Arrecife

Introduction

Arrecife is the capital of Lanzarote, the (north)easternmost of the Canary Islands. The city, bordering the Atlantic Ocean, has about 55,000 inhabitants and is the main gateway to the island.

Sights and Activities

Castillo de San Gabriel. Historic fort guarding the harbour, now containing the local history museum.
El Charco de San Gines. A charming seawater lagoon in the middle of the city.
Museo Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo, Castillo de San José. Contemporary art museum in another seafront castle.
Parque Jose Ramirez Cerda. Seafront park.
Parque Islas Canarias. Seafront park.

Weather

Arrecife has one of the most perfect climates. Summers last from May to early October when temperatures are generally between 25 and 30 °C during the day and a pleasant 20 on average at night. Winters are a little wetter but still nice with temperatures from November to April mostly between 20 and 25 °C and nights of around 15 °C. The southern parts of the island are slightly warmer than the northern parts, which also see a little more rain.

Getting There

By Plane

Lanzarote Airport (ACE) is located just 5 kilometres from the capital Arrecife. Numerous airlines serve the island. Arrecife Bus has regular connections to Playa Honda and Arrecife, from where there are connections to other destinations.
Ryanair now serves the island as well, with flights to/from Bournemouth, Birmingham, Bristol, Brussels, Dublin, East Midlands, Edinburgh, Frankfurt, Girona, Glasgow, Liverpool, London, Madrid, Shannon and Weeze (near Düsseldorf]]). Easyjet serves Liverpool, Londen and Madrid as well, while Thomson Airways and Thomas Cook Airlines serve many British destinations as well. Hamburg International and Air Berlin mainly serve the German market, while Air Europa and (slightly less) Iberia serve Spanish cities.
Other airlines mainly serve European destinations, including Paris, Amsterdam, Milan, Stockholm, Oslo, Copenhagen, Bergen, Gothenburg, Helsinki and Vienna. Gran Canaria and Tenerife have a flights as well and there are regular flights to Agadir in Morocco.

By Boat

Trasmediterránea provides ferries from Cádiz in Spain to and from the Canary Islands, including Lanzarote. Fred Olsen provides serves with other Canary Islands as well.
Naviera Armas runs weekly services between Portimao in mainland Portugal to Madeira and on to Tenerife, with connections to other Canary Islands, like Gran Canaria and Lanzarote.

Getting Around

Arrecife is quite small and almost anywhere of tourist interest is within walking distance.

Sleep

View our map of accommodation in Arrecife

Keep Connected

Internet

Internet is widely available within Spain. Most airports have wifi-zones and in most towns there are internet cafés or shops where you can use internet for a fixed price. Wi-Fi points in bars and cafeterias are available after ordering, and most hotels offer Wi-Fi connection in common areas for their guests.

Phone

See also: International Telephone Calls

The international access code for Spain is +34. The emergency number for police, ambulance and the fire brigade is 112.

In cities you can find plenty of public phones, and 'locutorios'. The latter are small shops where you can use the phone and use internet. Most of them also sell prepaid cards for mobile telephones. These shops are used a lot by foreigners to call to their mother country.

The main mobile network operators in Spain are Yoigo, Vodafone, Movistar and Orange, as in most of Europe voice and data coverage is generally good in urban areas however it can be patchy in rural locations. Cheap mobile phones (less than €50) with some pre-paid minutes are sold at FNAC or any phone operator's shop (Vodafone, Movistar, Orange). Topping-up is then done by buying scratch cards from the small stores, supermarkets, vending points (often found in tobacco shops) or kiosks.

Post

If you want to post a card, you can head to the post office (Correos). The Spanish post is not yet as efficient as colleagues in other countries so receiving a card can take a bit longer than the number of days that it should take. On the website of Correos, you can find the locations of nearby post offices.
Post offices are generally open from 8:30am to 2:00pm, although times will vary according to the size of the city/town and the main post offices might be open until the early evening. Most will also open again on Saturday mornings, but in the smaller towns will close as early as 12 noon. When posting a letter, look for a yellow box and, if possible, post at the post office itself where there will also be divisions for local, national and international mail. Be prepared for long queues at the post office. This is why tobacco shops sell stamps and many will also have the facility to weigh packages. Standard letters/postcards of up to 20 grams sent within Spain are €0.34. However, non-standard letters/postcards of up to 20g are €0.39. Letters/postcards of 20 to 50 grams are €0.45. In the case of international shipping, the price is €0.64 to most countries within Europe for standard envelopes (letters/postcards) up to 20g, for a few European countries and outside Europe it is €0.78. If you want to send a package you are probably better off with a private courier company like TNT, DHL or UPS, as they offer quick and reliable services against competitive prices.

External Links