César Manrique's Lanzarote: The Tour or the Sites on Your Own

César Manrique (1919–1992), the Lanzarote artist, shaped the island's best-known sights: Jameos del Agua, the Mirador del Río, the Cactus Garden and his own house in the lava at Tahíche, now the Fundación César Manrique. The full-day tour at ~€85 includes all four entries, worth €45 at the gate, with coach and guide. With a car, do the circuit yourself: GetYourGuide sells no standalone tickets for these sites.

Who was César Manrique?

Manrique was born in Arrecife in 1919, studied and lived in Madrid from 1945 to 1964, and spent time in New York before coming home in the mid-1960s, according to the Fundación César Manrique. Back on Lanzarote he began what the foundation calls art-nature/nature-art: turning lava tubes, cliffs and quarries into visitor centres.

His best-known works are Jameos del Agua, the Mirador del Río, the Cactus Garden and his interventions at Timanfaya, all still run by the island's tourist centres body, CACT Lanzarote. For the volcano park itself, see our Timanfaya National Park tour guide.

Should you book the tour or drive yourself?

Here is what the sites cost on your own, at CACT and Fundación prices for 2026. Children up to 6 go free at the CACT centres.

The four entries on the full-day tour come to €45, so its ~€85 buys about €40 of transport, guiding and a stop at the Campesino. Book the tour without a car, or if you want the story told as you go. With a car, do it yourself: it is cheaper, you set the pace, and you can add the Haría house, where Manrique spent his last years.

What the full-day tour covers

The day runs Monumento al Campesino (25 minutes), a guided visit to the Fundación (45 minutes), the Mirador del Río (25 minutes), an optional lunch (1 hour), the Cactus Garden (35 minutes) and Jameos del Agua (55 minutes), with pickup points across the main resorts.

Lunch costs about €18 at the restaurant, or you can bring your own. The ground is uneven at several sites, so wear closed shoes. Children's rates apply from 2 to 11, and babies travel on a parent's lap, with no baby seats on the coach.

Shorter and different days

The half-day Cueva de los Verdes and Jameos del Agua tour at ~€63 includes tickets for both caves and a photo stop at the Guinate viewpoint over La Graciosa. It has no lunch stop and no pickup in Playa Blanca.

The Coast to Coast tour at ~€82 pairs the Cactus Garden and LagOmar with a ferry to La Graciosa and a paella lunch with drinks, hotel pickup included. The Legacy of César Manrique tour at about €83 covers the same five sites as the full day, with an official guide and tickets included.

Jameos del Agua: Manrique's first centre

Jameos del Agua is a section of the La Corona volcanic tube, formed around 5,000 years ago, where parts of the roof collapsed. CACT says it was the first centre Manrique created, opened in 1968 and finished in 1977, with the artist Jesús Soto and local craftsmen.

You go down through the Jameo Chico to a lake that is home to the blind crab, an endemic species, then up into the Jameo Grande, with its white pool and palms, and the auditorium. Allow one to two hours; last admission is 17:15.

There is a restaurant in the Jameo Chico, and on Fridays, Noches de Jameos combines an evening visit, dinner and a concert by the lake. The guided Insólita visit, at €46.97 on Tuesdays, Thursdays and Saturdays at 09:45, adds reserved areas, a local aperitif and the Casa de los Volcanes museum.

The Fundación and the house in Haría

The Fundación César Manrique at Taro de Tahíche was his home from 1968 to 1988. He built it on a lava flow from the 1730–1736 eruptions, and the lower floor is set in five natural volcanic bubbles joined by tunnels, with a pool and his former studio, now a gallery. It opens daily from 10:00 to 17:30 (ticket office until 17:00), except 1 January.

The César Manrique House Museum in Haría, in a palm grove in the north, is the farmhouse he began converting in 1986 and lived in until his death in 1992. It opened to the public in 2013, and his studio is kept as he left it. A joint ticket for both houses costs €17, or €4 for children aged 7 to 12.

The Cactus Garden, Mirador del Río and the Campesino

Jardín de Cactus, in Guatiza, fills a former quarry with nearly 500 species of cactus on terraces that follow the old excavation. The first plant went in on 18 January 1989, and the garden won the International Carlo Scarpa Prize in 2017. Last admission is 16:30.

Mirador del Río, opened in 1973 at the top of the Risco de Famara, is built into the cliff and covered in volcanic stone, so it is barely visible from outside. Two arched windows look across El Río to La Graciosa; our La Graciosa from Lanzarote guide covers the crossing. Last entry is 16:40, and it can be very windy.

The Casa Museo del Campesino in Mozaga, Manrique's tribute to the island's farmers, is free and has a restaurant serving lunch from 12:00 to 16:00. It sits on the edge of the wine country covered in our Lanzarote wine tour guide.

Cueva de los Verdes: next door, but not Manrique's

Cueva de los Verdes belongs to the same volcanic tube as Jameos del Agua, which runs for more than seven kilometres, but its lighting is the work of Jesús Soto, not Manrique. The €17 guided visit lasts about 50 minutes over roughly a kilometre, with stairs and narrow passages.

Tickets are sold online only, for a set date and time, so book ahead if you plan to combine it with Jameos. For every other excursion ranked, see our best Lanzarote excursions guide.

FAQ – César Manrique's Lanzarote