Very cool excursion. The landscape is untouched and beautiful no matter which direction you look…read more The demonstrations at the park were great and the drive through was mesmerizing. It helps to have a guide as we were on a cruise ship tour.

Timanfaya National Park is one if the most breath taking and must see sites on the island. Located…read moreon the site of the 1730 and 1736 eruptions, you will get to see first hand the amazing and destructive power of volcanos. The €8 ticket price includes a guided bus tour around the park with audio commentary in Spanish, English and German. And a chance to witness the volcanos continuing activity with a mini geyser which shoots steam up to 12-15 feet into the air and hole in the ground that instantly burns tumbleweed due to the 400-600°C still emitted a few meters underground. There is also a cafe and restaurant on site which uses a kind of well which at the bottom has a almost molten ball of rock. They harness the tremendous heat given off by this to cook meals that are available in the restaurant. I recommend visiting this site as soon as it opens (10am), to avoid the long queues that develop during the day. To see all that Timanfaya has to offer will take around 2-3 hours so I recommended going to the Centro de Visitantes e Interpretacion which is about 3km north on the LZ-67, entry is free and gives you more information about the formation of the island and ecology of the national park.

Impressive as national parks go and this one is pretty unique, to me anyway…read more Firstly we took in the obligatory camel ride. A bit of a gimmick, but it was a lot cheaper than we thought it would be. 12 EUR for the two of us. The guy leading the line of camels you are on will take photos of you and your camel with your camera, if you want. Which is nice. The whole camel walk lasts about 15 mins, if even that. Now to the parque itself. We turned in, paid our 16 EUR and then waited patiently in a queue of cars. We could see glimpses of cars tootling along roads higher up and further away. The anticipation was building. After about a 30 mins we were allowed up to the car park. Here we were met by a nice official who showed us where to park and informed us of the free bus tours that took you further around the parque. As with all the government run the main tourist attractions, its all very well organised and run. We queued for a while for the bus tour, but gave up after ten mins and opt to go for some lunch instead. Lunch was nice. Again the novelty of having your food cooked on a volcano, but it was actually quite good. Not a complete tourist trap. I had the goats cheese, which was nothing like the goats cheese I am used to at home. A bit disappointing, I ate as much as I could. Outside the restaurant there are more tricks on show: the burning of the straw in the volcano and the feeding of water to the volcano. All interesting and good fun. Excellent for kids to see. There was lots of whoops and shrieks for the water trick. We tried again to queue for a bus tour, but it just didn't appeal to us. So we left for the day. Well worth a look. Get there early, when the gates open. Otherwise you will have to wait in a queue of colourful hire cars to get to the car park inside.