Teide National Park Road (70 km)
La Orotava to Vilaflor
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Why this ride
70 km one way from La Orotava - plan on about 1 h 12 of riding. It goes by way of El Portillo, Teide cable car and Boca Tauce. The highest point is about 1,150 m. It suits an unhurried touring pace.
Roadbook
- La Orotava
start
La Orotava is a town of balconies. The old streets of this hillside town on the north side of Tenerife are lined with seventeenth- and eighteenth-century houses, their wooden balconies carved from the dark local pine and often draped in flowers, and the best known, the Casa de los Balcones, shows a courtyard full of carved timber and plants. The cobbled streets are steep, so wear shoes you can walk in, and the church of La Concepción, with its twin baroque towers, dominates the skyline. Every June, for Corpus Christi, the streets are covered with intricate carpets made of coloured sand and flower petals, and the whole town turns out to see them.
The valley below is the Orotava Valley, a wide green amphitheatre sloping to the sea, planted with bananas, vines and gardens. When Alexander von Humboldt visited in 1799, on his way to South America, he called it one of the most beautiful views in the world, and a viewpoint is named after him. Behind the town, the mountain rises in a long, steady curve to Teide, a volcano of 3,715 metres, the highest peak in Spain, which stands white-capped in winter above the clouds. Puerto de la Cruz, a lively resort town, is just a few kilometres down the hill.
The ride up the TF-21 into Teide National Park starts here, and it is a climb in three acts. First comes the banana plantation and the villages, then a belt of cloud forest and Canary pine, in which the air is damp, the light is green and the road snakes in tight bends, then a sudden exit above the clouds into a bare volcanic desert of orange and black rock. The change from lush to lunar is dramatic. The park is a UNESCO site, and the road across the Las Cañadas crater is beautiful and often windy.
The temperature drops steadily as you climb, and it can be near freezing at the top even when La Orotava is warm, so carry a jacket and gloves. Snow and ice can close the road in winter. There is fuel in La Orotava and Puerto de la Cruz, and none in the park, so fill the tank before you leave. In the morning the clouds often lie at about a thousand metres, and riding above them is like being on an island in a white sea. Come early, because the tour buses arrive by mid-morning.
- El Portillo
scenic
El Portillo is a gap in a wall, which is what the name means in Spanish, and the wall is the rim of an enormous collapsed volcano. The road climbs from La Orotava through a belt of Canary pine forest to this pass at around two thousand metres, and then the trees thin out, the ground turns to pumice and ash, and the whole of Las Cañadas del Teide opens up in front of you: a vast caldera with the cone of Teide rising from it. It is one of the more abrupt changes of scene on any road in Europe.
Teide, at 3,715 metres, is the highest mountain in Spain and the third-highest volcanic structure on Earth when measured from the sea floor. The Guanches, the original inhabitants of Tenerife, believed it was the home of Guayota, a demon who pulled the sun from the sky, and they considered it sacred. The national park here, a UNESCO World Heritage Site, covers a landscape of lava flows, pumice fields and strange rock formations, with a flora of its own, including the Teide viper's bugloss, a tall spike of red flowers that blooms in late spring. The visitor centre at El Portillo has exhibits and a small botanic garden.
The ride from the north is the best way in. The road from La Orotava climbs steadily through pine forest in broad bends, then reaches a long straight over the pass, with the volcano ahead. It continues across the caldera floor through a landscape that looks like another planet, with colours ranging from black and red to yellow and white. The surface is excellent, the road is wide, and the traffic is steady. Wind and cold at this altitude are real: temperatures can drop below freezing at night even in summer, and snow closes the road occasionally in winter. Cloud often lies below the pass, and the transition from the grey sea of cloud to the clear blue sky above is dramatic.
Fill the tank in La Orotava or Los Realejos before you start, because the next reliable stations are on the other side of the island. A café and small restaurant at the pass serves hot food, and a few picnic areas are scattered through the pine forest below.
Go early, since the afternoon cloud often rises and hides the cone.
- Teide cable car
scenic
The cable car lifts you from 2,356 metres to 3,555 metres in about eight minutes, which is a very short time to change planet. At the lower station, the air is clear and cold, and the ground is a mass of dark lava and pale pumice. At the top, in thin air and a sharper wind, you are almost at the summit of Teide and standing above the clouds, with a view that on a clear day takes in the other Canary Islands floating on the sea. The car holds a few dozen people and runs back and forth through the day, weather permitting.
Practical points matter here. Tickets are in demand and queues can be long, so booking in advance online is wise, particularly in high season. The cable car may be suspended without notice if wind is strong, and the altitude can cause headaches or breathlessness, especially if you have come straight from the coast, so go gently and drink water. Walking from the top station to the actual summit, a further stretch of about two hundred metres of ascent, requires a free permit from the park authority, which is limited in number and must be arranged ahead of time.
The road to the base station, the TF-21, crosses Las Cañadas, the high plateau inside the old caldera, and it is one of the most spectacular drives in Spain. It passes the Roques de García, a cluster of weathered rock towers beside a flat plain of ash, and the Parador, the only hotel inside the park, set against the cone. The surface is smooth, the bends are long and open, and the air smells of resin and dust. In winter, snow may close sections of the road, and ice can form on shaded corners.
The nearest villages are Vilaflor, on the south side, which has a few services, and La Orotava or Los Realejos on the north, which have everything you need. Fill up before you go, as the climb uses more fuel than you expect. A café at the lower station serves coffee and snacks, but prices are high, and it is worth bringing water.
A midweek morning offers the best chance of clear skies and short queues.
- Boca Tauce
scenic
Boca Tauce is where the south road into Teide National Park meets the one that cuts across the caldera, a junction sitting a little over two thousand metres up on Tenerife's volcanic spine. There is no village, just tarmac, pale pumice, and the rust-coloured Roques de García standing off to the east like a row of melted candles. The mountain itself, Teide, rises behind them to 3,718 metres, the highest point in Spain, and on a clear morning it looks close enough to hit with a thrown helmet.
The ride up is a slow education in how a landscape changes. From Vilaflor the TF-21 climbs through Canary pine forest, long-needled trees that survive fire by sprouting from the bark, and then the trees give out and you are in a different planet. The surface is generally good, the corners open and rhythmic rather than tight, and the air thins enough that the bike feels a touch lazier on the straights. Weekends bring coaches and rental cars crawling to the viewpoints, so go early or late. In winter this is a genuine mountain: snow and ice can close or slow the road, and it is properly cold when the coast below is in T-shirt weather. Dress for the altitude, not the beach.
The ground here is the floor of Las Cañadas, a vast collapsed caldera ringed by cliffs, with Teide built up inside it by later eruptions. Black lava fields, stands of golden retama broom that flower in late spring, and a silence that carries. The Guanches, Tenerife's original inhabitants, considered the mountain a place where the devil lived, and standing among the lava you can see why. The park is a UNESCO World Heritage Site, and the lack of light pollution makes the night sky famously clear.
Plan fuel before you climb. There is nothing in the park, and Vilaflor is small, so the safer move is to fill up in Guía de Isora or Adeje on the way. Water, coffee and a basic lunch can be had at the Parador and the visitor facilities a few kilometres along, at tourist prices. Come down the same way you came or follow the TF-38 towards Santiago del Teide, a quieter descent with views toward La Gomera on a good day.
- Vilaflor
finish
Vilaflor lies on the southern slope of Tenerife at about 1,400 metres, and it is generally described as the highest village in Spain. The air up here is cool and thin, and the landscape is a mix of terraced fields, almond and pear trees, and the dark, scented forest of Canary pine that cloaks the mountain above. Below, the land falls away in long folds to a sea that is often hidden by a layer of cloud. It is a small, whitewashed place of just under two thousand people, with a church, a plaza and a long reputation for garlic.
The village is also associated with Saint Peter Claver, a Jesuit missionary born in Catalonia who spent his life working among enslaved Africans in Colombia, and who is said to have lived in Vilaflor early in his career. A statue stands in the square. Above the village, the road climbs into the Teide National Park, where the great volcano Mount Teide, at about 3,700 metres the highest peak in Spain, dominates a lunar landscape of lava fields, pumice and rock pinnacles. The Roques de García, a cluster of bizarre rock formations, stand beside the road and are a classic photo stop.
The riding on the Teide road is superb. It climbs in long, graceful bends through the pine forest, past viewpoints over the clouds, and then emerges onto an open plateau, with the volcano's bulk filling the sky. Air thins, engine power drops, and the temperature can fall by fifteen degrees compared with the coast. In winter, snow can close the road, and fog and strong winds are common. In summer, the road is busy with tourist buses, so early morning is best.
There are a couple of simple restaurants in the village, serving rabbit in salmorejo, goat stew and wrinkled potatoes with spicy mojo sauce.
The sunsets above the clouds are extraordinary, and at night the sky is so clear that the national park is a recognised stargazing site.