Lanzarote or Fuerteventura: the price of a hotel night, neighbours, flights, hospitals and weather

Lanzarote and Fuerteventura are neighbours with one sea and almost one climate: the water off their shores differs by no more than 0.2 °C in any month. They differ elsewhere. A hotel night costs more on Lanzarote in every month of two years, though Fuerteventura has more hotel beds. The neighbours differ: the largest foreign group in Corralejo is Italian, in Pájara German, in Lanzarote's resorts British. And the longest drive to hospital on Fuerteventura takes 1.6 times as long as the longest on Lanzarote.

This compares our places, not whole islands. On Fuerteventura they are Puerto del Rosario, Corralejo, Pájara and Antigua: 4 of the island's 6 municipalities. On Lanzarote, Arrecife, Teguise, Tías and Yaiza: 4 of 7. Lanzarote has 167,406 residents and Fuerteventura 129,541, as of 1 January 2025. Island population.

Short answers

• A hotel night costs more on Lanzarote: €150 against €125 on average over the year, and the same in each of the 24 months of the series.
• Fuerteventura has more hotel beds: 50,399 against 41,458 on average, though fewer residents.
• A guest from abroad stays longer on Fuerteventura, 7.8 nights against 7.3 nights, and in every month.
• Our Fuerteventura places have 9,433 Italian residents and our Lanzarote ones 3,474; Britons number 3,588 and 5,169.
• Direct winter flights abroad: 60 destinations from Lanzarote, 54 from Fuerteventura; to Germany, 7 and 12.
• To hospital: no more than 25 minutes on Lanzarote, up to 39 minutes on Fuerteventura.
• Nights are warmer on Fuerteventura in every month; days are warmer on Lanzarote in 11 months of 12.

A hotel night: Lanzarote costs more every month

The price is what the island's hotels took on average per room sold per day, September 2025 to August 2026. The islands part furthest in December: €163 against €125. They come closest in July, when both start their summer rise: €156 against €146. Both have the same dearest month, August.

Lanzarote is not dearer because its hotels are fuller: over the year both islands averaged 73% of beds taken. And the gap is slowly narrowing. Over the year Fuerteventura got dearer by 6.5%, Lanzarote by 4.6%. Room price, occupancy.

Fuerteventura has more hotels

Fuerteventura has fewer residents but more hotel beds: 50,399 against 41,458 on average over the year. Per thousand residents that is 389 beds against 248. The island's hotels sold 13.7 million nights over the year, Lanzarote's 11.5 million. This covers hotels only: apartments, of which Lanzarote has many, are outside this series, so it cannot say that Fuerteventura has more tourists.

And guests stay longer in them. INE publishes nights and arrivals separately, and their ratio is the length of stay. Over the last year a guest from abroad stayed 7.8 nights on average in a Fuerteventura hotel and 7.3 nights on Lanzarote. This is not one lucky month: the stay was longer on Fuerteventura in each of the 24 months of the series. Nights and arrivals.

Neighbours: Italians, Germans and Britons

By the 2025 census the two islands have different foreign communities. Corralejo has 5,310 Italians: 17.8% of all the municipality's residents, and more than Britons and Germans together. In Pájara the largest group is German, 1,918. In Lanzarote's resorts, Teguise, Tías and Yaiza, Britons come first; on Fuerteventura they come first only in Antigua, 1,766.

Adding up our places, there are 9,433 Italians on Fuerteventura and 3,474 on Lanzarote; 3,455 and 1,707 Germans; 3,588 and 5,169 Britons. In both capitals, Puerto del Rosario and Arrecife, Colombians come first. The foreign share of residents peaks on Fuerteventura in Corralejo, at 45.9%; on Lanzarote the highest is Yaiza, at 38.7%. Census by nationality.

Corralejo is part of the municipality of La Oliva, and its census figures are the municipality's.

Where January flights go

The same tilt shows in the timetable. In January of the 2026/27 season, Lanzarote airport has direct flights to 60 destinations abroad and Fuerteventura airport to 54. To Germany there are 12 from Fuerteventura and 7 from Lanzarote; to Italy, 7 and 4. To the UK it is the other way round, 17 from Lanzarote against 13, and to France 7 against 3. The table lists countries reached by three or more destinations from at least one of the islands.

The state publishes no such series. This is our own count of destinations served without a change at least weekly in January, from airport tables and airline announcements; last checked on 17 September 2026.

How far the hospital is

On each island all four of our places use the same public general hospital: Hospital Universitario Dr. José Molina Orosa in Arrecife on Lanzarote, and Hospital General de Fuerteventura in Puerto del Rosario on Fuerteventura. On Lanzarote the drive is short: no more than 25 minutes. Fuerteventura is long and thin, and its ends are further away: 39 minutes from Pájara and 35 minutes from Corralejo. From Antigua and Puerto del Rosario it is no longer than on Lanzarote.

The minutes are for a car on an empty road from the centre of each place to a hospital in the government catalogue. Ambulances and traffic are not in them, and the catalogue does not say whether a hospital has an emergency department. Hospital catalogue.

Weather: warmer nights on Fuerteventura, warmer days on Lanzarote

Both stations are airports on the east coast, right by the sea: 25 m up on Fuerteventura and 14 m on Lanzarote. 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 covers 1981–2010. At night Fuerteventura is warmer in every month, by 0.3–0.7 °C. By day Lanzarote is warmer in every month except December, in August by 1.3 °C. So a day on Fuerteventura is more even: 6.4 °C between day and night on average, against 7.4 °C on Lanzarote.

Lanzarote gets more sun: 2,986 hours a year against 2,836, and 73 clear days against 69. Fuerteventura is drier: 98 mm of rain a year against 111, and about 16 rain days against 19. Fuerteventura's humidity runs a little higher on average. In no month do the stations differ by more than 1.3 °C, by day or by night. AEMET.

The sea

The water around the two islands is the same water. It is coldest in March, 18.7 °C, and warmest in September, 23.2 °C. The swimming line of 20 °C holds for the same 8 months on both, from May to December. These are medians across our places, 2015–2024 satellite averages. NOAA OISST.

Housing: holiday lets and rent

The largest share of homes let to tourists is in Corralejo (the figure for the whole of La Oliva): 23.6% of all housing, as of 30 April 2026. Next comes Yaiza, 21.7%. The smallest is in Puerto del Rosario, 2.1%. 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. counts this share from listings on rental sites, not from a register. Tourist housing.

Rent shows the same picture as the hotel night. The median rent on current leases in 2024 was €595–611 a month in Lanzarote's three resort municipalities, and €499–510 in Fuerteventura's two, Pájara and Antigua. The capitals are almost level: €500 in Arrecife and €481 in Puerto del Rosario. This is what sitting tenants pay, old leases included, and it is below what a flat is offered for today. Corralejo has no median of its own: the ministry counts by municipality. SERPAVI.

Eight places side by side

In winter none of the eight places empties. By Social Security's monthly figures for 2025, every one kept at least 94.9% of its best month's cafés, hotels and shops in January; the lowest is Pájara. For Corralejo, this too is the municipality's figure. Social Security series.

Further

All seven islands on winter, sun and rent are in which Canary Island to choose. Lanzarote paired with Tenerife, with the weather month by month, is in Tenerife or Lanzarote. Taxes, fuel and household spending are in the cost of living in the Canaries. Our places are on the Lanzarote and Fuerteventura pages.

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