Tenerife Hiking

Tenerife walks better than its reputation suggests, because the altitude gives it several completely different landscapes within a short drive. Anaga in the northeast is the best of it: a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve of laurel forest on knife-edge ridges, wet, green and often in cloud, with a dense network of old paths between villages.

Teide National Park is the opposite, dry and open at 2,000 metres and above, with marked trails across the crater floor. Reaching the actual summit needs a free permit booked well in advance. The west has the ravine walks, and the whole island is walkable through the winter, which is when the north is at its greenest.