Lanzarote is flooding — can you get a refund on your holiday? (2025)

On early Sunday April 13, torrential rain devastated homes and roads in Lanzarote, forcing the government to declare a state of emergency.

The deluge saw 2.4 inches of rain fall in two hours overnight, and the floodwaters caused homes to be submerged with more than 150 incidents in Costa Teguise and 70 in Arrecife, and San Bartoloméalso being badly hit.

While the state of emergency was lifted on Sunday, the issued a travel advisory on April 13, advising anyone travelling to Lanzarote to comply with the guidance issued by local authorities.

It added: ‘Services across the island are affected. Some hotels are currently without power. Some roads are currently affected by mud.’

Spain still has weather warnings in place until Tuesday, so if you’re contemplating cancelling your holiday to the Spanish island, what are your rights?

Can I get a refund if I cancel my holiday due to the floods?

If you’ve taken out your travel insurance and you’re now looking at the flooding and thinking you might give your holiday a miss – you may be entitled to some money back.

Flooding should be included under the natural disasters coverage (although it varies between insurers so check your policy) but this comes with a major catch.

Travel insurance will only pay out for holiday cancellations if the FCDO advise against anything but essential travel to your holiday destination.

Some providers also require the local or national authorities to state it’s unsafe to travel there. If your holiday provider or airline is operating there as normal and there are no advisories, you won’t get any cancellation cover.

According togocompare.com, you should look at the ‘cancellation and curtailment’ section of your policy, as this can help with cancelling or cutting a trip short due to extreme weather.

There’s another reason your travel insurance may not cover you, too. If extreme weather was forecast for the area before you booked your holiday and before you took out your insurance policy, you won’t be covered for ‘anticipated’ events.

Basically if you knew the weather was going to be bad but booked it anyway – you won’t get your refund.

Cancellations and package holidays vs independent holidays

If your package holiday operator cancels your holiday, it’s their responsibility to reimburse you for any parts of the holiday you booked through them.

This could include flights, accommodation and activities, but not anything you booked outside of that package.

Travel insurance may be able to reimburse you for things you’ve booked independently, due to cancellation cover if your package holiday falls through. This is dependent on your policy.

If you’ve booked your holiday without any holiday package providers, things get a bit tricky.

In the UK, airlines don’t need to compensate you for cancelled or delayed flights if it’s due to factors outside of their control – like flooding. However, they may be required to help you re-book your travel, so check before making an insurance claim.

You can also claim on your travel insurance for cancelled activities and accommodation if the FCDO has advised against travelling to your holiday destination.

Evacuations

If you’re unlucky enough to be caught in the unexpected event like flooding, here’s what you can and can’t claim for.

Travel insurance should cover you if advice has been given by FCDO not to travel and you need to evacuate the country, but not if you’re only being locally evacuated and are cancelling activities or accommodation booked elsewhere.

If you’re travelling independently, you’ll be responsible for finding your own emergency accommodation and flights, and you won’t be reimbursed by the airline if your flight home is delayed or grounded due to the natural disaster.

But they must find you alternative travel back home if your flight home is cancelled or significantly delayed, as well as provide you with food and drink if there’s a delay to your replacement flight to or from a UK airport.

This may be in the form of food vouchers or they’ll ask you to keep the receipts for whatever necessities you purchase in the airport while your flight is delayed, so you can claim the money back.

If you’re delayed overnight, the airline is required to give you accommodation. What’s more, is if you’ve been delayed for more than a day, you may also be able to claim on your travel insurance policy.

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