Places to see in Tenerife

1. Volcano Teide

   The most important place to see in Tenerife is probably the volcano. It’s the highlight in the middle of the island with more than 3700 metres height, surrounded by the large National Park that starts at about 2000 metres and ends at a height of 3000 metres where you can also find the cable car for getting up to the mountain station of the Teide. The National Park offers an incredible large variety of different landscapes – you will find white/yellow sand, green parts, different plants (some of them only existing at the Canary Islands), red hills and a lot of other zones that don’t look like the one you have crossed before. For me it was quite fascinating to cross that national park by car for the first time as it looks kind of like a landscape on the moon and you feel like crossing a lot of countries during a time of only 30 minutes.

   

   The best possibility to reach the Teide (and the National Park, of course) is by car, as it is quite far from every part of the island – the volcano is right in the middle of the island I would say. When you have a car you just follow the signs that say “Canadas del Teide” which is the official name for the area of the National Park around the volcano. These signs start at sea level in the touristic areas already and you won’t have problems to find it. But you have to consider that the signs tell you 50-60 km distance but in the end you will need about 1, 5 – 2, 5 hours to arrive as the street has to bring you up 3000 metres and you have to drive along a curvy street through the mountains and forests. It’s quite fascinating to see the landscape changing from the sea (beach, palmtrees) through the forests with pine trees until the National Park with its variety of sand and exotic plants. You can park your car right next to the cable car station and enter the ticket office in order to buy tickets to get up to the 3500 metres station and enjoy the amazing view. It is possible that the cable car is closed because of bad weather conditions – they decide that every day by itself, so if you want to be sure you should like the Facebook Page of the cable car where they publish any closings and changings in the opening hours etc. Don’t rely on the weather in the city you stay, as it can be totally different up there – when I had gone with my Dad it was incredibly cloudy in Puerto de la Cruz but at Teide in the National Park it was sunny and all the clouds had stayed below us.

   

   It might also take some time until you get your ticket as all the tourists want to see the incredible landscape from up there and the ticket office tends to be crowded. I have heard from people that had to wait more than two hours until they had been able to enter the cable car. You might save some time already by buying tickets in a tourist agency or in the internet before, but you still have to wait for entering the cable car. When we had gone there the weather had been bad in Puerto de la Cruz, so there weren’t too many tourists waiting when we had gone there – we waited for about 40 minutes. But even if you have to wait for 2 hours – it’s totally worth it. I can’t describe the whole atmosphere but if you arrive up there at 3500 metres (for getting to the top to 3700 metres you need a special permission and you have to hike) you feel a bit like the king of the world – you can see (if the weather is good and there are no clouds) all the other islands that surround Tenerife and most of the landscape and nature of Tenerife below you. It’s impressing, and even if it’s a bit harder to move because of the lack of oxygen up there, you will love walking around. There are two hiking paths for everybody in order to surround the volcano a bit and a third hiking path for the ones that have the permission to get to the top.

   If you don’t want to rent a car you can also take part in a touristic excursion in order to get there – but the problem about that is that you are quite inflexible and that most of the excursions are only going to the National Park and they tell you that they don’t guarantee that you will be able to get up to the top – they give you 2 hours of time and if you already have to wait the 2 hours for getting into the cable car it’s not possible to get up, or you have to get home by your own. So because of that I would recommend to use excursions like that maybe to see the National Park itself but not to get up to the top.

   The third possibility to reach the cable car station or the national park is to go there by public transportation – there is one bus line that brings you up to the Canadas del Teide. But as I have never used it I don’t know exactly how long it takes and how often it goes there. It’s at least one last possibility if you want to save some money. Of course, you can also go by taxi but it’s incredibly expensive because it’s kind of a “private excursion” and it’s far. Furthermore, the drive would have to wait until you come down again and you would have to pay that, too.

2. Anaga Mountains

   Another beautiful destination for some Sightseeing in Tenerife that is close to nature is the Rural National Park of the Anaga Mountains. It’s situated in the east of the island, almost next to the capital Santa Cruz. Similar to the Teide National Park it’s a hotspot for hiking and nature lovers, but you can also enjoy it if you don’t like hiking (as me for example). There are no special touristic excursions to the Anaga Mountains that I would recommend as they are very very superficial, so you really need to rent a car in order to explore it. By car you just have to go to the highway in direction of Santa Cruz and leave the road when the large “Anaga” sign tells you to. In regard to that I have to admit that I only know the way to the attractions from the North of the island – for the south you might have to inform yourselves, but I am sure that it’s not too complicated. When you have left the highway the exhausting part for the car driver starts: the roads through the Anaga Mountains are even more curvy than the way to Teide National Park and you have to pay attention to all the large touristic buses that need a lot of space and don’t always pay attention. I didn’t drive when we visited that place, so I don’t know if it’s really that exhausting, but for me it was already hard to only sit in the car.

   

   When you have left the highway, just follow the Anaga signs. There is only one road that leads you through the mountains and you can’t miss anything. You will find many photo stops and panorama stations where you can park the car end walk on specially constructed platforms in order to enjoy the panoramic view over the valley, Santa Cruz and the forest – the view depends on the direction of the platform. It’s fascinating to see the almost untouched nature and the clouds hanging in there (just look at the pictures, there is no need to describe it). When you get further into the mountains you can stop at the visitor centre of the Anaga Mountains where they have created a “knowledge and information centre” with some interesting facts about the laurel plants and the forest itself. There are also some hiking and experience paths where you can get to know the atmosphere in the laurel forest, enjoy the aroma and the silence by walking around. Even if there are incredible many tourists it’s really surprisingly silent in there and a very special atmosphere. But as I don’t like hiking so much we had just stopped there, been to one of those paths for some time, but we have not entered into the forest any deeper.

   

   When you have a lot of time and plan to be in the Anaga Mountains the whole day I would totally recommend you to continue the road through the Mountains until Taganana. Taganana is a small city at sea level about 30 minutes in the east of Santa Cruz. You reach it almost automatically when you don’t turn around at the road at some point and just continue driving. Even if the way up and later down is very curvy (I felt really dizzy after a while) you have amazing views over small villages in the mountains with farms and totally abandoned from any high-tech or something like that. When you arrive at Taganana you will find some nice restaurants that offer daily fresh seafood and other typical Canarian dishes that taste even better right next to the sea. You also have a small beach to relax a bit and enjoy the waves and the sunshine. The third aspect I loved about Taganana was the panoramic view. Behind yourself you find the Anaga Mountains that create a great atmosphere, and in front of you you see a quite famous rock formation in the sea that looks simply beautiful.

   The disadvantage of that place is that you have to get back up the mountain once in order to get back to Santa Cruz. It’s not as far as the way you had already gone to arrive at Taganana, but it’s still annoying and exhausting to get back up the curvy street. The positive aspect is that after only 30 minutes you will arrive Santa Cruz and be able to get back via highway and finish your trip through the Anaga Mountains.

3. Los Gigantes

   

   Los Gigantes is a small village in the West of Tenerife that is quite famous among tourists as it offers an amazing panoramic view at the sea and at the rock formation that is also called Los Gigantes most of the time. Even if the place is very small and you cannot really call it touristic village, there are a lot of holiday appartments nearby as the nature and the atmosphere is simply gorgeous over there. Wherever you walk - you can see down the coastline, see the sea and have incredible hiking paths for exploring even more nature. I have never been there, but I know many people who have.

   As always, you have several possibilities to arrive at Los Gigantes. You can go there by your rental car which will take you some time, at least from the North, because the Highway doesn't go around the whole island. So for arriving at Los Gigantes in the West you have to surround 3/4 of the island and cross the south before you get there. Another possibility is the route through the Teide National Park, but it takes you at least the same time to drive, as the streets are quite curvy and you have to drive slowly. When you want to get there in a more relaxing way, you better pay for a touristic excursion, there are several different Tenerife Island Tours that surround either the whole island, or have different important stops at nice places. I am sure that there is also one that is only going to Los Gigantes, but as it's a small village it might be a good possibility to see some other famous places of the island the same day. There is also a public transportation bus that brings you to Los Gigantes without problems, but it stops at every village on the way, so it might take you the whole day to get there and return again. But if you want to save money, the bus is the perfect solution for you.

   

   At Los Gigantes you find a small village and also a harbour that offers a large variety of water sports. You can rent a boat with some friends if you want to spend some hours at the sea and enjoy the sun and the sea right next to you. If you are more the nature person you can also get on a cheap boat and observe dolphins and some small wales when you are lucky. If you really want to see them I totally recommend you that solution, as the touristic boats starting at the harbour Los Christianos in the South of the island are crowded and disturb the animals in their natural habitat. The small boats at Los Gigantes are cheaper and more friendly to the animals, furthermore you have a much better possibility to see the animals and don't have to fight agains 120 other people that are trying to take a good picture when finally one animal appears for some minutes. I have been to such a touristic boat and even if my Vietnamese friend and I had really tried to enjoy it we hadn't been so lucky and had a lot of problems seeing anything as there were simply too many people on the boat.

   With a boat you can also go next to the impressing large rock formation right next to the village's coast and enjoy it from near. You can stay there for a while and jump into the water to cool down or just stop the boat in order to do some sunbathing - it's a wonderful relaxing atmosphere over there and you feel very close to the nature. I had never felt so connected to and fascinated by nature than during my 6 months at Tenerife, because you have simply everything: a volcano, a national park with 6 or 7 different landscapes, forests, beach, sea, coastline, mountains etc. It's an island for everyone.

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