Lanzarote by motorcycle: La Geria, Timanfaya and the Famara cliffs

Lanzarote can be ridden end to end in a single day, and in January it is one of the few places in Spain where you can do it in short sleeves. From Arrecife, the LZ-30 enters La Geria, a protected landscape of volcanic ash where every vine grows in a hand-dug pit, sheltered from the wind by a semicircular stone wall. The ash comes from the eruptions that began on 1 September 1730 and shaped the landscape of Timanfaya.

Beyond Yaiza, the LZ-67 crosses Timanfaya National Park between lava flows and volcanic cones. Tickets for the Montañas del Fuego, at the Islote de Hilario, are sold online only, for a set day and time, on the website of the Cabildo's Centros de Arte, Cultura y Turismo. If you would rather not be tied to a slot, the Mancha Blanca Visitor Centre, on the same road, explains the eruptions and opens daily from 9:00 to 16:00.

Next to the centre stands the hermitage of Los Dolores, the Virgin of the Volcanoes and patron saint of Lanzarote. Tinajo town council records the tradition: in 1824, with a volcano erupting between Tao and Tiagua, the villagers carried the statue out in procession and the eruption stopped. From Tinajo the route drops to Caleta de Famara, at the foot of the cliffs, and climbs back to Teguise, the island's capital until 1847.

The last stretch is the best riding of the day: the LZ-10 climbs north and winds down to Haría, the palm-grove village where César Manrique lived from 1988 until his death in 1992. At the very top, the Mirador del Río, conceived by Manrique and opened in 1973, looks out from the top of the Risco de Famara over the El Río strait and La Graciosa. The ride back to Arrecife follows the LZ-1 down the east coast.