The rumor of the buggies can be felt in a town of less than 900 inhabitants. One, two, three, and so on, up to a dozen vehicles make their way through Guatiza (Teguise), in the north of Lanzarote, leaving a trail of dust behind them. Homes, farms, and agricultural paths are affected by these tourist excursions. While neighborhood reaction increases due to environmental impact, institutions have not yet managed to tackle the situation.
The image of Guatiza is repeated in other towns on Lanzarote. In total, five main companies operate with buggies on the island, while other websites replicate their advertisements. Current regulations and their different interpretations leave a legal loophole through which this tourist offer, which has gained fame among travelers, continues to slip.
From 130 to 250 euros for excursions on rural land
For an excursion, which usually lasts an average of three hours, tourists pay between 130 and 250 euros for vehicle rental, with an instructor guiding the caravan. Four of these five companies advertise routes on dirt roads, either in the north or south of Lanzarote, and only one promotes itself on asphalt. Some even offer excursions through protected natural areas such as the Volcán del Cuervo, in Tinajo, or the Mirador de Las Nieves, in Teguise.
This constant coming and going has led the Guatiza Neighbors Association to publicly denounce their weariness. Miguel Sosa, a representative of these neighbors, states that they feel that "the political class is completely ignoring them." These citizens have warned on several occasions that the daily transit of this type of vehicle through their rural roads generates "serious environmental and landscape impacts," "noise pollution," and "suspended dust."
These excursions do not only occur in Teguise, although its residents are the ones who have mobilized the most against the transit of this type of vehicle. "The excursions are increasing, in greater frequency and in a greater number of vehicles," highlighted Miguel Sosa, who explains that several buggy caravans can be seen simultaneously transiting through the town of Guatiza and its surroundings, along its paths and through protected natural areas.
Lanzarote without an official network of routes through natural areas
To understand why these tourist excursions are permitted on rustic land, where critically endangered species survive, one must look to the regulations. To control the transit of vehicles of this type, as well as sporting events such as rallies, bicycle routes on forest tracks, or foot races on these paths, the Canary Islands Land Law contemplates a mechanism in its article 80: the creation of an official network of routes in the natural environment.
The Canary Islands Land Law, from 2017, imposed on the Island Councils the elaboration, approval, and publication of an island network for motor vehicles in the natural environment. This network of paths was to define its capacity and use regime. After this network was approved island by island, caravans of more than three motor vehicles circulating outside of it would be prohibited. However, Lanzarote has not yet approved its own.
Specialized sources consulted by this media outlet highlight that the lack of a path network adapted to the Canary Islands Land Law hinders the work of environmental agents and the Guardia Civil's Nature Protection Service, as currently only caravans of vehicles circulating outside of the authorized tracks and on dirt roads not registered in the cadastre can be sanctioned.
Despite the fact that this Canary Islands law dates from 2017 and that neighboring islands, such as Fuerteventura, have had it approved since 2019, Lanzarote still does not have this official network. This regulation states that sporting events with motor vehicles may only take place on forest tracks outside protected natural areas and on which there is no express "prohibition" in their planning. Furthermore, for these events, an "obligatory administrative authorization" from the Island Council will be necessary.
While this network does not move forward, Martín assures that the ball is in the municipalities' court and urges them to regulate the transit of this type of vehicle on these paths.
The Teguise City Council even put forward for public exhibition the modification of its ordinance to regulate the passage of buggies on its paths on September 9, 2025. Two months before a year has passed, the regulation remains stuck in the council, while the excursions have continued to take place. The mayor, Olivia Duque (CC), states in declarations to La Voz that this regulation is "awaiting sectoral reports."
Samuel Martín, Minister of Environment of the Cabildo of Lanzarote, explains during an interview with this media that from the Territorial Policy Area, managed by his party colleague Jesús Machín, "measures are being taken" with respect to these vehicles. "It is quite complex because we are talking about regulating this official network entails many things [...] such as sporting events that are held in our natural environment," he adds.
Faced with this reality, the legal teams of the Cabildo of Lanzarote are studying the possibility of prohibiting this type of tourist excursion. "To take precautionary measures or other types of measures [...] there is a regulation at the regional and state level for active tourism," indicates Martín, at the same time adding that article 80 of the Land Law speaks of "regularization of these authorizations," but that "in no article have we seen a prohibition."
The damage of these excursions to agriculture
Martín argues that if such a prohibition occurs, it must be based on "environmental facts." Thus, he has pointed out that the Cabildo is studying the impact that these vehicles can generate on the island's agriculture, the most affected sector.
In this regard, Guatiza resident Miguel Sosa explains that the daily transit of buggy excursions damages the crops of enarenados, the technique used in Lanzarote in which the upper layer of agricultural land is covered with a layer of volcanic ash. "The dust they kick up fills the crops with dust and prevents them from breathing, which causes the plant to die," he adds.
This Guatiza resident explains that summer is the time of year when these crops can be most damaged, because with no humidity, the paths release more dirt than usual. "This causes the farmer, when they want to cultivate, to have to move all the sand so that the soil goes down, and it also generates more weeds," he continues.
When it put its ordinance on buggy traffic out for public consultation, the Teguise Government group had already acknowledged the environmental damage that these daily excursions were causing to agriculture.
Prohibition on protected natural spaces
Regarding protected natural areas, the Minister of Environment of the Cabildo de Lanzarote, Samuel Martín, points out that these vehicles "cannot circulate in protected natural areas on roads that are not asphalted." Therefore, routes on dirt tracks in these types of areas "are prohibited."
Despite this, the island authorities have detected several tourist excursions by these vehicles in protected areas. Last summer, the Environment Area of the Cabildo de Lanzarote detected a caravan of buggies circulating within the Natural Monument of Los Ajaches, at the access to the Papagayo beaches. Finally, the company was fined 4,500 euros for committing a serious administrative infraction.
Again, this January, the Seprona of the Guardia Civil reported a buggy excursion, with six vehicles, that was traveling through the protected area of the Barranco de Las Piletas in Guatiza. The Cabildo de Lanzarote initiated sanctioning proceedings against the responsible company for traveling in a nesting area of the Egyptian vulture (Neophron percnopterus majorensis), an endangered species, but also where other species such as the **Lesser Kestrel** (Falco tinnunculus dacotiae) and the **Barn Owl** (Tyto alba gracilirostris) coexist.
To date, these are the only two sanctioning proceedings that have been made public. In this regard, the Guatiza Neighbors Association publicly states that these tourist excursions transit through this area "every day."
La Voz has tried unsuccessfully to obtain testimony from some of the companies that advertise their buggy excursions in Lanzarote.