After a good two weeks on Gran Canaria, it was time to move to another island! In total, the Canaries have 8 islands: La Gomera, El Hierro, La Graciosa, Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura, La Palma, Lanzarote, and Tenerife. Wow! Some similarities to the Azores here… the difference being that ten times more people live on the Canaries than the Azores, totaling over 2 million!
The island with the most people is Tenerife, yes just like my favorite song by Ed Sheeran, Tenerife Sea. I came to Tenerife with no plans and no research, just booked a night at the seemingly best hostel on the island and that was a lucky, lucky decision. I highly recommend you stay at one of the 4 Tenerife Nest hostels— I stayed 3 nights at Puerto Nest in Puerto de La Cruz, but they have other hostels and offer a weekly discount where you can bounce between all their properties. The bus system on Tenerife is probably the most organized I have ever been on. Not the cheapest, but you can save a lot by buying a 24 hour TITSA pass that gives you unlimited rides, either 10 euro for the day or 50 for the week.
The reason I lucked out so much with this nest hostel was that every Friday night/ early Saturday morning, the owner leads a group hike to the top of Teide, the volcano and landmark of the island which also happens to be the highest point in Spain! My whole time leading up to Tenerife I was trying to figure out how I could summit Teide but it seemed impossible (or super costly) based on the Internet options, and a traditional permit you need to apply 3 months in advance. The catch is that if you pass the ranger office before 9 AM, you can summit without a permit, and thus we did a guided night hike up Teide for just 45 euros! I can’t emphasize how sweet that is— just the road to the trailhead takes an hour of windy roads in the middle of the night, and I was just in the right place at the right time.
Look at the incredible chocolate + energy drink combo the guide gave us-- just my style ;)
The hike was much harder than I expected (mostly because the owner didn’t really tell us what to expect haha, probably for good reason). With a 11:30 PM departure from the hostel and 1:30 AM start for the hike, it was more or less a sleepless night. I finally pulled out all the layers in my suitcase for the zero celsius temperatures, and the stars were the most beautiful and best I’ve seen in my life. One of the darkest night skies in the world is here, with an adjacent observatory for scientists to watch the night sky. At 4:30 AM, I reached the Refuge hut which typically would be a place that hikers can camp out, but has been closed since COVID. Instead, there was a secret, open door to a smaller cottage that we could crash on empty bunk beds and the floor for a little nap. Of course, by the time I got there, the room was maxxed out and we made an illegal fire on Teide at 5 AM, the only way to keep ourselves from freezing. We took shifts napping inside, on a bed frame with no mattress, just waiting for the call to start summit timing with the sunrise.
At 5:30 AM we started hiking again and started feeling the altitude, arriving perfectly at first light to watch an entire hour of the sunrise. I will say right here that I found it more stunning than the peak of Kilimanjaro! From the 360 views, seeing the lush island below, seeing 3 adjacent Canary Islands, and watching the largest shadow over the sea in the world, I was speechless. Not to mention the active volcano has warm, emitting steam in places that add a sulfuric touch and even burned the bums of some of our pants! It was also amazing because everyone on the trek was a different nationality, all convening at what really felt like the top of the world. The hike down was brutal and hot and endless and took another 5 hours, and I am gonna stop there before I taint the magical experience. Needless to say, I passed out and took two days to recover from the 12000 ft altitude, sleeplessness, and 20km distance.
While this was by far the highlight of Tenerife, I did enjoy other parts of the island as well, thanks to the frequency and expansiveness of the bus system! I got to explore the cities of La Laguna, Santa Cruz, Puerto de La Cruz, and Playa de Las Americas. I had a fun sesh surfing the reef at Playa de Las Americas. Definitely busy waters, but nothing like Puerto Escondido-- the worst of all time… I decided to leave my surfboard on Gran Canaria so I just rented a fun board for a couple hours and loved it!
I also got to hike a little bit on the furthest north bus stop, Igueste, and hiked through Anaga National Park which has a bunch of pretty greenery and good views! I checked out Los Gigantes, some massive cliffs with an unfortunately extremely touristy + English expat vibe. The whole south side of Tenerife would probably not interest most of my outdoorsy, traveler friends, but it can have some of the more accessible surf spots. It is much drier in the south and has fewer hikes. For this reason, I was staying more on the north end which is a little more local and less of a holiday spot.
Mirador Cruz del Carmen, Anaga Forest, and a fun run near my hostel!
Overall, Tenerife was just perfect for me in 5 days. With one more day, I would've checked out the mountain town of Masca which is at the top of most people's itineraries, but harder without a car. The prices aren't the cheapest, but the views are awesome and would definitely recommend this island for a short visit! Hasta luego....
