We recently took our car to the mainland of Spain for a summer road trip. This is a review of the ferry journey between Lanzarote in The Canary Islands and Cádiz in Spain. If you want to bring a vehicle to Lanzarote from anywhere in Europe, this is the option available to you.
The service is run by Naviera Armas with Trasmediterránea. We booked online through their website, which is available in both Spanish and English. If you are a resident in The Canary Islands, there is a very valuable subsidy available, which is applied on booking, as long as you are registered. We booked our car, ourselves, and a double outside cabin for the trip. With a cabin booking, all meals are included, for passengers who choose to book a pullman seat rather than a cabin, they have to pay for their food and drink.
The trip takes about 30 hours, so going out, we departed at midnight and arrived early morning two days later, having had two nights aboard. The return journey trip departed in the middle of the day, so we had only one night aboard, arriving into Lanzarote late afternoon on the following day.
The crossing for us both ways was pretty smooth, but the seas can be rough.
Pre-Boarding
The information is pretty poor on the website, but the booking and payment process was easy, and we were able to download our boarding passes 14 days before travel. We couldn’t find any information about what time we needed to be at the port on any of our documentation! In the end we chose to get there three hours before, and we weren’t the first to arrive.
The other issue is the signage at Arrecife port is pretty poor, and we drove around it once before realising where we had to go. The Naviera Armas office opened an hour or so before the ship arrived, and that gave us access to vending machines and washrooms.
The Cabin
The ship arrived late, so we had a further long wait while the incoming cars were off loaded, and finally, we were aboard! Check in to our cabin was swift, and we dived straight in to it, as it was well after midnight. The double cabins are pretty small, with two single beds, a desk area, and a small wardrobe. There’s no fridge, no TV and no kettle. There’s a small washroom, with toilet, sink and shower – think caravan sized.
Top tips: Pre pack small overnight bags for the ferry and load them into the car so you can easily access them – the cars are parked very close together, and you don’t have any access once the ship sets sail. Take some snacks with you, a travel kettle so you can make hot drinks, and a tablet with some TV shows of movies downloaded onto it.
The cabins are basic, but servicable.
All passengers have access to Wifi, but it’s poor. We found it best very early in the morning, or late at night, presumably as others weren’t using the bandwidth.
Passengers with dogs can bring them aboard, but they must stay in air conditioned kennels on deck, and owners can walk them whenever they want.
The ship
If the cabins were a let down, the public areas of the ship – Ciudad de Valencia – were a pleasant surprise. The restaurant is clean, tidy and comfortable, there are a couple of snack bars and a shop, and an outside bar at the stern, with deck chairs.
The food
For people in cabins, the food is included, and for others, they can buy what they want. You’re issued with a ticket on check in, which clearly tells you what you can have, but basically includes breakfast, lunch and dinner, with a drink and coffee or tea at each mealtime. The portions are good, the quality fair, considering it’s mass catering. There tend to be long queues at the start of each service, and it’s all self service. One issue is that the queue moves slowly, so that by the time you arrive at your table, the food isn’t hot enough. There are microwaves in the restaurant, so we got into the habit of using them.
Return Trip
We returned three weeks later, and there was a larger ferry on the route, Volcan de Tinamar. The only real differences were that the second ship was a bit more tired looking, and it had a small swimming pool at the stern.
We didn’t manage to get any Wifi at all on the return trip.
Here’s a video we shot on the return trip:
Summary
If you want to take a car or motorhome direct between Lanzarote and mainland Europe, this service is your only option. You can also travel between Las Palmas in Gran Canaria and Huelva.
The ships are basic roll on / roll off ferries, so think about them like that, rather than cruise ships. They do the job, and provide somewhere reasonable to sleep, shower and eat.
If you’re a resident of the islands, the discount makes the trip reasonably affordable, but prices seem high to me for non residents.
