La Alcogida Ecomuseum

Every wall, roof and cistern in Tefía's old farmhouses was made from what lay to hand, on an island where rain was the scarcest thing of all, and walking through the courtyards you see how closely the buildings were fitted to the desert. The restored houses keep their furnishings, and the workshops hold weaving tools, pottery and baskets.

The thread running through it all is water and grain: how rain was gathered and stored, how drinking water was filtered, how grain was kept and milled. The museum takes its name from the alcogida, the ground cleared to channel rainwater into a cistern. The guided tour, included in the ticket, lasts about an hour and a half and shows how each object was used. Goats, hens, a camel and a donkey live on the farm, which keeps children interested to the end.

• Most of the visit is outdoors between houses and yards; in summer bring water, a hat and sun cream.
• Guided tours cost nothing extra and run in Spanish and German.
• Allow about two hours to see the houses and yards at your own pace.
• Toilets are on site, including a wheelchair-accessible one.
• It works well with children: the goats, hens, camel and donkey hold their attention between the houses.

The museum stands in Tefía, a village in the dry interior of Fuerteventura, within the municipality of Puerto del Rosario. By car the last stretch is barely a walk at all: a car park lies about 76 m away, with wheelchair-accessible spaces, and you walk straight in. A second car park sits just under a kilometre off. By bus, the stop is Tefía, about 950 m from the museum in a straight line, so plan on walking at least that far each way.

Best: a morning, soon after opening. Avoid: Sundays and Mondays, when the museum is closed, and the hottest hours of a summer day. Almost the whole visit is spent outdoors between the houses and yards, and inland Fuerteventura can reach 30 °C, so the cooler morning makes the walk and the tour easier, above all with children.