Visiting Timanfaya National Park: tickets, bus tour and queue tips

On September 1, 1730, the parish priest of Yaiza, Don Lorenzo Curbelo, wrote in his church diary: 'Between nine and ten at night the earth suddenly opened up near Timanfaya... a colossal mountain rose from the womb of the earth and flames burst from its apex, burning for nineteen days'. For six consecutive years, over thirty volcanic vents erupted without pause, burying eleven fertile farming villages and transforming a quarter of Lanzarote into an eerie, silent lunar landscape.

Today, Timanfaya National Park is one of Spain's most iconic natural landmarks. However, visiting without careful timing can mean sitting in a two-hour car queue on the LZ-67 road under blazing sun. This guide explains how admission works, what the Volcanoes Bus Tour covers, and the local timing secrets to avoid crowds.

How Timanfaya is visited: Islote de Hilario

Unlike parks where visitors roam freely along hiking trails, Timanfaya's delicate lichen crust and volcanic ash fields take centuries to recover if trampled. For environmental preservation, all general tourism is centralised at the Islote de Hilario visitor hub.

A standard adult ticket (approx. €20 for non-residents) includes three highlights:

• Geothermal demonstrations: park rangers pour a bucket of water down steel pipes drilled into the rock, triggering an instantaneous, roaring steam geyser.
• Dry brush fire demo: dried gorse branches placed inside a shallow pit catch fire spontaneously from raw geothermal ground heat.
• The Volcanoes Bus Tour (Ruta de los Volcanes): a 14-kilometre journey in official park coaches along a winding, private road masterminded by César Manrique and Jesús Soto.

Traffic queues on the LZ-67 and how to skip them

The access road (LZ-67) has a single toll barrier (Taro de Entrada). From there, a narrow two-kilometre single-lane road climbs to the upper car park at Islote de Hilario, which holds barely one hundred vehicles.

Proven timing tactics to avoid the queue:

• Option 1 · Arrive at 09:00: reach the entry gate 30 minutes before opening. You will park immediately and board the very first coach tour.
• Option 2 · Arrive after 15:15: by mid-afternoon coach tours have headed back to resort hotels, afternoon sunlight bathes the ochre craters in warm tones, and parking is seamless.
• Option 3 · Join an organised tour coach: commercial tour buses benefit from dedicated priority lanes that skip the rental car queue.

Organised tours with priority access to Timanfaya

Timanfaya Route

Come and experience one of our most impressive tours of the island of Lanzarote, featuring four of…

9 hours From €69

El Diablo restaurant and the geothermal grill

Perched on the crest of Islote de Hilario stands El Diablo restaurant, designed in 1970 by César Manrique using circular lava-stone walls and panoramic curved glass to blend seamlessly with the cinder cone.

Its central showpiece is an outdoor barbecue mounted over an open volcanic pit. Just four metres below the grill, subterranean temperatures exceed 400 °C. Chicken and skewered meats cook purely from natural geothermal heat without any charcoal or electricity.

Walking trails around the national park

While self-guided walks inside the national park borders are strictly barred, exceptional walking routes circle the park perimeter:

• Volcán El Cuervo: an easy 4-km circular flat walk that takes you right inside the open crater of the first volcano that erupted in 1730.
• Caldera Blanca: a 10-km trek across ancient lava to the rim of the island's widest crater (over 1,100 metres in diameter) with panoramic views over Timanfaya's entire lava desert.
• Las Grietas de Montaña Blanca: narrow natural canyons carved by water erosion into layered volcanic ash shelves near Tías.