reward having your own wheels.

Whether you're in a Puerto del Carmen apartment, a Playa Blanca hotel or a village house inland, this is your guide to what's actually on while you're here — the wine fiestas, markets, concerts and romerías worth planning around.