← Lanzarote International Marathon·Day trip

César Manrique's Lanzarote: A Day Close to Costa Teguise

The artist's house built into five lava bubbles, his cactus garden in an old quarry and the harbour fort he turned into a museum, all within 15 minutes of the marathon finish.

DurationDay trip
TransitTaxi or car, about 10 minutes from Costa Teguise
DepartsCosta Teguise

After the Lanzarote International Marathon: César Manrique

The Route: Costa Teguise → Fundación César Manrique (Tahíche) → Jardín de Cactus (Guatiza) → Castillo de San José (Arrecife) → Costa Teguise Logistics: Short taxi rides or a hire car. Every stop is within about 15 minutes of Costa Teguise. Marathon Month: December Duration: Day trip

Costa Teguise ──(10 mins)──> Tahíche ──(15 mins)──> Guatiza ──(20 mins)──> Arrecife ──(10 mins)──> Costa Teguise

The Lanzarote International Marathon finishes in Costa Teguise, and much of what visitors notice about the island, the white houses with green or blue woodwork, the absence of billboards and high-rise hotels, traces back to one man. César Manrique, a painter born in Arrecife in 1919, returned from New York in the 1960s and persuaded the island's government to build tourism around the landscape and keep it low. His own house and two of his gardens are within a short drive of the race village, which makes this the lowest-effort day out on the island.

December on Lanzarote is warm and mostly dry, in the low twenties, with the trade wind blowing. Gardens and indoor rooms are pleasant at any time of day. All the sites open daily.

A taxi from Costa Teguise to Tahíche takes about 10 minutes; taxis are easy to find at the resort and can be booked to wait or return. A hire car makes the day more flexible.

Fundación César Manrique

Manrique built his house at Taro de Tahíche in 1968 on top of a lava flow, using five natural volcanic bubbles as rooms, linked by tunnels cut through the rock, with a white modernist house above. He lived there for two decades. It is now the foundation's museum, with his paintings and works by artists he collected. The underground rooms are reached by steps and ramps; the route is short, and the handrails help. Check current prices and times on the foundation's website.

Jardín de Cactus

The Jardín de Cactus at Guatiza, €9, was Manrique's last major project, opened in 1990 in a disused quarry where farmers had dug volcanic ash for their fields. Thousands of cacti from around the world stand on terraces around the quarry floor, beneath a restored windmill. The central paths are level and gravelled; the upper terraces are reached by steps. Open 10:00 to 17:00, with a café.

Castillo de San José

Back towards Arrecife, the Castillo de San José is an eighteenth-century fort on the harbour that Manrique converted into the Museo Internacional de Arte Contemporáneo, the MIAC, €5.40, open 11:00 to 18:00. The galleries are small. Below them, down a spiral staircase, a restaurant with a wall of glass looks straight onto the harbour; it is the place for lunch or a late coffee.

The return

From the Castillo de San José, Costa Teguise is about 10 minutes by taxi. For a slower evening, Arrecife's Charco de San Ginés, the lagoon the marathon passed twice, has cafés on its waterfront.