Walking Route through Arrecife: Cinema and the Sea

Arrecife is the island’s main urban center, home to 70,000 inhabitants—over 40% of Lanzarote’s total population. Its growth in recent centuries has been closely tied to the sea. The city boasts one of the most naturally favorable marinas in this part of the Atlantic.

The capital of Lanzarote lies on the island’s leeward side, sheltered from prevailing winds and heavy swells, within a large bay filled with inlets, lagoons, shallows, and islets rich in biodiversity. These natural features also facilitated the development of a major port, historically linked both to the fishing industry and to import–export trade. Arrecife’s history is deeply maritime, and this route invites visitors to explore the city through a seaside walk along its waterfront promenade. Along the way, we will discover glimpses of Arrecife’s essence, while enjoying memories of films and sweeping ocean views. In addition, Lanzarote’s capital offers a lively mix of leisure, culture, shopping, and gastronomy—a different way to get to know Arrecife, especially appealing for cinema lovers.

The starting point is the northeastern entrance, in the docks area, where the Castle of San José stands. This 18th-century fortress recalls the turbulent era of piracy that heavily impacted Arrecife. Today, it houses the International Museum of Contemporary Art (MIAC) of Lanzarote, notable for its collection of works from major artists of the 1960s and 70s. The castle also features a restaurant with excellent views of the sea and nearby docks.

From the castle, we continue down toward Porto Naos, taking in the picturesque views of the old salt flats to our right—settings that have appeared briefly in several films. By the mid-20th century, Arrecife and Lanzarote were dotted with salt-production sites, before their decline with the advent of refrigeration. The island had been strongly dedicated to producing sea salt for preserving fish, which was exported abroad. Up until the 1980s, fishing was Lanzarote’s main economic driver.

The seafaring essence of Lanzarote—whose boats had fished for centuries, especially along the nearby African coast—was centered in Porto Naos, the port area between San José Castle and the heart of Arrecife. This port is prominently featured in Oro rojo (1978), a film written and directed by Alberto Vázquez-Figueroa, starring José Sacristán (a highly acclaimed Spanish actor of film and theater) and Hugo Stiglitz (a renowned Mexican actor, whom Quentin Tarantino later honored by naming a key character after him in Inglourious Basterds). The film’s seafaring storyline captures Porto Naos at a time when the fishing industry was at its height, though its infrastructure looked very different from today.

Nowadays, fishing plays only a minor economic role, but Porto Naos remains lively, bustling with cruise ships during the tourist season and hosting impressive sailing vessels and regattas at Marina Lanzarote. This modern marina, located on one side of Porto Naos, is home to a wide range of restaurants and shops.

Continuing along the seafront promenade, we soon reach the Charco de San Ginés, but before arriving there, we encounter a striking sculpture that recalls The Old Man and the Sea, the famous novel by Ernest Hemingway, brought to the screen by one of Hollywood’s great classic actors, Spencer Tracy. Once again, Lanzarote’s connection to this story comes through the sea. To write it, Hemingway drew inspiration from the tales of Gregorio Fuentes, captain of his fishing boat in Cuba. Fuentes was born in Lanzarote and emigrated as a young man to the Caribbean island, as many islanders did in the past to Cuba and other parts of Latin America.

The Charco de San Ginés is an ancient volcanic crater eroded over time into a saltwater lagoon. Today, it is one of the city’s liveliest areas, frequented by locals and, to a lesser extent, visitors. This picturesque inlet of the sea is a perfect spot to pause for a drink or a meal at almost any hour of the day. In audiovisual terms, its most notable reference is Tim Thaler, a popular German TV series from the 1970s, which filmed a car chase along its shoreline—back when cars could still drive there, before the current promenade was built. While walking this avenue, one cannot miss the Atlántida Cinema, a building larger than the surrounding ones. This historic temple of cinema still screens films daily, including original-language versions on certain days of the week. One of the largest and most luxurious cinemas in the Canary Islands, it also hosts annual galas and activities for the Lanzarote International Film Festival, as well as screenings and events for the Meetings FesTVal Lanzarote. Since 2024, this industry gathering has been co-organized by the Lanzarote Film Commission and the promoters of the Vitoria-Gasteiz TV Festival, with the goal of fostering professional encounters with production companies and national TV and streaming networks to strengthen Lanzarote’s audiovisual sector.

From “El Charco,” as locals call it, the route returns to the waterfront promenade, where we encounter two of Arrecife’s most emblematic 17th-century landmarks: the Castle of San Gabriel and the Puente de las Bolas bridge. Both were destroyed several times during pirate and corsair raids. Along with the nearby Church of San Ginés, they form the city’s historic core. Several national and international films with historical settings have been shot here, including the Spanish Mararía and the Italian My Dear Dr. Gräsler. These productions also used the so-called “commercial dock” or “old dock,” a historic infrastructure in the city center. In fact, cinema in the capital has always been closely tied to the port—as local historian Agustín de la Hoz once wrote: “Arrecife was a port before it was a city.” The very first film shot on Lanzarote, a 1925 documentary by 20th Century Fox, includes scenes filmed at Arrecife’s docks.

We are now very close to Calle Real (also known as Calle León y Castillo), the main commercial artery of the historic center. It offers shops, bars, and a wide range of services, but also cultural corners such as the exhibition spaces nearby: the Casa Amarilla, Casa Fajardo, and the Agustín de la Hoz Cultural Center. The latter houses a sculpture dedicated to Heraclio Niz, a local sportsman and police officer who also made his mark in cinema, working as an extra or production assistant in dozens of films and TV series shot in the Canary Islands between the 1950s and 1980s. Tall, strong, extroverted, and charismatic, he befriended many stars who visited the island, including Raquel Welch, Omar Sharif, and Julio Iglesias.

Wandering further into the old town, we find references to two more films: Invader, by Spanish director Daniel Calparsoro, and The Road to Salina, a 1970s B-movie that brought Rita Hayworth to Lanzarote in her later years. The film has since been championed by Quentin Tarantino, who acknowledged its influence on the visual style of Kill Bill, conceived as a tribute.

Finally, we return to the waterfront promenade to walk its southern stretch, reaching the city’s edge. Along the way, we pass several key landmarks, including the Islote de Fermina and Reducto Beach, overlooked by the tall Arrecife Gran Hotel, the city’s skyline icon. This striking building also appears in another cult film: Even Dwarfs Started Small (1970), directed by Werner Herzog. In this area, visitors will also find numerous restaurants, bars, and cafés—the perfect place to relax and soak up the atmosphere after completing the walk.