What's on in Lanzarote (Puerto del Carmen), Spain through the year

Peak crowds — Winter-sun season, Christmas holidays in Spain

• Hazard

  Calima

  15 Jan – 15 Apr · usuallyDust season

  Saharan dust crosses on an easterly a few times each winter and spring, hazing the volcanoes out and occasionally closing the airport. It usually clears inside two days. Source ↗

Still on: Winter-sun season (1 Nov – 31 Mar)

Peak crowds — Carnival, Winter-sun season

• Festival

  Carnival

  1 Feb – 15 Mar · usuallyCrowded

  Arrecife and Puerto del Carmen each run a week of parades and a burial of the sardine, with the diabletes masks that belong to Teguise rather than to the other islands. Source ↗

Still on: Calima (15 Jan – 15 Apr (usually)), Winter-sun season (1 Nov – 31 Mar)

Peak crowds — Carnival, Winter-sun season

Nothing new starts in March.

Still on: Calima (15 Jan – 15 Apr (usually)), Carnival (1 Feb – 15 Mar (usually)), Winter-sun season (1 Nov – 31 Mar)

Busy — Semana Santa (Easter) holidays in Spain, school holidays in 5 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in April.

Still on: Calima (15 Jan – 15 Apr (usually))

Busy — Ironman Lanzarote, school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it

• Season

  Trade wind season

  1 May – 30 SepRisk

  The alisios blow hardest through summer, which is why Famara is a surf and kite beach and why a still day on the east coast is worth using while you have it.

• Festival

  Ironman Lanzarote

  23 MayMajor festivalCrowdedClosuresBook early

  The race has a reputation as the hardest of them, mostly because of the wind on the bike leg. Coast roads close for most of the day and the north of the island books out. Source ↗

Busy — Summer holidays in Spain, school holidays in 3 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in June.

Still on: Trade wind season (1 May – 30 Sep)

Busy — Summer holidays in Spain, school holidays in 6 of the markets that fill it

• Nature

  La Geria grape harvest

  5 Jul – 25 Aug · usually

  Europe's earliest vintage, picked by hand from single vines sunk in ash pits behind semicircular stone walls. The bodegas along the LZ-30 open for it in July.

• Season

  Sea at its warmest

  15 Jul – 30 Nov · usuallySea warm enough

  The Canary current keeps the water cool for the latitude and it stays flat and warm from July through October rather than peaking in August alone. Papagayo on the sheltered south is the warm end of the island.

Still on: Trade wind season (1 May – 30 Sep)

Busy — Summer holidays in Spain, school holidays in 6 of the markets that fill it

Nothing new starts in August.

Still on: Trade wind season (1 May – 30 Sep), La Geria grape harvest (5 Jul – 25 Aug (usually)), Sea at its warmest (15 Jul – 30 Nov (usually))

Peak crowds — Virgen de los Dolores romeria, Summer holidays in Spain

• Festival

  Virgen de los Dolores romeria

  12–18 SepMajor festivalCrowded

  The island's patron is walked to the church at Mancha Blanca on 15 September, a thanksgiving for the eighteenth-century eruptions that stopped at its doorstep. Ox carts, folk music and the whole island. Source ↗

Still on: Trade wind season (1 May – 30 Sep), Sea at its warmest (15 Jul – 30 Nov (usually))

Shoulder season — school holidays in 4 of the markets that fill it, an ordinary month

Nothing new starts in October.

Still on: Sea at its warmest (15 Jul – 30 Nov (usually))

Busy — Winter-sun season, school holidays in 2 of the markets that fill it

• Season

  Winter-sun season

  1 Nov – 31 MarCrowdedBook early

  The island's real high season. Northern Europe books weeks at a time in Puerto del Carmen and Playa Blanca, and Christmas and February half-term are the two spikes.

Still on: Sea at its warmest (15 Jul – 30 Nov (usually))

Peak crowds — Winter-sun season, Christmas holidays in Spain

Nothing new starts in December.

Still on: Winter-sun season (1 Nov – 31 Mar)