Teguise is small and most travellers stay only a few hours, but if you base yourself in the village it is well placed for exploring the rest of Lanzarote.
The Mirador del Río at the northern tip of the island is a César Manrique-designed viewpoint cut into the cliffs, with a tea-room that opens onto a thousand-foot drop and views across to La Graciosa. Cueva de los Verdes and the Jameos del Agua — both spectacular collapsed lava tubes — are within easy driving distance to the northeast. Timanfaya National Park is the other essential trip on Lanzarote: the volcanic landscape that erupted in the 1730s, still warm enough at the surface to boil water and roast meat on a grate at the park restaurant, El Diablo. The famous market town of Haría sits in a valley of a thousand palms a short drive north.
For something more relaxed, the village of Famara has Lanzarote's best Atlantic beach — long, wild, popular with surfers — and a row of seafood cafés on the dune behind. Arrecife, the island's capital, is twenty minutes away and worth half a day for the Charco de San Ginés, the lagoon ringed by white houses at the centre of the old town.
