Hiking in Tenerife: Best Routes on the Island

In Tenerife, you can find several amounts of paths that lead you to amazing landscapes to enjoy. With stuff such as rocky formations, numerous vegetation, exotic animal species and much more!

As we have already written a post about trekking on the island, it is important to note that the hiking routes are not the same in Tenerife. These activities have some essential differences.

Here we tell you everything about hiking routes on the island so you can see Tenerife from another point of view.

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What’s the difference between hiking and trekking?

In order to clear this up quickly, trekking consists in walking on paths that are more difficult than hiking. They demand more physical effort and you can go through places without a defined route. Different to hiking which is way easier than it.

Best hiking routes on the island

Tenerife has a lot of mountainous formations and paths to go through. Here we give you a list of the five most popular ones.

Of course, some tours are harder than others but, in general terms, they aren’t too a low difficult.

Hiking in Teide Mountain

Teide Hiking Route

You can access an extense hiking network from Teide National Park, which makes it easier to access some points of interest on the island.

There are lots of guided routes organized by organizations with years of experience and helped by authorities on the island. A completely different experience to meeting Tenerife. It’s important to mention that some of them are auto guided paths, while in others some guidance is necessary.

Some of the routes you can do are:

  • Risco Verde (2 hours approximately)
  • Arenas Negras (approximately 3 hours)
  • Majua Mountain (6 kilometres in total)
  • Roques de Garcia (2 hours and a half)
  • Others

In this mountain, you can find a varied ecosystem where you can see exotic animal species and big flora diversity. If you reach the top of the mountain (that can just be done with a guided tour called Teide By Night), you’ll see the entire island. Well, it is the highest peak in the whole of Spain.

Rambla de Castro Walking

Rambla de Castro is an easy path worth being done in Tenerife with the whole family, which is located between Los Roques beach and the San Pedro viewpoint. There you will see incredible verges that go along the way with a big flora diversity.

This route can be done in various ways that can make it much longer or shorter. The path that we propose here is approximately 4.5 kilometres in total, in a path that while you advance more you discover varied vegetation with species such as:

  • Cardones
  • Tabaibas
  • Dragos
  • Palm Trees
  • Much more

However, probably the most impressive views you’ll have in Rambla de Castro are direct to the ocean, which extends during the whole path.

As an important fact about it, Rambla de Castro has a lot of history on the island, well, there you can find historical edification such as:

  • San Fernando Fort
  • Castro’s House
  • San Pedro Hermitage
  • Gordejuela Water Elevator

Masca Valley

Masca Valley Hiking Tenerife

This hiking route is located in the South of Tenerife. It’s the most famous and also the most hiked route on the island. In fact, there are a lot of tourists that tend to do it to reach Los Gigantes and from that point start a kayak trip to have a complete experience.

It lasts between 3-4 hours in a route that you go through the Gorge of Masca to start realizing that you’re surrounded by big stone walls. You can also see creeks originated from melted water from Teide.

You’ll see an incredible landscape from the top and as you go descending various vegetable species are getting discovered. Once you reach Los Gigantes, is common to go for a swim or as explained above, do a touristic tour.

To get to this place by bus, you have to take the 363 route from Puerto de la Cruz to Buena Vista del Norte and once you’re there, take the 355 route to Masca.

By car is probably a little harder because it’s recommended to park at Santiago del Teide and from there take the 355 bus to Masca. Then, come back, taking the 325 bus from Los Gigantes to Santiago del Teide.

Barranco del Rio Route

This route has a total length of 5 hours (2,5 hours start and come back). It is considered as an intermediate difficulty path where you’ll see dry desert look-alike zones, green spots and even the Barranco del Rio Waterfall. It is a diversified route on the island when it comes down to flora and fauna species.

Hiking in Anaga Mountains

Walking in Anaga Mountains

Going through Anaga Forest you have many trails where you’ll discover unique landscapes and views of the entire island. In fact, there’s not just one route that can be done from Anaga Mountains, but a lot. We can recommend you these two:

  • From Cruz del Carmen, passing Chinamada to Punta del Hidalgo: This route has an approximate extension of 10 kilometres (better for those people with more physical resistance), and it has an optimum climate condition with incredible vegetation and various rocky formations.
  • From Cruz del Carmen to Punta de Hidalgo through Canal de Bejia: This path is longer than the other (12.7 km) and has an approximate length of 6-7 hours. There you’ll pass through natural tunnels and walk-in old water canals finding at the top an incredible rocky formation.

These big mountainous formations have peaks where you’ll have incredible views of Tenerife, in an unforgettable experience.

We hope you visit at least one of these routes and admire Tenerife’s beauty from a mountain’s peak.

For People Looking for a More Relaxing Experience.

Tenerife Sailing Charters offers boat trips where you can see whales, and dolphins and possibly swim with turtles. Apart from this, you will see Teide and other coastal landscapes.

The charter starts at just 65 Euros per person, with a maximum amount of 11 passengers. The excursion lasts approximately 3 hours.

Our contact information is the following:

Definitely, swimming with turtles in Tenerife and visiting the whales and dolphins is an experience worth to be done. Without any dudes.

We really recommend you do this trip even with kids because is completely sure and is a trip that fits all the family.

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