The Best Beaches for Sunset in Lanzarote

A naturalist will tell you that sunset is a matter of geography before it is a matter of mood, and on Lanzarote the geography is simple. The island sits in the Atlantic with its busy resorts strung along the south and east, which means the famous tourist beaches face the wrong way for the sun. To watch the light fall into open ocean you go west and north, to the coasts that take the weather, and there the evenings are extraordinary, the sky working through bronze and rose over a sea that holds the colour long after the sun is down.

The island's great sunset beach is Famara, and nothing else on Lanzarote comes close to it. A vast sweep of firm sand runs below the Risco de Famara, a wall of cliff that catches the last light and glows while the sea turns to pewter, and from the shore you look across to the low silhouette of La Graciosa and the Chinijo islands. It is wild, windswept and unmanicured, a surfers' and naturalists' beach rather than a sunlounger one, and that is exactly why the evening here feels earned rather than served.

The other honest answer is Janubio, on the west coast, where the sun sets behind the old salt pans of the Salinas. This is not a swimming beach but a place of black volcanic sand, flamingo pink salt water and a working landscape that turns to silhouette at dusk, and for sheer atmosphere it rivals Famara. Between them, the west and northwest hold the real show, while the south coast offers softer, quieter light at coves like Papagayo and the fishing village of Playa Quemada.

Tread lightly wherever you go, because the wild coasts are the fragile ones. The cliffs at Famara are a protected natural area full of nesting birds and rare endemic plants, the salt pans at Janubio are a refuge for waders, so keep to the paths, take your litter home and give the wildlife room as the light goes. We have ranked the six best below, each linked to its full guide, with the genuinely west facing beaches at the top where the sunset truly belongs.

The honest read is that most visitors watch the Lanzarote sunset from the wrong coast. The resorts that hold the crowds sit on the south and east, facing the calm side of the island, so the sun sets away behind the volcanoes rather than over the sea in front of you. You still get a pretty sky, but if you came for the classic image of the sun melting into the Atlantic, you have to make the short drive west.

Famara is the answer almost every time, and it rewards the effort. The drive over the plain to the cliffs is part of the pleasure, the beach is vast enough to absorb everyone who comes, and the combination of open ocean, the island of La Graciosa on the horizon and the great cliff wall behind gives an evening with real depth. Janubio is the connoisseur's alternative, stranger and quieter, where the salt pans turn the foreground to abstract pattern as the light goes.

A word on timing and care, because the wild coasts ask for both. Sunset on the Canaries shifts from around six in winter to nearly nine at the height of summer, the Atlantic holds its colour well after the sun has gone, and the wind on the west coast picks up in the evening, so bring a layer. Famara and Janubio are protected natural areas alive with birds and rare plants, so keep to the marked paths, take nothing and leave nothing, and remember the sea here is powerful and unguarded, a place to watch rather than to swim.

The wildest sunset beaches keep no clubs, which is the point of them, so many travellers pair an evening on the west coast with a daytime base on the sheltered resort side. The beach clubs and seafront terraces along Costa Teguise, Puerto del Carmen and Playa Blanca rent loungers, shade and a kitchen, and a few make a fine spot for a sundowner before you drive out to Famara. Operators, opening hours and any minimum spend vary with the season, so we keep the live list on the directory. Tell us your dates and the kind of evening you want and we pass the enquiry on to confirm what is open.