The holiday resort of Playa Blanca was once little more than a small residential fishing village in the municipal district of Yaiza on the extreme south west coast of Lanzarote. However, the insatiable demand for holiday beds over the last 20 years has seen the village adapt and grow into the purpose built holiday development that we see today.

Geographically Playa Blanca is approximately 26 miles south west of the capital Arrecife, and around 21 miles from the Arrecife International Airport. Although Playa Blanca is possibly the furthest of the popular resorts from the airport, making the transfer to your chosen accommodation is usually very straightforward, and should normally take no more than 45 minutes from the time of leaving the airport grounds, however for those visitors who have paid the additional supplement for a tour operators coach transfer, clearly this time will vary upon the number of prior stops made on the day.

For independent travellers there is always a multitude of taxis parked outside of the arrivals hall, although on occasions you should be prepared to wait your turn in a queue.

In theory at least these taxis should all operate on a fixed price basis, charging around 30€ for the journey south to Playa Blanca, however experience has shown that this "fixed price" may vary slightly depending upon the number of suitcases, the time of day or night of the journey, and of course the number of passengers carried.

Also an important consideration for families with small children, is that these taxis do not as a rule carry child seats, therefore children may have to sit on their parent's knee for the journey. If this is a cause for concern, we strongly recommend that you make arrangements for a pre-booked taxi to be waiting for you, and clearly specify at the time of booking that a child seat is needed for the journey. Pre-booked taxis are often a little more expensive, although as with all things in life, you only get what you pay for.

For those visitors who have pre-arranged for the collection of a hire car from one of the numerous agencies based at the airport, driving down to the resort is also very straightforward. As you leave the airport facility join the main LZ2 heading south, and this road will then take you all the way to Playa Blanca passing the towns of Tias and Yaiza en-route.

If needed, a more detailed version of this route, complete with links to maps where appropriate, is also available from the Route Map link on the left hand frame of this page.

As we said earlier Playa Blanca, whose name literally translates in English as "white beach", was originally a small fishing village, however, over the past few years it has grown into one of Lanzarote's newest and most modern tourist resorts. Building work is still going in some areas on the outskirts of the town, and undoubtedly at some time during their stay, visitors will certainly witness some degree of construction works going on, although in all fairness much of this is now low key and should not spoil a holiday.

Playa Blanca is very popular with British visitors, and in recognition of the high number of private holiday villas' and self catering apartments in the town, the resort has a good selection of shops and SPAR type supermarkets that should cater for the everyday holiday essentials, with most also stocking a wide selection of UK recognised branded goods, albeit at slightly higher prices than you would normally expect to pay back home in the UK. However, for shopping opportunities beyond the everyday holiday essentials, visitors should head towards the commercial centre that has grown up around the Marina Rubicon.

The impressive Marina Rubicon at the heart of Playa Blanca provides moorings for almost 400 vessels up to a maximum length of 22 metres, and has on more that one occasion been described as being "the best in the Canary Islands", and although clearly an exaggeration of the truth, it certainly helps to raise the profile of the resort to have a number of expensive yachts moored here.

The obvious success of the Rubicon development has lead the Yaiza municipal council to further propose the creation of a golf course along the northern outskirts of the resort, although we recognise that the bureaucratic processes necessary to approve this type of project are notoriously slow throughout all of Spain, and it may be many years before visitors to this area of Lanzarote actually get to play the greens on this course.

If you have access to a car, and wish to escape Playa Blanca for the day, the old town of Yaiza, some 8 miles north of the resort, is certainly well worth a visit. The brilliantly white washed houses in the town have ensured the inclusion of Yaiza into the list of the most beautiful villages in the whole of Spain.

Overall the municipal district of Yaiza is home to some of the most widely visited natural attractions on the island, including the cliffs of Los Hervideros, and the green lagoon at El Golfo, both of which we will cover in greater detail as part of our Attractions and Amenities pages.

As with so many other resorts on the island, Playa Blanca could never really be described as being rowdy, although few would ever dispute that due to its popularity with families with young children it is at times quite a lively resort.

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This website was launched on 1 May 2002

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