5 Days in Tenerife

The Barranco del Infierno, Hell's Gorge, is a ravine above the town of Adeje, and it's the first surprise of the island: you start on a dry, sunburnt slope and finish between rock walls with birds, ferns and a waterfall, the highest on Tenerife. It is a protected reserve, so entry is rationed and booking online in advance is compulsory.

The walk is 6.5 km there and back, about three hours, with around 250 m of climbing, rated low to medium difficulty. A helmet is mandatory (handed out at the meeting point), closed shoes are required and dogs aren't allowed. From 16 September to 31 May the gate opens from 8:30 to 11:30 and the park closes at 14:30. It's a popular path, not a wilderness, and how much water the fall carries depends on the weather. Go for the gorge, not for solitude.

Adeje was the capital of one of the island's Guanche kingdoms, the menceyato of Adeje, before the Spanish arrived, and the old town still sits four kilometers inland from the resorts that carry its name. Walk up to the Casa Fuerte, the "strong house", which dates from 1556, then to the church of Santa Úrsula and the former Franciscan convent.

Most visitors skip it because the beaches are ten minutes away, which is why it's calm. Have lunch here rather than on the beach strip, where the menus come in many languages: pick a bar full of locals and order papas arrugadas with mojo.

Short-finned pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins live off this coast all year, and the strip of sea from Buenavista to Arona is a protected conservation area because of the pilot whales. The tourism board says trips run on about eight days in ten and that the chance of seeing animals is almost certain. Boats also leave from Los Cristianos and Los Gigantes.

Choose the boat by its flag, not its price. A legal operator flies the Blue Boat flag and follows the rules: at least 60 m from the animals, no more than 30 minutes with a group, slow speed, no swimming with them, no feeding, no crowding. If a skipper chases the animals or sells swimming with whales, get off. The ministry lists boat traffic as a real pressure on the resident pilot whales, so a smaller boat and a skipper who backs away are worth more than a cheap ticket.

Costa Adeje's selling point is that its beaches form a chain, not a single bay. A promenade lined with shops and restaurants links the pale-sand beaches from La Pinta by Puerto Colón through Torviscas and Fañabé (600 m long, gentle waves, Blue Flag) to Playa del Duque, 390 m long, another Blue Flag beach in front of the big hotels. The water is calm behind breakwaters, which is what you pay for here. The island's natural beaches are black volcanic sand; the pale sand is something the resorts built.

Walk it in the evening with the sun low. Sunset is around 18:30 once the clocks go back on 25 October (about 19:30 before that). Swim first if the flags are green, then have a drink on the promenade.

La Caleta is a small coastal hamlet in Adeje, a short drive north of the main beaches. The tourism board lists La Vieja, a large seafood house with a terrace over the sea, as a place where the fresh fish is the point. That is the right order to give: fish of the day, grilled, with papas arrugadas and a green mojo.

Ask what the fish costs per kilo before they weigh it, and book a table: the house seats about 300, and it still fills on weekends.

Masca is a mountain village of about 90 people at 650 m in the Teno massif, at the head of a gorge that runs five kilometers to the sea. It's really four hamlets strung along the crests of the mountainside, an Asset of Cultural Interest, and the main square has an enormous Indian laurel and a small 18th-century hermitage. The road in, the TF-436, is narrow and parking is tiny, which is why the Cabildo now pushes visitors onto buses.

The easy plan: park at the cemetery car park in Santiago del Teide, walk ten minutes to the TITSA stop and take bus 355, a 20-minute ride. Spend an hour on the square and at the Cruz de Hilda and Cherfe viewpoints, and buy honey or onions if a shop is open.

The Masca gorge is the most famous walk on the island: about five kilometers downhill from 750 m to a rocky cove, four hours if all goes well. It is also where more rescues happen than anywhere else in the Canaries, as the trail's own site says, so you can't just turn up. You book a timed slot on the official site, show ID and arrive at the visitor center 30 minutes early. Descent slots run from 8:30 to 13:00, 25 people every half hour (50 at 9:00).

The rules matter. You must reach the start on TITSA bus 355 from Santiago del Teide, at the stop an hour before your slot, with proof you used it; private vehicles to the trailhead are not allowed. You must hold a boat ticket back to Los Gigantes before you walk. Closed hiking shoes, at least 1.5 liters of water, food and a charged phone are compulsory, and a helmet is lent. Children under 8 aren't allowed, and there's no swimming, drones or dogs. The booking page showed prices from 40.66 EUR for a non-resident adult in October 2026, with the boat and the bus separate. If the sea closes the jetty, you walk back up.

The Acantilados de Los Gigantes, the Giants' Cliffs, rise straight out of the Atlantic to between 500 and 800 m, and they are the reason a small resort of apartments and a single hotel exists here. The best view is from the water, on a whale boat or the end of the Masca trail, but there are three viewpoints in the village, and the main one is by the road toward Tamaimo.

The marina has concrete walls to calm the rough sea, a small black-sand beach beside it and a boulevard of restaurants. Walk it for twenty minutes, look up, and move on.

A kilometer south of the marina, Puerto de Santiago is a smaller, older dock village with the feel of a fishing village, as the tourism board puts it. In winter it's quiet. In summer it's the locals' favorite.

Eat what the island eats: the fish of the day grilled, papas arrugadas with red and green mojo, queso asado (grilled cheese) if there is one, and a glass of local wine.

Playa de la Arena is a black-sand beach with calm waves, and it has flown a Blue Flag for 27 years. The reason to be here in the evening is the sunset: the sun drops behind La Gomera, the next island west, and the black sand turns coppery. Sunset is around 18:30 after the clocks go back on 25 October. Bring a layer, and drive back to Costa Adeje afterwards (about half an hour) or have dinner in the village first.

Vilaflor is the highest village on Tenerife, at 1,400 m on the southern slope of Teide, with fewer than 2,000 people. It's where the island's first native saint, Peter of Saint Joseph Betancur, was born in 1626, and his sanctuary stands on the spot. Above the village the road climbs through pines to the national park, and the air turns noticeably cooler.

Stop for a coffee in the square and a look at the church of San Pedro. The Pino Gordo, a giant pine, and the "Lunar Landscape" of eroded rock are nearby if you want a detour.

The Roques de García are the postcard of the national park: a wall of eroded rock that once separated two calderas, with the Roque Cinchado, the distinctive freestanding pillar, at the front. They stand above the Llano de Ucanca, a flat plain of sediment, and the Parador sits at their foot. The loop is 3.5 km, about two hours, easy, and needs no authorization.

It starts at the La Ruleta lookout, runs along the base of the rocks (Roque Cinchado, El Torrotito, El Burro and the white Roques Blancos on your left), drops to the plain and passes the Cascada, a tongue of lava, and the Catedral rock. The elevation is 2,025 to 2,187 m, so the sun is strong and the air is thin. Bring a hat and water.

The Parador de Las Cañadas del Teide stands right below the Roques, and its restaurant serves Canarian food: puchero canario (a stew of meat and chickpeas), rabbit in salmorejo, papas arrugadas with mojo and fish from the islands. It's the easiest sit-down meal before the cable car, and the setting is the point: a table with a view of the rocks and half a day behind you.

For something quicker, the cable car's café at the base station serves sandwiches and barraquitos.

The cable car climbs from 2,356 m to La Rambleta at 3,555 m in under eight minutes. At the top you're usually above the cloud, with views of the whole island and, if the sky is clear, its neighbors. The stay at the upper station is limited to one hour, or two if you hold a summit permit, and the base station has a free exhibition on the volcano's last eruption and the Guanche legend of Guayota.

You buy a session online, and prices move with demand (a one-way ticket is about 24 EUR). From 25 October it runs from 9:00 to 17:00, with the last ascent at 16:00 and the last descent at 16:50. Wind, ice or technical problems stop it, and a delay of 90 minutes earns a refund. Closed, non-slip shoes are mandatory (no heels, sandals or flip-flops), and people with heart conditions, pregnant women and children under three aren't allowed.

The cable car stops 160 m short of the top. The summit, at 3,715 m the highest point in Spain, is reached on the Telesforo Bravo path (trail 10), and the path is closed to anyone without a permit, which the park guards check at the entrance. The cable car ticket does not include it.

How to get it: register and book on Tenerife ON, the Cabildo's platform. New slots open every Monday at 07:00 Canary time, up to four weeks ahead (the Cabildo's figure in January 2026), and they sell out fast. Since 19 January 2026 non-resident adults pay a 15 EUR eco-tax for daytime slots; Tenerife residents and under-14s are free. Slots are being cut to 90 minutes under a resolution announced on 14 October 2026, and must match your cable car time. The climb from La Rambleta takes 40 to 50 minutes.

No permit? The Roques and the lava fields don't need one, and the cable car's operator sells a guided summit tour with the permit included from around 178 EUR.

The road down the north side drops through pines into the Orotava valley, and Puerto de la Cruz turns up at the bottom. It was a port first and a tourist town second: visitors came for the climate and their health from the late 19th century, and the Grand Hotel Taoro was built for them.

The Plaza del Charco is the center: a square by the old fishing harbor with bars and benches. Order a zaperoco, the northern name for the barraquito, the layered coffee with condensed milk, liqueur, lemon peel and cinnamon, then find dinner in the streets behind.

The botanical garden in Puerto de la Cruz opened in 1788 and is among the oldest in Spain. Its official name is the Jardín de Aclimatación de La Orotava, and it's a quiet, shaded collection of large trees and palms. Go when it opens at 9:00 and it's small enough for an hour.

Ten minutes up the hill, La Orotava is the island's most stately town. The historic center was declared a protected ensemble in 1976, and it's steep, cobbled and full of carved wooden balconies. The Casa de los Balcones, built in 1632 and finished in 1675, is the best known, with a three-storey wooden facade and a leafy courtyard that doubles as a craft shop for the local needlework called calados.

Walk between the Plaza del Ayuntamiento, the church of La Concepción and the Hijuela del Botánico garden, then sit in the lounge of the Casa Lercaro for a barraquito. In June, for Corpus Christi, the streets and the main square are covered with carpets of flowers and volcanic earth.

A guachinche is a Canary tavern attached to a wine farm: the family sells its young wine with home cooking, often in a room or garage of the house. The tradition began when growers sold wine directly to British buyers and later to locals, and it's strongest around La Orotava and Los Realejos. Diners come for the wine and the food, not the service.

Expect rabbit in salmorejo, chickpea stew with smoked meat, pork ribs with potatoes and corn on the cob, and potatoes with mojo. Guachinches usually open from October to April, after the harvest, and close when the wine runs out.

The Drago Milenario is the largest and oldest dragon tree (Dracaena draco) on the island, about 20 m tall with a trunk circumference of around 20 m and more than 300 branches. It was declared a national monument in 1917 and appeared on the 1,000 peseta note. Its age is disputed: "a thousand years" is the legend, and estimates range from 350 to 1,000 years.

You can see it free from the town square, or pay for the garden around it. The alternative is the Cueva del Viento, a lava tube 17 km long, the largest in Europe, formed about 27,000 years ago by Pico Viejo. Tours are guided and booked in advance, so it replaces a stop rather than adding one.

In the 16th and 17th centuries Garachico was the island's main port, shipping wine and sugar to Europe and the Americas. On 5 May 1706 the Trevejo volcano erupted and sent lava into the harbor, burying most of it and ending the town's trade. The old story that everything was wiped out except the church is a tourist myth: the town was partly destroyed and carried on, and the Castillo de San Miguel, which guarded the bay, came through undamaged. It's now a heritage information center.

Walk the center, see the castle and look at the Roque de Garachico, a rock islet just offshore. Spain gave the town a Gold Medal of Fine Arts in 1980.

After the history, swim. El Caletón is a set of natural pools in the lava rock beside the castle, where the ocean refills the basins with fresh seawater. The pools are sheltered, but the sea beyond them isn't, so stay inside the lava walls and check the sea state before you get in.

Playa Jardín is the black-sand beach of Puerto de la Cruz, designed by the artist César Manrique, with palm gardens, waterfalls and rocky caves around it. The beaches (Jardín, Chica and Punta Brava) have breakwaters so you can swim, but the waves beyond them get fierce, so stay inside.

It's 240 m long and 40 m wide, next to Loro Parque, and it's the right end to a day in the north: after the valley and the lava coast, a calm swim at the Atlantic's edge.

The Anaga massif, in the north-east, is the oldest part of the island, formed 7 to 9 million years ago, and a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve since 2015. It holds the highest concentration of endemic species in Europe. Cruz del Carmen is its gateway: a visitor center, a viewpoint and the start of several trails.

Walk the Sendero de los Sentidos, the Path of the Senses, first: a short self-guided stroll through the laurisilva, a "fossil forest" left from humid forests that covered much of the planet 50 to 20 million years ago. It survives only where cloud keeps it damp. Go slowly, smell the wet earth and expect mist, not views. The visitor center is free and open daily from 9:30 to 16:00 from October to June, with an exhibition and trail advice. Stay on marked trails and take your litter home.

From Cruz del Carmen the road drops to Taganana on the Atlantic side. The village was founded in 1501, one of the oldest on the island, and for much of the 19th century it was a municipality of its own. Its church of Our Lady of the Snows holds a notable collection of art, and the valley it sits in is closed in by the mountains on one side and the sea on the other.

The coast road continues to the black-sand beaches: Roque de las Bodegas, Almáciga and Benijo, the most remote, reached by a path of steps with views of the Roques de Anaga. The currents here are strong and big waves arrive without warning, so look more than you swim.

The Roque de las Bodegas beach is 380 m of shingle, pebbles and black sand, with restaurants that have set up to serve fresh fish. The tourism board's advice is the right order: swim if the flags allow, then eat papas arrugadas with spicy mojo and the fresh local fish.

This is the most family-friendly beach in Taganana, but even here the current is often strong.

Las Teresitas, at San Andrés, is the pale-sand beach of Santa Cruz, and an honest example of what Tenerife does to sand. The original beach was volcanic black sand. In the 1970s it was rebuilt with sand from the Sahara, behind a breakwater roughly a kilometer long. The result is a palm-lined beach with calm, warm water.

The sand ends in an artificial step a short way out, and there are large rocks underwater, so swim with care and watch children. It's a local beach of families and snack bars, and it sums up the island: black sand where nature made it, pale where people did.

Santa Cruz began on 3 May 1494, when Castilian troops landed on the beach and built a camp that became the capital. In 1797 Horatio Nelson tried to storm the harbor and lost his right arm. Today it's a working port city with a good waterfront: the white sail of the Auditorio, designed by Santiago Calatrava and finished in 2003, the Plaza de España with its big fountain and the TEA arts center (2008).

The market, La Recova, a neocolonial hall that opened in 1944, is open daily until 14:30, so you'll miss it today. For a barraquito, try the Bar Imperial, said to be where the drink was born. Carnival is why people come in February: for 2027 the street party runs from 19 to 28 February.

La Laguna was founded in 1496-97 by Alonso Fernández de Lugo and was the capital of Tenerife until 1723. Its historic center, a grid of pedestrian streets with colonial houses, courtyards and churches, became a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 2 December 1999 because its plan was a model for the cities of Latin America. It has a university founded in 1701, a cathedral with a neoclassical facade from 1819 and an easy, student feel.

Walk the Plaza del Adelantado, the cathedral and the Concepción church, the first parish on the island, then have dinner in the old town: the bars here have no entrance fees and better value than the south's. The Palacio Lercaro houses the museum of Tenerife's history, and its ghost story is told with enthusiasm.