Best time to visit Lanzarote: sea, sun, rain and the price of a hotel night, month by month

On Lanzarote the sea runs a month behind the land. The island is hottest in August, yet the water is warmest in September, and in October it is still warmer than in August: 23 °C against 22.5 °C. The price of a hotel night does not follow the water; it follows the summer holidays. August is the dearest month, at €181 per room per day. In October the same water costs €145.

Short answers

• The water is warmest in September, 23.1 °C, and coldest in March, 18.5 °C.
• August is the dearest month at €181. September and October cost less than August: 20% each.
• May is the cheapest, two years running: €133. It gets more sun than August.
• December has the emptiest hotels of the year and the second-highest price.
• The water stays at or above the 20 °C swimming line from May to December.
• About 111 mm of rain falls in a year, nearly all of it from October to February.
• Nothing shuts for the winter: cafés and shops work much as in summer.

Lanzarote month by month

The water is off Tías, home to the resort of Puerto del Carmen: 2015–2024 averages from NOAA satellites. «Day» is the average daytime high and «rain» the average monthly total, both from the AEMETAEMETSpain's state meteorological agency. It runs the weather stations and publishes the climate norms.Why it matters. Our sunshine hours and winter temperatures come from observations, not from resort marketing. The gap between the two can be several degrees. normal for 1981–2010 at the island's airport. «Hotel night» is what Lanzarote's hotels took per room sold per day, September 2025 to August 2026; «a year before» is the same month in September 2024 to August 2025; «occupied» is the share of beds taken. Price and occupancy are INEINESpain's National Statistics Institute. It keeps the padrón — the official register of residents of every municipality.Why it matters. The only primary source of population for the whole country. A figure 'per INE' can be checked against a table; a figure 'from the internet' cannot. series. NOAA OISST, AEMET, room price, occupancy.

The warmest water comes after the holidays

The ocean warms more slowly than the land and cools more slowly too. So off Lanzarote the water catches up with the air only at the end of summer: in August the daytime high is 29.1 °C and the sea 22.5 °C; in September the days are already cooler, 28.6 °C, while the sea is at its warmest, 23.1 °C. October still has 23 °C. The hotels keep another calendar: 83% of beds are taken in August, 72% in September and 74% in October.

Price follows occupancy. Over the last year September cost €145 and October €145, under August by 20% each. A year earlier the gaps were 21% and 18%. So this is not one odd season: two years running, the island's warmest water has cost about a fifth less than its hottest month.

What October gives up against August: a shorter, cooler day, 26.7 °C against 29.1 °C; 235 hours of sun in the month against 295; and rain appears, 10 mm over about 2 days, against none in August.

May: the cheapest month, with more sun than August

May is the island's cheapest month in both years of the series: €133 over the last year and €124 the year before. That is 26% less than August. Yet by the AEMET normal, May is the second-sunniest month of the year, with 297 hours: only July has more, and August has less. There is almost no rain, 2 mm in the month.

The catch is the water. In May the water only just reaches the swimming line: 20 °C. Days reach 24.6 °C, 4.5 °C cooler than August. Someone coming for sun and walking gets nearly August for less; someone coming to swim gets water that many people still find cold. The swimming season along the whole coast.

Winter: December, January and March

Over the last year December had the island's emptiest hotels, with 65% of beds taken. It was also the second-dearest month after August, at €163. December holds Christmas and New Year, and a night costs 13% more than in January. The year before told the same story in the main: December was among the three dearest months and the two emptiest. On top of that, December is the wettest month of the normal, with 29 mm.

January costs less: €144. It is, though, the coolest month on land: 20.7 °C by day and 14 °C at night. The water is coldest later, in March: 18.5 °C. Yet March costs nearly as much as July, €155 against €156, though the July sea is 3.3 °C warmer. In March people pay for sun and dry days in the middle of a European winter, not for swimming.

August over a year: fewer Spaniards, fuller hotels

In summer, Spaniards come to Lanzarote: in August 2025 they accounted for 22% of the island's hotel nights. A year later, 17%. Spanish nights fell by 20%, and nights by guests from abroad rose by 9%. The hotels did not empty: August occupancy rose from 81% to 83%, and the price of a night from €169 to €181.

Over the year a night on the island rose by 5% on average, and August by 7%. The gap between summer and the warm autumn only widened. One year is not a trend, and next August may turn out differently. But for anyone coming for the water, September and October have given more for less two years running. Nights by guests' country of residence.

Rain, sun and clear skies

The airport normal is about 111 mm of rain a year over 19 rain days. From October to February falls 81% of the year's rain; June, July and August average zero. Sun comes to 2,986 hours a year. Fully clear days, with almost no cloud, are most frequent in July: 12.8 in the month, and four or five a month in winter.

The station stands by the sea, 14 m above it, between Arrecife and Tías. It describes the resort coasts where our places are. It does not describe the north of the island or the hills: our data has no station with a normal there, so this article gives no weather for them. AEMET normals.

The island works in winter

Social Security counts, month by month, the people working in cafés, hotels and shops in each municipality. On Lanzarote, none of our four places sees café staff fall below 91% of its best month, and in January 2025 each kept at least 96% of its peak number of businesses. The city and the resorts have different quiet months: Arrecife's cafés have the fewest staff in June, and the resorts' cafés in winter or spring. Social Security series.

One oddity in the series is in Teguise. From September its hotels employ on average 890 fewer people than in the first eight months of the year, and by December the number had not come back. This is not a winter dip: it began at the end of summer. The series counts people, not reasons, so we do not guess at one.

Further

Lanzarote next to Tenerife on air, sun and the price of a night is in Tenerife or Lanzarote, next to its neighbour in Lanzarote or Fuerteventura, and next to Gran Canaria in Gran Canaria or Lanzarote. All the islands on the same questions are in which Canary Island to choose. Our places on the island are on the Lanzarote page.

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