Teide National Park

Teide National Park occupies the roof of the island: a vast collapsed crater floor at around 2,000 metres with the volcano itself rising from it to 3,715 metres…Teide National Park occupies the roof of the island: a vast collapsed crater floor at around 2,000 metres with the volcano itself rising from it to 3,715 metres, the highest point in Spain. It has been a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2007 and it is the most visited national park in the country.

The landscape inside it is genuinely unlike anywhere else in Europe. Lava fields, obsidian flows, pumice plains and eroded rock towers, almost no vegetation, and an extraordinary quality of light. Four roads climb to it, from the north through the Orotava valley, from the northeast along the ridge, from the south through the pine forest and from the west, and driving up one and down another is the standard way to see it.

A cable car runs from the south side of the crater floor to 3,555 metres in about eight minutes. Reaching the actual summit above the top station requires a free permit booked well in advance and issued for a fixed time slot, which is the single thing most visitors do not know until they arrive.

Two practical warnings. It is cold and often windy at altitude even when the coast is warm, so take layers regardless of the forecast. And the thin air is real: allow time, do not rush uphill, and the cable car is not for anyone with heart or breathing problems.