From The Sunday Times Travel Magazine, October

Lanzarote is the destination equivalent of Daniel Craig: not exactly pretty, but with a muscular ruggedness that’s heart-stopping.

If you like your holidays manicured and lavender-scented, look elsewhere: Lanzarote is barren and untamed. In the 18th century, Timanfaya, the liveliest of the island’s 300 volcanoes, erupted 26 times in six years, oozing treacly lava over most of the south, and leaving angry charcoal peaks and red craters.

Little has changed this Canary Island that time forgot, far out in the Atlantic. Indeed, it was on these prehistoric-looking shores that Raquel Welch took on the T-Rexes in her animal-skin bikini for the film One Million Years BC.

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A dinosaur-bone’s throw from Africa, Lanzarote enjoys year-round sunshine and temperatures that rarely drop below 17°C. This, and the easy four-hour flight, tempt almost one million Brits to flee here every year – so it was no surprise when, in the 1970s, a couple of cheap-and-cheerful resorts popped up, giving the island its ‘Lanzagrotty’ tag.

And had it not been for one native creative, artist César Manrique, Lanzarote might have been completely buried under all-inclusives. For two decades, he spearheaded a campaign that led to the banning of billboards and high-rises, turning natural attributes into futuristic-looking visitor attractions and dotting his sculptures everywhere.

In the north, the lava gives way to scrubby, scarlet scenery, windswept surfing beaches and sudden bursts of colour provided by bright birds of paradise and swathes of palms and fir trees. When you’ve done enough gawping at the out-of-this-world surroundings, an evening spent sampling home-grown rosé will soon bring you back down to earth.

Out of this world

Get to the bottom of the black stuff at Timanfaya National Park (00 34 928 840057; £6). The 30 or so volcanoes here could blow again, and the only way of getting up close is on a coach tour. The route is precarious and the scenery otherworldly: buses climb mountains of silky-grey sand, past rust-red craters and lava frozen into waves tipped with white-lichen foam. At El Diablo, the park’s Manrique-designed restaurant, you can watch chicken legs drip and sizzle over a well as they’re roasted by the 600°C heat raging 13m below the surface.

Edge down steep steps carved into the rock at Jameos del Agua (00 34 928 848020; open daily, and until 2am on Tues, Fri and Sat; £6) into the first of two roofless caves (actually partially collapsed lava tunnels). Now head for the dark central area. Here, a sapphire lagoon shimmers, and thousands of tiny blind albino crabs glow on the bottom, like stars. There’s a memorable night out to be had here, too: Manrique snuck a couple of bar-cum-restaurants and an auditorium into the recesses.

If you thought Lanzarote was just for people seeking cheap, all-inclusive autumn sun, the harbour at Puerto Calero will put you right. Its glossy-hull count puts trashier Puerto Banus to shame – the king of Spain is rumoured to berth here when things get blustery back home. There are designer shops and a row of unpretentious restaurants strung with fairy lights. Try Pappardelle (00 34 928 512911) for pizza and Taberna del Puerto (00 34 928 512882) for piles of paella.

The lichen-covered Mirador del Río (00 34 928 526548; £4) is an old lookout, which Manrique originally conceived as a restaurant. Perched in the heights on the northern-most tip of the island, it looks like somewhere Bilbo Baggins might call home. Inside, it’s all much more Grand Designs, with minimalist Manrique decor, a spidery light sculpture and ferns in hanging baskets. The view from here is arguably the best in Lanzarote: the scrubby island of La Graciosa looks so close you might be tempted to jump across.

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