Lajares

Lajares is a small inland village a few kilometres south of Corralejo and east of El Cotillo, with no coastline of its own. That's the whole appeal for a lot of visitors: it sits roughly equidistant from the north shore, the west coast surf breaks and Corralejo's dunes, so you can wake up, check the wind and swell forecast, and drive to whichever coast is actually working that morning.

The village itself is low-rise and unhurried — a scatter of whitewashed houses across a flat volcanic plain, ringed by the dark cones of old volcanoes including Calderón Hondo. It has grown into something of a surf-town hub over the last couple of decades, with surf shops, board rental, cafés and a handful of surf camps, but it hasn't lost its working village core: goats still graze the roadside plots, and the church square still functions as the actual centre of town rather than a tourist backdrop.

Compared with Corralejo or Costa Calma, Lajares is quiet after dark and has almost nothing in the way of nightlife. What it has instead is a strong sense of community among the surfers, cyclists and long-term residents who base themselves here, and easy access to some of the best volcanic scenery on the island.

Lajares' two stone windmills, once used to grind gofio (the toasted grain flour that's a staple of Canarian cooking), still stand at the edge of the village and are among the best-preserved on the island, even though neither grinds anything today.

The village is also known island-wide for calados — a fine, hand-cut openwork embroidery brought to the Canaries generations ago and still practised by local needleworkers. You'll see examples for sale in the small craft shops around the plaza, alongside local cheese, honey and jam.

All of this comes together every Saturday morning, when the village square fills with a craft and farm market — needlework, ceramics, local produce and street food, busier in winter than in the height of summer. It's a genuinely local market rather than a tourist stall setup, and worth timing a visit around if you're in the area.

Because Lajares has no beach, most visitors treat it as a base rather than a destination in itself. El Cotillo's lagoons and surf breaks are about eight kilometres west, a ten-minute drive; Corralejo's dunes and Flag Beach are a similar distance northeast. Both are close enough to visit more than once without feeling like an expedition.

The other reason people base themselves here is Calderón Hondo, an extinct volcano on the edge of the village with a well-preserved crater you can walk almost all the way around. It's an easy, short hike by island standards, and one of the more rewarding things to do on this part of the island without a car.

Several surf schools run lessons from Lajares and shuttle students to whichever beach has the right conditions — a useful option if you don't want to guess which coast to drive to yourself.