Discovering Lanzarote - An Historic Island Getaway

The island of Lanzarote is well known as a modern day holiday sun hot spot. Located in the Canaries it welcomes arrivals from across Europe which is the largest tourist market. But there's more here than the sun and the island is also steeped in history, making it vital for visitors who are staying in Lanzarote villas, hotels and apartments to get out and explore by taking advantage of cheap Lanzarote car hire to enable them to explore.

Not surprisingly the island welcomes well over 1.4 million visitors every year most arriving on Lanzarote flights but some people choose to use the ferries or even private yachts.

Of the seven Canary Islands Lanzarote was the first to be invaded in the early 1400´s by an expedition that represented the Spanish crown and which was led by a Norman noble called Jean de Bethencourt. The conquistadores had little trouble subduing the native Guanche inhabitants, who were easily subdued by the Spanish conquistadors.

Within another hundred years or so Lanzarote has become an important cog in the Spanish empire. Due to its strategic importance as a trading post between the new empire in South America and the Old World in Europe.

Spanish ships sailed to the New World with slaves from Africa on board before dropping them off and returning to Spain via the Canaries with cargoes which often included looted gold and silver from the Incas. Unsurprisingly though this trade soon came to the attention of privateers and pirates from countries such as England. And this resulted in the seas around the Canaries becoming something of a war zone some of whom succeeded in actually invading the island and laying siege to the former capital of Teguise.

As a result a number of castles were built in order to protect the local populace. And this resulted in the construction of a new castle, the Castillo de Santa Barbara, on Mount Guanapay. Which stands about 400 metres above Teguise. This enabled the garrison there to spot any further incursions and sound the alarm. Today this spot is now home to Lanzarote´s very own Pirate Museum, which chronicles this interesting period in the islands history.

Now there's no excuse not to visit this fascinating island as Lanzarote flights available from all main airports in Britain. First time visitors are also well advised to book Lanzarote airport transfers in order to beat the taxi queues outside the terminal building. A during bus periods such as the school summer holidays these can be very lengthy indeed.