The practical part
The essentials
Pick a base that suits a bus holiday
Puerto del Carmen and Playa Blanca sit on airport line 161, and Playa Blanca also has lines 60 and 62 to Arrecife, so both work from the first evening. Costa Teguise needs one change in Arrecife, line 22 or 23 then line 3 (line 1 adds a few early and late trips). Arrecife itself has every line but the least beach. Famara (line 20 from Arrecife, 31 from Costa Teguise) and Haría (line 7) are the quiet north, with thinner timetables. Corralejo is on Fuerteventura, the other side of the Playa Blanca ferry: do not book it thinking it is here.
Checked Intercity Lanzarote lines 161, 60, 62, 22, 23, 1, 3, 20, 31, 7
Plan each day around the way back
Intercity prints its timetables one date at a time, so this site reads a working weekday, a Saturday and a Sunday for every line it covers and shows them as three tabs. Line 20 to Famara printed no weekend trips at all on the dates read; line 7 to Haría prints more trips at the weekend than on a weekday; lines 60 and 62 run the same table every day. Read the tab for your day before you decide where to spend it, and pick the bus back before the bus out.
Checked Intercity Lanzarote: Intercity line pages, dated snapshots read 12 October 2026 (ledger)
Pay by card, or carry small notes
Tickets are bought on board. Intercity's customer page lists three ways to pay: a bank card at the driver's terminal (cash or transport card if the terminal is down), the island's transport card, or cash, for which the operator asks for the exact amount in coins or a small banknote with a maximum it sets. Tell the driver your destination before you pay, keep the ticket to the end, and put a suitcase in the hold where the bus has one.
Know what the bus does not do
No public bus reaches the Montañas del Fuego entrance to Timanfaya: the park's own Volcano Route starts behind a car park on the LZ-67, and getting there is a car, a taxi or a tour. The Papagayo coves lie beyond Las Coloradas, the last stop of line 30's Playa Blanca circuit, with no path this site has measured. La Graciosa is line 9 to Órzola and then a ferry you book separately. Each destination page says which of these applies.
Checked CACT Lanzarote: Montañas del Fuego Intercity Lanzarote lines 30, 9 Turismo Lanzarote: La Graciosa visitor guidance Líneas Romero: Lanzarote–La Graciosa ferry schedules
Which base is best without a car?
It depends on your evenings and your mornings. For the direct airport bus, a long beach and the most going on after dark, Puerto del Carmen. For a calmer south with white-sand bays, the Fuerteventura ferry and three lines to Arrecife, Playa Blanca. For a walkable family resort that costs you one change on arrival day, Costa Teguise. For the most buses and the least resort, Arrecife: a working capital with a lagoon, a city beach and every line out. The where-to-stay page compares them line by line.
Checked Intercity Lanzarote lines 161, 60, 62, 1, 3, 22, 23 Turismo Lanzarote: Lanzarote nightlife guide Fred. Olsen Express: Fred. Olsen Express: Corralejo – Playa Blanca
Arrecife is the hinge, and it has two hubs
Nearly every line starts, ends or changes in Arrecife, but the operator names two places there: the bus station (Estación de Guaguas, with its platforms, Andenes) and the Intercambiador on the seafront. Lines 7, 9, 20, 60 and 62 leave from the station platforms, and 9, 60 and 62 call at the Intercambiador on the way out while 7 and 20 do not; line 3 to Costa Teguise calls at the Intercambiador and then opposite the station, and line 1's few early trips start from one or the other. The boards on this site name the stop each departure leaves from.
Checked Intercity Lanzarote lines 3, 1, 7, 9, 20, 60, 62 Intercity Lanzarote: Intercity line pages, dated snapshots read 12 October 2026 (ledger)
Sundays and public holidays
Buses run on Sundays, but not the same ones. The airport line switches from 22 to 23; line 20 to Famara printed nothing on the Saturday and Sunday read for this site; line 9 to Órzola drops a trip each way; line 7 gains several. For the holidays of 12 October and 2 November 2026, Intercity published the Sunday timetable on every line this site read for those dates, except the Sunday market line 11, which printed no trips; line 30 was read for 2 November only. The boards treat both dates as a Sunday. Later holidays were not checked: on one, open the Sunday tab yourself.
Checked Intercity Lanzarote lines 22, 23 Intercity Lanzarote: Intercity line pages, dated snapshots read 12 October 2026 (ledger)
The honest gaps
This site covers lines 1, 2, 3, 6, 7, 9, 11, 20, 24, 25, 30, 31, 60 and 62 and the airport lines with dated boards, and a board carries every line its page names for that journey or is left out. Lines 16 and 32 are cited from their line pages but not yet timetabled here, and the pages say so where it matters. It has not measured the walk from any stop to any beach or hotel door, and it will not invent one.
Checked Intercity Lanzarote: Line 3: Costa Teguise – Arrecife – Puerto del Carmen Intercity Lanzarote: Intercity line pages, dated snapshots read 12 October 2026 (ledger)
Asked and answered
Questions people ask
Can you get around Lanzarote without a car?
Yes, if you base yourself in Puerto del Carmen, Playa Blanca, Costa Teguise or Arrecife and plan around the lines that meet in the capital. The airport, the resorts, Teguise, the Jardín de Cactus, Haría, Órzola and Famara are all on lines this site shows with dated times. What you give up is Timanfaya's entrance and the Papagayo coves; what you gain is a day without a hire-car queue.
Checked Intercity Lanzarote: Intercity Lanzarote route directoryIntercity Lanzarote: Intercity line pages, dated snapshots read 12 October 2026 (ledger) Aena: César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport bus access CACT Lanzarote: Montañas del Fuego
Is there a direct bus from the airport to Costa Teguise?
No. Take line 22 on a working weekday or line 23 at the weekend from the terminal to Arrecife, then line 3 to Costa Teguise (line 1 only adds a few early-morning trips). The airport-to-Costa Teguise guide shows both legs with their dated departures, and a late flight is the moment to weigh a taxi or a first night in Arrecife.
Checked Intercity Lanzarote lines 22, 23, 1, 3 Aena: César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport bus access
How do the guaguas work on Lanzarote?
One operator, Intercity Lanzarote, radiating from Arrecife. You board at the front, tell the driver where you are going, pay by card or in cash with coins or a small note, and keep the ticket. Stops are named after landmarks (Hotel Jameos, C.C. Biosfera, Deiland), so learn the name of yours; the boards on this site list every stop a departure calls at.
Checked Intercity Lanzarote: Customer informationIntercity Lanzarote: Intercity Lanzarote route directoryIntercity Lanzarote: Intercity line pages, dated snapshots read 12 October 2026 (ledger)
Can you visit Timanfaya by bus?
Not the Montañas del Fuego entrance: no public line stops there, and this site has no stop it can honestly point you to. Line 16 passes Mancha Blanca, the village with the park's visitor centre, which the Mancha Blanca page explains; the Volcano Route itself is a car, a taxi or a booked tour.
Checked CACT Lanzarote: Montañas del Fuego Intercity Lanzarote: Line 16: Arrecife – La Santa
The other half of the plan
And the way back.
Choose the bus back before you leave your base, from the tab for your day, and be at the stop early. On Sundays and holidays use the Sunday tab; on 2 November 2026 the boards do it for you. If the last bus would strand you, the honest alternatives are a taxi from a rank or a booked tour, not a hope.
Checked Intercity Lanzarote: Intercity line pages, dated snapshots read 12 October 2026 (ledger) Aena: César Manrique-Lanzarote Airport: getting there by taxi
