Lanzarote airport to your hotel: taxi, bus, transfer or hire car

César Manrique-Lanzarote airport sits on the coast 5 km from Arrecife, between the capital and Puerto del Carmen, so most of the island’s resort hotels are a short ride away. On the road distances we hold for every hotel we list, Arrecife is 10 to 12 minutes from the terminal, Puerto del Carmen 11 to 17 minutes, Puerto Calero and Costa Teguise 17 to 23 minutes, and Playa Blanca, at the southern tip, 34 to 43 minutes.

Those short distances make the taxi the default. The meter runs on an official tariff set by the Government of the Canary Islands, and the fare is per car, not per person, so a family of four pays the same as a couple. For Puerto del Carmen and Arrecife it is usually the cheapest door-to-door option for any group size.

For two travelling light, the bus is the other choice. Arrecife Bus line 161 leaves the terminal for Puerto del Carmen, Puerto Calero and Playa Blanca, and lines 22 and 23 run to Arrecife. For Costa Teguise and Famara there is no direct bus from the airport: you change in Arrecife. Pre-booked private transfers cost more than our taxi estimate on every route we priced, so book one for what it adds rather than to save money.

The taxi columns are our estimates from the daytime tariff AENA publishes for the airport, and the transfer prices are Suntransfers' lowest one-way prices for a private car taking up to four, all read on 15 November 2026.

For a late landing, an early flight or a short break, the closest hotels are in Arrecife, 10 to 12 minutes from the terminal, and at the Matagorda end of Puerto del Carmen, 11 to 12 minutes away on the beach. Our guide to hotels near Lanzarote airport lists all 42 hotels within about 15 minutes by road; the picks below cover the main budgets, plus one in Puerto Calero for a quieter marina stay.

The prices are Expedia’s lowest nightly rate for a week from 11 May 2027, read 15 November 2026.

Taxis wait at the signed ranks outside arrivals, on floor 0 of both terminals. AENA’s advice is to take a taxi only from the rank at your terminal, to ignore drivers offering rides elsewhere, and to ask for a receipt if you need to make a complaint. The tariff AENA publishes is the one in force under the Canary Islands government order in the Boletín Oficial de Canarias of 24 March 2023.

There are two main rates. Tariff 1 runs on working days from 6am to 10pm: a minimum fare of €3.85 and €1.35 a kilometre. Tariff 2 covers nights from 10pm to 6am, Sundays and public holidays: a minimum of €4.25 and €1.55 a kilometre. Every journey that starts or ends at the airport carries a €2.10 supplement, a taxi booked by radio adds €0.60, and waiting time is €18.50 an hour. From 10pm to midnight on 24 and 31 December and 5 January, a Christmas minimum of €6.54 applies.

On our estimates, a Puerto del Carmen hotel 8 km away comes to about €12.90 by day and €14.50 at night or on a Sunday, and a Playa Blanca hotel 30 km away about €42.60 by day and €48.60 at night. A standard taxi seats four, so for a family of four the taxi is usually cheaper than four bus fares with a change.

The island’s buses, run by Arrecife Bus (Intercity Lanzarote) and known locally as guaguas, stop outside arrivals on floor 0 of both Terminal 1 and Terminal 2. Six lines call at the airport, and the timetables below are those the operator published for Tuesday 17 November and Sunday 15 November 2026.

Line 161 is the one most holidaymakers need. It leaves Terminal 1 23 times a day, from 7.30am to 9.30pm, every 30 to 60 minutes, and calls at Matagorda after 6 minutes, the Hotel San Antonio stop after 11, Puerto del Carmen’s C.C. Atlántico after 16, Puerto Calero after 25 and the Playa Blanca bus station after 47, finishing at the Playa Blanca ferry quay. Line 162-D is a direct Arrecife to Playa Blanca service that calls at the airport eight times a day, from 10.20am to 7.20pm, and reaches the Playa Blanca bus station about 20 minutes later.

For Arrecife, line 22 runs on working days only, leaving the airport 25 times from 5.45am to 11.35pm, every 35 to 50 minutes, 10 to 15 minutes to the bus station. At weekends line 23 takes over, hourly from 7.17am to 10.17pm. For Costa Teguise, ride into Arrecife and change to line 1. For Caleta de Famara, change at the Arrecife bus station to line 20: on weekdays it leaves five times, at 6.20am, 9.45am, 2pm, 5.45pm and 8.45pm, taking about 34 minutes, and the Sunday timetable has no departures.

Fares are paid on board: check the current fare on arrecifebus.com before you travel. The operator’s Bono General card costs €2, takes top-ups from €5 to €50, takes 10 per cent off the ordinary fare and can pay for several travellers on one card.

A pre-booked private transfer is a car or minivan that meets you in arrivals and drives you to the hotel for a price fixed in advance. On 15 November 2026, Suntransfers listed private cars for up to four from €33.56 to Puerto del Carmen, €37.91 to Arrecife, €42.95 to Costa Teguise, €45.49 to Puerto Calero and €80.53 to Playa Blanca. Minivans for up to eight started at €47.59 to Puerto del Carmen, €55.77 to Costa Teguise and €105.59 to Playa Blanca, and its shared shuttle started at €6.88 to Puerto del Carmen and €9.32 to Playa Blanca. Suntransfers lists flight tracking, a driver waiting at the meeting point, child seats on request and free cancellation up to 48 hours before pickup.

On every route those private prices sit well above our metered taxi estimate. A transfer earns its price for a group of five to eight in one minivan, for parents who want child seats arranged before they land, for a wheelchair-accessible vehicle booked ahead, or for anyone who wants the cost settled before travelling. For a couple or a family of four with ordinary luggage, the rank outside arrivals is quicker and cheaper.

AENA lists nine car hire companies with desks in both terminals: AutoReisen, Cabrera Medina, Cicar, Europcar, Goldcar, Hertz, Payless, Sixt and TopCar, so you can collect a car a few minutes after baggage reclaim. Hire rates move by the day and by the cover you choose, so check what the excess, a second driver and child seats add before you book.

A car makes most sense for Famara, the rural hotels in La Geria and the north, and for anyone planning days out to Timanfaya and the César Manrique sites. From the airport, the LZ-2 runs south-west past Puerto del Carmen to Yaiza and Playa Blanca, and east into Arrecife, where the roads to Costa Teguise and Teguise branch off. If you are staying in Puerto del Carmen or Arrecife for the first days, a taxi from the airport and a car collected later saves paying for days you do not drive.

After 10pm, taxis switch to the night tariff, €1.55 a kilometre instead of €1.35, which adds about €1.60 to a Puerto del Carmen hotel 8 km away and about €6 to Playa Blanca on our estimates. The rank is the simplest answer for a flight that lands near midnight.

The buses keep running later than many visitors expect. After the last line 161 at 9.30pm, line 61 leaves Terminal 1 at 10.30pm for Puerto del Carmen, Puerto Calero, Yaiza and Playa Blanca, reaching the Playa Blanca bus station at 11.21pm. For Arrecife, the last line 22 leaves at 11.35pm on working days, and line 162 calls at the airport at 11.16pm and 12.16am on its way to the Arrecife bus station. At weekends, the last line 23 leaves at 10.17pm.

For an early departure, line 22’s first bus leaves the Arrecife bus station at 5.30am on working days and reaches Terminal 1 at 5.45am. A last night in Arrecife or at Matagorda puts you 10 to 12 minutes from the terminal.

AENA counts 73 destinations from Lanzarote, flown by 34 airlines, and says the United Kingdom and Germany make up more than 60 per cent of its international traffic. The list read on 15 November 2026 includes 18 UK airports, among them London Gatwick, Luton, Stansted and Southend, Manchester, Birmingham, Bristol, Edinburgh, Glasgow, Newcastle and Belfast, plus four in Ireland: Dublin, Cork, Shannon and Knock. The airport handled 8,921,019 passengers in 2025.

There are two terminals. Buses and taxis serve the arrivals level of both, and every car hire company AENA lists has a desk in each, so the terminal you land at makes little difference to the onward journey.

If your room is not ready or your flight leaves in the evening, three of the island’s well-reviewed outings are a short ride from the terminal. The LagOmar museum in Nazaret, between Arrecife and Teguise, is a house and gardens set among volcanic caves and tunnels, 4.7 from 1,271 reviews on GetYourGuide, with entry from €10. The jet ski tour from Puerto del Carmen is 4.7 from 1,086 reviews, from €70, and the submarine dive from Puerto Calero is 4.6 from 1,604 reviews, from €65, with transport available. All three prices were read on 15 November 2026.