Club La Santa, Lanzarote: The Complete Guide for Serious Athletes

There are sports hotels, and then there's Club La Santa.

Spread across 75,000 square metres on the northwest coast of Lanzarote, this place isn't really a hotel at all. It's a small, self-contained sports city that happens to have beds and restaurants attached.

Three 50-metre Olympic pools. A professional athletics stadium. A cycling centre with 600 Cannondale bikes. Padel courts, tennis courts, a saltwater lagoon for open-water swimming, and a daily schedule so packed you'll need a strategy just to pick your activities. Club La Santa has been doing this since 1983, long before "active travel" became a marketing buzzword, and the scale of what they've built is still hard to grasp until you walk through the gates.

Whether you're a triathlete prepping for IRONMAN, a cyclist looking for a warm-weather base, or someone who just wants a holiday where "relaxing by the pool" means swimming laps in a heated 50m lane, this guide covers everything you need to know before booking.

The Facilities: What You're Actually Getting

Let's skip the marketing and talk specifics.

Swimming

Three outdoor 50-metre pools, each with 8 lanes, giving you 24 lanes total. The water is heated to 26–27°C year-round using solar panels and geothermal heat pumps. Time clocks at both ends of two of the pools for interval training. If you're preparing for an open-water race, the resort's saltwater lagoon offers sheltered, calm conditions for technique work. Wetsuits are recommended from November to May.

For context: most "sport hotels" in Europe consider a 25-metre pool a selling point. Club La Santa has three pools that are each double that length.

Cycling

The on-site cycling centre is stocked with 600 Cannondale bikes (road and mountain), a full mechanical workshop, bike fitting services, assembly, packaging, and washing facilities. Lanzarote's roads are smooth, well-maintained, and relatively quiet, with volcanic terrain that offers everything from flat coastal spins to the infamous 180km IRONMAN route with 2,550m of climbing.

If you bring your own bike, the workshop can help with any adjustments. If you don't, the rental fleet covers everything from casual rides to full race setups.

Running & Athletics

The athletics stadium sits at the heart of the resort. The spec list reads like a national training facility: four 400m lanes and four 110m sprint lanes on a Conica CONIPUR Vmax surface (40% shock absorption, easy on the joints), plus a 450m outer leisure track. High jump and shot put equipment is available to borrow, and professional groups can book pole vault and javelin (rubber tips) through the groups department.

Beyond the track, Lanzarote itself is the real running playground. Volcanic trails, coastal paths, and guided group runs at different paces leave every morning from the resort.

Note: From 1 July 2026, pole vault, javelin, and steeplechase facilities will no longer be available.

Racket Sports

Multiple padel courts (singles and doubles), tennis courts, badminton across 11 indoor courts in two halls, squash courts, and even a 3×3 basketball court. The padel facilities in particular have been expanded in recent years, reflecting the sport's explosion across Europe.

Gym & Fitness

A full Technogym-equipped fitness centre, indoor Body Bike room for spinning, outdoor training areas, CrossFit, HYROX classes, Olympic weightlifting instruction, and daily group fitness sessions covering everything from yoga and pilates to barefoot training and fascial work. Open to ages 15+, or 13–14 with adult supervision.

The Green Team: 500 Weekly Classes, All Included

This is the thing that sets Club La Santa apart from every other sports resort in Europe. The "Green Team" is a crew of 40+ full-time instructors who run over 500 activities every single week, and almost all of them are included in your room rate. No per-class fees. No upsells. Just show up and go.

The daily schedule typically kicks off at 8:00 with morning gymnastics by the leisure pool (a Club La Santa tradition), followed by guided runs, cycling groups, swim squads, fitness classes, racket sport tournaments, and sport-specific technique sessions throughout the day. The 15-minute morning stretch session alone draws practically the entire resort.

You book everything through the Club La Santa app after check-in. Sessions fill up — especially the popular ones like the volcano hike, triathlon coaching, and the evening stretch and relax class — so it pays to plan your week early.

Who It's Actually For

Club La Santa attracts a genuinely wide range of guests, and the mix is part of its atmosphere.

Triathletes make up a huge chunk of the regular visitors. The combination of three 50m pools, smooth cycling roads, and a proper running track all within a five-minute walk of each other makes brick training effortless. The resort hosts IRONMAN Lanzarote (one of the toughest IRONMAN races in the world, running since 1992) and the Volcano Triathlon (Spain's oldest international triathlon, since 1985).

Cyclists use it as a warm-weather training base, especially from November to April when conditions in northern Europe are miserable. The road network around the resort gives you options from 15km recovery loops to full IRONMAN bike routes.

Swimmers come for the lanes. Twenty-four 50-metre lanes, heated year-round, with time clocks and gear available to borrow. That's hard to beat anywhere in Europe.

Runners get a proper track, trail options, and organised group runs at multiple paces every morning. Hill runs and off-road sessions round out the weekly programme.

Active families are well catered for. The Play Time children's club takes kids from age 3, teenage fitness sessions exist, and the sheer variety of activities means every family member can do their own thing and meet up for dinner. Several reviewers mention this as their main reason for returning year after year.

First-timers and casual athletes shouldn't feel intimidated. Despite hosting professional training camps and elite events, the day-to-day atmosphere is welcoming at every fitness level. The Green Team runs beginner-level sessions across most sports, and nobody cares if you're doing your first 5K while the person in the next lane is training for an IRONMAN.

Accommodation: Apartments vs Suites

Two options. The original apartments (391 units) are the classic Club La Santa experience: functional, clean, self-catering, set over four floors in a quadrangle layout with shops and restaurants in the middle. They've been renovated over the years but are not luxury. Think "practical training camp base" rather than "boutique hotel."

The newer suites (96 units) sit closer to the lagoon and are a genuine step up: modern, air-conditioned, sea-facing, and finished to a higher standard. If you're going for a week or longer and care about your post-training comfort, the suites are worth the extra cost. Multiple reviewers specifically call this out.

Self-catering is standard across both options (kitchenette with fridge, stovetop, microwave), which is useful for athletes managing their own nutrition. Four on-site restaurants range from the buffet at Atlantico to the more upscale El Lago.

The Honest Bits

No review is useful without honesty, so here's what you should know.

The food gets mixed reviews. The buffet at Atlantico is functional but won't win any awards. El Lago gets consistently better feedback. Several recent reviews mention limited menus and slow service at certain restaurants. If nutrition is a serious part of your training, the self-catering option and a trip to the supermarket might be your best bet.

Construction is ongoing. A major renovation programme runs from April 2026 through to October 2027, including a new main entrance building, a new supermarket, and the renovation of five apartment towers (Towers 1, 3, 50, 51, and 52). Noise is reportedly kept to working hours (8am–4pm), but if you're sensitive to disruption, it's worth factoring in.

It's not a luxury resort. The facilities are exceptional, the accommodation is not. If your expectations are five-star hotel room followed by five-star dinner, you'll be disappointed. If your priorities are "train hard, eat adequately, sleep, repeat," you'll love it.

Large school and college groups. Club La Santa is popular with Scandinavian school groups, which can mean busy facilities and a younger crowd during certain weeks. This isn't necessarily a negative, but it's worth being aware of if you're after a quieter adult-only atmosphere. If that's more your style, check our adults-only sports hotels instead.

Getting There

Arrecife Airport (ACE) is about 30 minutes by car from the resort. Direct flights from most major UK and European airports run year-round, with journey times of around 4 hours from the UK and 4–5 hours from Scandinavia and central Europe. Club La Santa offers transfer services, or you can rent a car — handy for exploring the island on rest days, though not essential if you're staying on-site.

How It Fits Into Lanzarote's Sports Scene

Club La Santa is the anchor, but it's not the only sports property on the island. Lanzarote has developed into one of Europe's most complete training destinations, with multiple hotels catering to triathletes, cyclists, and multi-sport athletes. Properties across the island offer lap pools for swimmers and padel courts to complement whatever you're training for.

If you're comparing Lanzarote against other Canary Islands destinations, our pages covering Tenerife triathlon hotels and the broader Canary Islands cycling scene cover the alternatives.

The Bottom Line

Club La Santa isn't trying to be everything to everyone, and that's exactly why it works. It's built around sport, optimised for training, and priced on the assumption that you'll use the facilities — because most of them are included in the rate. The accommodation is practical rather than luxurious, the food is adequate rather than exceptional, and the scale of sports infrastructure is unmatched by any other resort in Europe.

If your idea of a perfect holiday involves three pool sessions, a bike ride, a padel game, and a guided run before dinner, Club La Santa is purpose-built for exactly that.