Timanfaya National Park

Water poured into a hole in the ground comes straight back out as steam. Thirteen metres down, the rock still runs between 100 and 600 °C, nearly three centuries after the eruptions that buried this corner of Lanzarote.

The coach tour is the way into the heart of it. The road is closed to everything else, and it twists for about 35 minutes past rocks, craters and steep drops, with the ground covered in lava on every side. Back at the main building come the short heat demonstrations — a steam geyser and dry brush catching fire — and the El Diablo restaurant, which cooks with the heat of the ground. The demonstrations are what stays with most people, children included.

• No public bus reaches the park: you need a car or an organised tour.
• After paying at the gate, cars can queue on the drive to the car park, and a steep slope climbs from there to the main building.
• The coach commentary plays in Spanish, English and German; for another language, download the commentary app before boarding.
• The coach road winds constantly, enough to bring on travel sickness.
• The fire demonstration gets crowded, and small children struggle to see.

There is no public bus, so the approach is by car or on an organised tour. You pay at the gate, then keep driving for about 2 km to the main building on the Islote de Hilario, where the car park, the restaurant and the toilets are. At busy times the cars back up along this stretch.

From the car park a steep slope climbs to the building, and the coach tour leaves from there and returns for the heat demonstrations. Camel rides start from a separate spot, the camel station (Echadero de los Camellos), which has its own car park.

Best: early in the day, with time in hand for the queue of cars between the gate and the car park.

Avoid: the middle of a summer day, and arriving close to the last coach departure.

The lava fields are bare black rock with no shade, and a slow queue at the gate can eat the time you need for the coach tour and the demonstrations.

Access to the park is strictly regulated to protect its fragile plant and animal life. The route through the eruption landscape is driven only by the park coaches, on a road closed to other traffic. There are just two footpaths, and both can be walked only with prior authorisation and a guide. Outside those, the lava fields are off limits on foot.