Things to see & do in Lanzarote

Michelle Braddock is one of the responsible travel pioneers who have pushed on with what Cesar Manrique began. She’s the co-founder of Lanzarote Retreats, our island accommodation specialists. This family business (herself, husband and son work as a team) offers places to stay that range from yurts to Canarian cottages – just about as far removed from the all-inclusive Lanzarote hotels as you can get.

Michelle has lived on Lanzarote for around 30 years – and co-run the business since 2004 – so we asked her for some insight on tourism in Lanzarote. “The government was quite controlling for a long time,” she says. “They wanted everyone to be kept in the resorts, because the politicians are hotel owners. That’s why you’ll find that there’s not one campsite in Lanzarote. They decided that any tourist bed would be given to hotels.”

That’s when the ardiente Canarian spirit kicked in: “So everyone else on the island ended up going, ‘Stuff you! We’re going to do our own thing.’ I think supply and demand has made that change, and [the government] just had to put up with it, really. It’s not been easy.”

By supply and demand, Michelle means that rural holidays are far more sought-after now than they’ve ever been. Many travellers want to see the islanders’ Lanzarote. It’s a far cry from when Michelle started their journey: “We’ve been doing this for nearly 15 years and it’s changed dramatically. Back then, everybody just went from resort to resort. I wasn’t sure that people wanted to come and stay where we lived – the traditional part. Rural tourism has grown hugely.”

Rural tourism is never going to replace resort tourism in Lanzarote, but it does offer an alternative for travellers who don’t fancy staying in an all-inclusive hotel.

There’s a surprise waiting outside your front door. It’s a secret that holidaymakers don’t tend to talk about: the Lanzarote landscape. It’s about as close as you’ll get to landing on Mars – hundreds of coppery mountains and dusty craters included. Most bus stops stick to the cities and towns, so the best (and often only) way to explore beyond is by car.

“I think it’s a shame that people don’t get around the island,” says Michelle, “because it’s very easy to drive, there aren’t that many cars, and the quality of the roads are fantastic.”

Michelle is passionate about using renewable energy. She and her husband didn’t plan to run a tourism business. It grew organically from them wanting to share their experience of living off-grid on Lanzarote. She says: “We lived with wind and solar energy ourselves, so really the business was just an add-on of how we were living as a family. We didn’t start out to set up an eco village. We just set out to live in that way as a family, with our four children.”

As it turned out, guests loved getting the rare chance to live off-grid; it was getting back to nature without sacrificing your comforts. “It’s very funny; people get very worried… ‘Do you have plugs?!’ ‘Do you have hairdryers?!’ We don’t normally put them in the rooms, but if you want one, we’ve got one. People don’t have to suffer to stay off grid.”

To Michelle, the next logical step was including access to an electric car in the accommodation price. “We have Toyota hybrids and our staff use electric or hybrid cars to work, so we have a number of electric cars that we use. There are about five sockets around the island. There’s one in Arrieta, which is hilarious because that’s just a little village…”

But it goes to show – if there’s demand for electric cars and green accommodation, then those travellers’ demands will usually be met…eventually. In Michelle’s mind, the government responds too slowly. “The island’s not big enough to need more power than electric cars give… but it’s such a shame – the whole island should’ve gone like that. It’s mental that it doesn’t; there’s not a reason not to use them. I think the problem is the expense of having an electric car. But ultimately, if the island only had electric cars it’d be perfect.”

“We’ve gone in and thrown out the gauntlet,” she adds, “and we’ll see who follows. But no one follows! No one has done what we’ve done. I can’t understand why no one’s copied us. It’ll happen, hopefully… just very, very slowly.”