It's nearly a week since we have been back and I thought I'd jot down some of my recommendations for anyone visiting CT.

Places to eat:
There is a huge variety of restaurants in CT and you would be able to eat a different cuisine every night if you wanted. You can also spend as much as you like. You can pick up a plate of pasta/pizza for about a fiver or splash out a bit on a nice piece of steak in a nice restaurant for a tenner upwards. I recommend trying Lani's Tex Mex (huge portions), El Patio (fantastic BBQ'd meat) and La Terazza (good squid and nice, fresh salads). The least we spent as a family of three on a meal (two courses and drinks) was just over £30 (La Terazza) and the most was just over £50 (Lani's). We didn't have a bad meal the whole time we were there.
There are also restaurants that do set menus of three courses for about 10 euros and there are chinese buffets for 5 euros (although there were never many people in, so I don't know how fresh the food would be).

Places to drink:
The most we spent on a large beer was 2 euros, but in a lot of bars it is 1.50. We visited La Esquina every day and can thoroughly recommend - you'll get a great welcome from Steve and Co. I'm really missing my afternoon pint in an iced glass! Cohiba bar will also give you a warm welcome (say hi to Geoff). There are many bars around the square (Pueblo Marinero) where you can listen to live music on a night or just soak in the atmosphere - there was a good buzz there this year. In one of these bars you can get a four pint pitcher for 5 euros. I can't remember the name of the bar but it's next to El Patio across from the Pirate Bar. You'll find that most bars are really friendly and you can just pull up a bar stool and chat the day/night away. The people who work in the bars will also give you some great tips of where you should go and what you should see.

Places to shop:
If you are self catering then you can't really go wrong with Hyperdino or Spa. If you're BBQing then we thought the Hyperdino near the Police Station had the best meat counter (burgers, sausages, kebabs, chicken, pork). They also have good fruit and veg and a bakery where you can get fresh, warm bread in a morning. The Spa neat Cactus Jacks also does this. In the Hyperdino you can also get a litre bottle of 'own-brand' beer for 88 cents (39p a pint!). I was quite dubious at first, but it really was quite nice so they nearly sold out!!!
If you have a car, then visit the farmers market at Mancha Blanca on a Sunday morning. The market square is opposite the church and you could miss it if you weren't looking for it. We picked up some amazing produce (tomatoes, potatoes, melon, salad, bread). Not many people speak any English, but this adds to the experience. If you try to say a few words in Spanish then the locals become a lot more friendly and start offering you free samples.
The girls even took the wallets out for an afternoon and came back with lots of bags of girlie stuff so I am assured that CT can cater for all shopping demands!

Beaches:
The beach at Las Cucharas is good, but we enjoyed the one at Jablillo much more. It is smaller but it is more sheltered from the wind and you are not 'sand-blasted' as much. There are more rocks, but these are great for rock pooling and snorkelling. Get yourself some nets and see if you can catch one of hundreds of fish that will swim around your feet.
However, you need to travel out of CT for the best beaches, but you don't need to travel far. We all think that the beach at Arrietta is one of the best on the island and it's only 15 mins up the road. Get there early and you will probably have 400 metres of sand all to yourself. There's also some really good facilities (showers/toilets) and a great little beach bar that does some amazing tapas as well as good sandwiches and salads. When we were there they were also building a skate park so this is very much a locals beach although tourists are very welcome.
Famara is also worth a visit. This is a surfer's beach on the other side of the island and you can hire a surf board for the day for 10 euros. The waves and currents are big and strong so swimming far out to sea is not recommended. There is also a nudist colony along this beach that we stumbled upon (much to my five year old's amusement) so pretty much anything goes! The scenery is stunning, so even if you are not bathing, it deserves a visit. The only thing that let's it down is there are no facilities such as toilets or a cafe but this kind of adds to it's charm.

Where to go:
I would always recommend people to hire a car when they visit Lanza as there is so much to see and you can save a fortune compared to organised tours. For example, a visit to the volcano is a must. The cheapest organised tour I saw for our group of 8 was 150 euros. By going in the car and doing it ourselves it cost 56 euros. The difference nearly paid for one of the cars for the week!
As well as the volcano, there are the other tourist attractions that are well covered elsewhere on this forum such as the caves and Manrique's home. However, try to see the real Lanzarote. Spend a couple of hours in Haria (Look out for the weird white chickens near the Town Hall), walk round Arrietta village, or visit Teguise on any day other than Sunday.

There's probably other stuff that I wanted to put, but I can't remember it all. With regards places to stay, I recommend having a look at VillaSun.net (we had an amazing villa), for a car we always use AutoReisen without any problems, and we normally book our flights through Jet2.com. Coming home this year we took off 30 minutes early and landed 65 minutes before we should have done!!

These are just my opinions on things and it is each to their own, but I hope that somebody finds something of use. Please feel free to add your suggestions or favourite places.

I've just got to look forward to our next visit now!

Great post MisterE.

Thanks Bob.

Over the past year or so, I have picked up some great tips from this forum that have enhanced our experience of Lanzarote, so I hope my post can help others.

One thing that I did miss off was that it only cost us 27 euros to fill our car up from empty. However, as the island is so small, we only used less than half a tank.

so nice to hear possitive reports,the island has lots to offer if you come with the right attitude! glad you enjoyed your holiday,hurry back and bring more people with you!! most of our visitors this summer have raved about the peace and how safe the resort of costa is and have all said they will return next year,heres hoping!
ps the little bar with cheap drinks is chispas,also bluebells next to it.in pueblo marinero.