Parque Nacional del Teide
4,8 en Google · 40.326 opiniones · ver en Google Maps
This rating comes from Google Maps and we do not verify it: it does not come from bookings made on this site.
Teide National Park is not just a 3,715-metre mountain: it is the inside of a giant volcano that collapsed, which is why the first thing you see on arriving is not the peak but a sixteen-kilometre amphitheatre ringed by walls. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2007 and is one of the most visited national parks in Europe.
What Las Cañadas is
The road climbs from the coast through pine forest until, all at once, the trees stop and you enter a vast plain closed off by a wall of rock. That is the Las Cañadas caldera: what was left when the earlier volcanic edifice fell in. Teide and Pico Viejo grew afterwards, inside the hollow, which means the mountain at the far end is literally standing on the ruins of another one.
The ground changes colour every few kilometres — black, ochre, white, red — because the lava that made it changes. The most recent flows are obvious at a glance: they are the ones with nothing growing on them yet. Vegetation is sparse but strange: the red tajinaste, which flowers in spring on spikes two or three metres tall, and the Teide violet, which grows higher than any other flowering plant in Spain.
It was declared a national park in 1954, and UNESCO added it to the World Heritage list in 2007 as a natural site. There are no villages inside: only the road, the parador, the visitor centre and the trails.
What to see
The Roques de García are the compulsory stop and the most reproduced postcard in the Canaries: a cluster of rock spires in the middle of the plain, with Teide behind and the Ucanca plain on the other side. The loop trail around them takes a long couple of hours, with one descent that is the only demanding stretch.
The cable car climbs to La Rambleta at 3,555 metres, and two short viewpoint trails start there that need no permit. Standing on the crater does: it is free, capped daily and requested weeks ahead.
At night the park becomes something else. The altitude leaves the sea of clouds and much of the humidity below, and Canary law restricts light across the island, so the stars come out with a clarity that is hard to find in Europe. Licensed companies run stargazing sessions inside the park.
Before you go
- Climbing to the crater needs a free permit, separate from the cable-car ticket. It is requested on the Spanish National Parks booking site and the quota runs out weeks ahead.
- It is fifteen to twenty degrees colder than the coast, and almost always windy up top. Plenty of people go up in short sleeves and regret it.
- There is no fountain and no shop between the visitor centre and the trails: bring water up with you.
- The road can close for snow in winter, and the cable car closes for wind several days a month. Check conditions on the day.
- Leaving the marked trails and taking stones away are both prohibited. It is a national park and it is patrolled.
Where it is
38300 La Orotava, Santa Cruz de Tenerife
La Orotava · 38300
Opening hours
- lunes, Cerrado
- martes, 09:00–14:0015:30–18:00
- miércoles, 09:00–14:0015:30–18:00
- jueves, 09:00–14:0015:30–18:00
- viernes, 09:00–14:0015:30–18:00
- sábado, 09:00–14:0015:30–18:00
- domingo, 09:00–14:0015:30–18:00
According to Google Maps on 30 de agosto de 2026. It may have changed.
Classification
Hiking · «zona de senderismo»
Deducida de la etiqueta de Google.