Getting to La Geria by bus: lines, stops and minutes on foot

No bus stop on the island is called La Geria. You get off in the wine villages, Masdache above all, and walk the rest of the way, in most cases less than half an hour. Line 32 runs all day, and the return journey is worth checking before you leave home.

In Lanzarote, no bus stop carries the name La Geria. The wine country spreads across villages that do have a stop, Masdache, La Vegueta, Mozaga, La Asomada and Uga, and the visit starts where the bus stops. It is no hardship: the last few metres go on foot between the vines, and in most cases they fit into less than half an hour.

Of the 59 businesses in the guide, 38 sit within three kilometres of a stop, and 21 of them can be visited. Distance is not what decides the plan, frequency is. Line 32, the one that stops in Masdache, runs ten times a day in each direction, enough to go and come back the same day. Line 19, the one that leaves you closer to the wineries in the south, runs once.

Line 32, the one that works

The 32 links Arrecife with the wine country through Güime, Montaña Blanca, Masdache, La Florida, San Bartolomé and Argana, and it is the only line that enters La Geria with day-trip hours: ten departures in each direction, from 07:00 to 21:30. With that timetable you arrive in the morning, you visit at an easy pace and there is still afternoon to spare.

The stop that orders the day is Masdache. From there, ten businesses sit within three kilometres, three of them under one kilometre, an eleven-minute walk. The distances and the minutes, business by business:

Three of the ten appear unconfirmed, two offer a phone number to settle the question and the third does not even do that, so that visit stays pending another confirmation. The remaining seven are confirmed, and since all of them sit close to the same stop, one morning is enough for more than one.

Bodegas La Florida falls outside that count, and with good reason: its closest stop is San Bartolomé, two kilometres and 26 minutes on foot, not Masdache. The 32 serves both villages, so anyone looking for it has two places to get off, and the shorter walk starts in San Bartolomé.

Line 19, the one that would work better and barely runs

The 19 leaves Arrecife towards La Asomada through Tías, Conil, Tegoyo and Mácher, and no other line drops you closer to the south of La Geria. The timetable takes all its value away: a single departure a day in each direction, at 07:00 out and at 07:35 back. With that margin there is no excursion to be had.

And it is a pity, because the La Asomada stop is the gateway to the big wineries of the area. From there you walk to Bodeguita Vega Volcán in sixteen minutes, to Bodega Jable de Tao in twenty-four, to Bodega Stratvs in twenty-six, to Bodegas Rubicón in thirty and to Bodega La Geria, the house that gives the whole valley its name, in thirty-two. The 19, the only line with a stop there, allows nothing more than that one outward trip and that one return.

Where you catch it from

Anyone not staying in Arrecife arrives all the same, with a transfer almost every time, and the south has a door of its own.

The general rule sits in the table: almost everything that is not Arrecife takes a transfer, in Arrecife or in Tías. The exception is in the south, where the 61 runs from the airport to Uga through Puerto del Carmen with no change of bus and the 60 climbs from Playa Blanca up to Uga and Yaiza. On the 07:00 departure from Arrecife, the 60 reaches Uga at 07:33, according to the timetable the operator publishes.

The way back: the pass time, not the departure time

Going is the least of it. Coming back is what decides the day. The last 32 leaves Arrecife at 21:30, but the time it passes Masdache does not match the departure time from the capital, and the operator does not publish the minute the bus passes each stop. On its website you can see the day's departures, not the pass through Masdache. On top of that, the wineries close before the service ends, so the real calculation is not the last bus, but the last useful bus after the last glass.

The timetables change with the season, and the operator publishes them departure by departure rather than as a fixed frequency, so the exact time is checked on the day of travel, on the website or at the stop itself. For those who prefer to ask, the operator's phone number is 928 811 522.

What the ticket costs

Intercity does not publish the single ticket price in a fixed table. The fare pages per village come up empty, the amount depends on how far you go and you pay the driver. What is published is the general travel pass: a 10 % discount on the ordinary fare, with a 2 € card and top-ups from 5 to 50 €. For the exact amount, you have the operator's website, or you ask when boarding.

The other stops in the area

Masdache is not the whole of it. Inland, La Vegueta and Mozaga are served by the 16 and the 53. In the south, the 60 and the 61, the same lines that bring you from the airport and from Playa Blanca, leave two stops with places next door:

The 16 leaves Arrecife towards La Santa, so La Vegueta and Mozaga can also be reached from the capital without a transfer. Finca Fajardo is four minutes from the stop, the shortest walk in the area, and the Casa del Vino Canario, in Mozaga, eight, comfortable for starting or ending the morning.

When it works and when it does not

If the base of the trip is Arrecife or Costa Teguise, the 32 solves the day: you get off at Masdache, split the day among the businesses within walking distance of the stop and leave the return some margin, with the pass time checked. If the aim is the wineries in the south, Rubicón or Bodega La Geria, the bus does not get there, because the 19 only shows up once in each direction, and that day calls for another way of getting around. Anyone who wants to add La Vegueta or Mozaga has the 16 direct from Arrecife.

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