Scuba diving and snorkelling in Lanzarote: where, who with and what it costs

If you're looking at scuba diving in Lanzarote, the short answer is Playa Chica in Puerto del Carmen: a small cove where you walk in from the sand and at 10–18 m you'll find seahorses, rays and angel sharks. There's a dive centre on the beach itself, try dives Monday to Saturday and no boat needed. For the Museo Atlántico you have to go to Playa Blanca, in the south.

The water isn't tropical: it hovers around 18 °C at the end of winter and 23 °C at the end of summer. In return, the marine life is a few metres from the shore and you can dive all twelve months. Below you'll find the centres' real prices, what is actually going on with the Museo Atlántico and where to snorkel for free.

Museo Atlántico: the situation today and how to visit

The Museo Atlántico is a set of underwater sculptures by Jason deCaires Taylor, installed between 2016 and 2017 at 12–14 m off Las Coloradas, in Playa Blanca. There are around ten sculptural groups: The Rubicon (35 figures), the Raft of Lampedusa, Los Jolateros, The Portal, Deregulated and a circle of some 200 figures, among others.

The key point: since 2020 it hasn't operated as a museum. The Cabildo (island council) stopped promoting it, asked the dive centres to remove its branding, and the island's tourist centres (CACT) dropped it from their offer. The Cabildo later announced it wanted to reopen it, with a working group to set a model and a timetable, but there is no date, no ticket office and no official booking system. The announcement is in the Cabildo de Lanzarote press release.

In practice, the sculptures are still there and the dive centres still take people down. There's no separate ticket to buy: the cost is included in the dive price. There's more detail in our Museo Atlántico review.

Museo Atlántico for certified divers

• Rubicón Diving (Marina Rubicón, Playa Blanca) goes to the museum every day: a morning trip with two dives from €115 or a single afternoon dive from €65. It's the cheapest option if you're already certified. Details on its museum page.
• Safari Diving charges its standard dive price (€45) plus a €7 supplement for the museum if you book through its Puerto del Carmen centre.
• Dive College (Playa Blanca, Safari Diving's sister centre) goes out on Wednesdays and Fridays at 09:30, with 45–50 min of bottom time, and requires certification to at least 12 m. Its prices no longer appear on its website: ask when you book.

Museo Atlántico without a diving qualification

You can see it without being a diver, in two ways:

• Two days, cheaper: a try dive at Playa Chica with Safari Diving (€75) and, on another day, the boat dive at the museum (€79). That's €154 in total and you reach the museum with one dive already under your belt.
• One day in Playa Blanca: Safari Diving runs a programme from 10:00 to 15:00, Monday to Saturday, with training and the museum back to back; Rubicón's "Day at the Museum" costs from €175, and on GetYourGuide there's a Museo Atlántico scuba dive for beginners from €165.

Minimum age on the Safari Diving programme: 10. You can also see it snorkelling or freediving, because the figures are fairly shallow; Rubicón Diving offers this. From the surface you'll see the outlines, not the detail.

Try diving in Lanzarote: price and what to expect

A try dive (also called Discover Scuba Diving) is your first dive with an instructor beside you, with no course beforehand. In Lanzarote it's almost always done from the beach: a briefing first, then a shallow dive over the cove's reef, with the instructor next to you the whole time.

• Safari Diving (Playa Chica): a 2-hour try dive in the sea for €75, Monday to Saturday at 12:00, from age 8. If you enjoy it, a second shore dive costs €59. For children aged 8–9 there's Bubblemaker, €75. Free pick-up from hotels in Puerto del Carmen and Puerto Calero.
• On GetYourGuide, the best-rated try dives cost between €72 and €80, nearly all with photos and video included. The one with the most reviews is scuba diving for beginners with free videos, from €75 and rated 5.0 from more than 400 reviews.
• If you want two dives on the same day, there's a 2-dive experience from €140, about 4 h.

The real difference between them is the photos included, group size and pick-up: ask how many students each instructor takes.

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See all on GetYourGuide →Prices checked on 5 October 2026

Prices for certified divers

If you're already certified (PADI, SSI, BSAC or other), these are the direct rates from Safari Diving, which has been at Playa Chica for more than 40 years and works with PADI and BSAC:

With a 10-dive pack each dive works out at €35, so if you're diving over several days it pays to buy it up front. Bring your own kit and you save €10 per dive. Other platforms charge more: Headout sells a try dive from €90 and Civitatis a Museo Atlántico dive from €185.

Best dive sites in Lanzarote

The sites the Puerto del Carmen centres dive are right off their stretch of coast: almost all are shore dives or less than 10 minutes by boat.

Puerto del Carmen

• Playa Chica: the house reef, between 10 and 18 m, for all levels. Seahorses, rays and angel sharks. Safari Diving goes in almost every day at 10:15. It's a shore dive: no boat and no seasickness.
• Old harbour wrecks: the first at 18 m and the rest around 30 m. Safari Diving's boat trips go on Sundays in high season: confirm when you book.
• The Cathedral: a cave at 30 m with a 10 m wide mouth, groupers inside and black coral outside. You go in from the beach, but it's a dive for experienced divers: it isn't for someone fresh out of Open Water. Safari Diving does it on Wednesdays and Fridays at 09:30.
• Blue Hole and Red Coral: also at 30 m, from the shore and for experienced divers only.
• By boat, less than 10 minutes away: Richies Reef, Waikiki, Los Arcos or Playa Negra (El Poril) and Punta Tiñosa.

Playa Blanca

• Museo Atlántico (see above), by boat from Marina Rubicón.
• Flamingo Wall and Fingers, the other two regular sites for the southern centres.

Other dive centres also operate around Playa Blanca; always check they're still running and that the trip leaves from the marina that suits you.

Angel sharks: when to see them

The angel shark is a flat shark that lies on the sand and is critically endangered. It's one of Playa Chica's regulars, and Canary Islands dive centres say it's most active in December and January, when it returns to its breeding areas. It's a good reason to dive in winter, even if the water is cooler.

Snorkelling in Lanzarote: where to go

Snorkelling is the cheap way to see what you'd see on a try dive, from above. Good options:

• Playa Chica (Puerto del Carmen): the easiest. You can go on your own (Safari Diving hires out mask and snorkel for €5) or with a guide: its 2-hour snorkelling tour costs €39, Monday to Saturday at 15:00, from age 6, a good option with children. On GetYourGuide there's a guided snorkelling tour at Playa Chica with photos from €34.20 and another with gear and photos from €50.
• Costa Teguise: there's a 2-hour guided snorkelling tour for all levels, from €50. The El Jablillo area is the most sheltered.
• Playa Flamingo (Playa Blanca): combined with paddleboarding on a guided SUP and snorkelling experience from €49.
• Papagayo: the kayak and snorkelling trip scores 9.5 out of 10 on Civitatis, from €50. Remember that car access to Papagayo costs €3 and can only be paid by card. More in the beaches guide.
• Charco del Palo (Haría, east coast): a naturist village with no beach, with three caves where you can get into the sea safely. Go when the sea is calm.
• By boat: many trips to La Graciosa and Lobos include a stop for snorkelling and kayaking. See boat trips.

Sea temperature month by month

Ten-year averages in Puerto del Carmen. The sea is coldest at the end of winter and warmest in September–October, not August.

For long snorkelling sessions between January and May, a shorty wetsuit helps a lot; if you're diving, ask the centre which wetsuit comes with the kit hire. The rest of the climate is in the Lanzarote weather guide.

Diving, submarine or aquarium?

If someone in your group doesn't want to get wet, the Puerto Calero submarine goes down to about 30 m with 44 seats and takes children from age 2: you'll see the seabed without any kit. It's the product with the most reviews on this list on GetYourGuide (from €65); more in our Submarine Safaris review.

And if you're searching for "diving with sharks", what's on sale is the tank dive at Aquarium Lanzarote in Costa Teguise (our review): €300 without certification, €250 with, 30 min in the tank, Monday to Saturday and booked at least 2 days ahead. The minimum age is given as 8 or 12 depending on the page: confirm it before you pay.

How to choose and book

• Never dived before: a try dive at Playa Chica, direct or on GetYourGuide; the price is similar, so compare the cancellation terms.
• Museum without certification: a try dive in Puerto del Carmen and the museum on another day. Cheaper, and you'll be more relaxed going down.
• Certified: buy a pack direct from the centre and add the museum for €7 more, or take Rubicón's afternoon trip.
• Staying in the south: Marina Rubicón is close by; see the Playa Blanca guide or the Puerto del Carmen one.

If there's a ground swell, a trip can move to another day: don't leave diving until your last day. More on-the-water ideas in water sports.

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