5 hikes in Tenerife with the kids

In December, we spent a week in Tenerife as a family in the Canary Islands. Our aim was to go hiking with the children because we really love it! Titpuce and Ticoeur are real little hikers who are already used to walking a lot. They manage really quite well for their age (9 and 12), so I’ll specify the level of our hikes in the details of the article. You’ll see: we chose hikes of very varied levels, so rest assured, there will be something for everyone!

Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands. It is known for its Teide National Park, and it was this vast volcanic area that made us want to go there! Teide is a volcano that is still active and very closely monitored. Fortunately, it is resting at the moment, and has been for more than a century now (unlike the one on La Palma!). Teide is also Spain’s highest mountain, at an altitude of 3,715 metres. You can also read my full article on our week in Tenerife as a family, but to begin with, I wanted to focus on our hikes since that was the main purpose of our trip!

Our 5 family hikes in Tenerife:

As an introduction, I’d like to point out that there are hundreds of possible hikes in Tenerife, so whatever the length of your stay, you’ll find lovely trails to explore. In one week, we had to make choices. We loved our 5 family hikes, and it made us want to go back to do others! In the meantime, I’m sharing the details of our five discoveries… The durations given are our own times, not an average, so they are only indicative. I’ll remind you that we are used to hiking, so if you have less experience, you may need to allow more time.

1/ Samara (Teide National Park) – easy – duration: 1 hr 30 – 250 metres of elevation gain

Samara is clearly a hike for families. We are at the foot of Mount Teide. The landscapes are superb: you can see the volcano, the lava scenery and the famous Canary Island pines. It is a loop. It goes up and down a little throughout the hike, but really nothing too serious, and it’s a good length for children who are not yet used to walking for a long time. The start of the hike is at an altitude of 1,875 metres.

2/ Chinyero Volcano (Teide National Park) – easy – duration: 1 hr 30 – 200 metres of elevation gain

A peaceful and pleasant loop around Chinyero Volcano to see old lava flows up close. A kid-friendly hike. You can also see the entrances to small lava tubes. Once again, you enjoy the pine forest scenery. We were there just before sunset, which gave us beautiful colours…

Lava fields:

The pine forest all around:

Small lava tube:

Chinyero Volcano:

3/ Roques de García (Teide National Park) – easy – duration: 1 hr 30 – 180 metres of elevation gain

Another loop suitable for families. It is very well known because you can see very beautiful rock formations there. So it’s visually stunning without much effort. That also means that in high season there can be quite a few people, but apparently most tourists only take a few photos at the beginning of the path and don’t do the full loop, which is obviously a serious mistake :-). The formations make us feel as though we’re in a Dalí painting, and they are beautiful all along the trail. I would even have liked to do the loop twice rather than once so I could go the other way round and discover other perspectives. A must! For information, the start of the hike is at an altitude of 2,021 metres. In our case, we combined Roques de García with the ascent of Pico Viejo (see hike number 4).

4/ Ascent of Pico Viejo (Teide National Park) – difficult – duration: 7 hours (with a break and a walk around the crater rim) – 1,080 metres of elevation gain

This was clearly the most difficult and most demanding hike of our stay. It is not for beginners, nor for children who do not have experience of high mountains. The elevation gain, the length of the ascent and the altitude clearly make it a hike for experienced families. But if it is the kind of challenge you have already taken on and you have the physical ability, then go for it! There is no technical difficulty regarding the path. It is really the demand for good endurance and the altitude that require your vigilance (Titpuce and Papa Voyage also had to slow down for the last 100 metres of elevation gain and drink regularly because they felt a slight shortness of breath linked to the altitude). In short, if you set off on it, you will be richly rewarded by the beauty of the experience. The ascent of Pico Viejo can be started from several starting points. We chose Roques de García. The advantage is that it allows you to admire the Roques from above, and it is especially photogenic! So we combined the two hikes into one: we started with one side of Roques de García, then climbed up to Pico Viejo, and on the way back down, we took the same path except at the end, to complete our Roques de García loop. Another, more popular, way to climb Pico Viejo is to start at Narices del Teide (next time!). What can I say about Pico Viejo? It is superb! As its name suggests, it is the “old volcano” (older than Teide, therefore), and it is the second-highest on the island. It reaches 3,100 metres. At the top, you find yourself on the edge of the crater: it is magnificent! You can follow the crater rim on one side, then on the other (but not go all the way around it). From up there, you can see La Palma. And of course, Teide seems much closer than usual! Even though it was 20 degrees by the sea, you really must bear in mind that it gets cold as you climb! We even came across snow just before reaching the crater of Pico Viejo. At the summit, it was only 2 or 3 degrees. We were well equipped, but with the wind, we still had quite a chilly picnic!

The crater of Pico Viejo and La Palma in the background…

Teide seems so close… In fact, we had originally planned to go up it (I’ll tell you more about that at the end of the article)…

On the way back down, a lunar view of Roques de García:

5/ Afur > Playa del Tamadite > Taganana loop (Anaga Rural Park) – sporty – duration: 5 hours

This hike is not as difficult as Pico Viejo because it is not at high altitude, but clearly, you have to be able and willing to walk for 5 hours. That said, there is a way to shorten it. I’ll explain further on….

Anaga Rural Park is located in the north of Tenerife. It contrasts with Teide National Park because the landscape is green and the vegetation very present. It is a completely different setting! At times, we even felt as though we were in Guatemala! On a trip to Tenerife, I think the two natural parks are both essential and complement each other wonderfully! First of all, getting to Anaga often takes quite a long time because the roads are winding (the children need to keep their eyes on the road to avoid travel sickness). In Anaga, we started our hike in Afur. I called it a loop, but it is more of a triangle: first, you walk through green mountains, downhill to the ocean. In this way, you arrive at Playa del Tamadite (1 hour 20 minutes’ walk to the beach). Then, you follow the ocean for about 1 hour 30 minutes along the mountainside, as far as Taganana (we found that was the most beautiful part!). Finally, we returned to Afur (this third part was the least impressive in terms of scenery) – about 2 hours’ walk back. At the end, we stopped at Bar Casa José Canon. A tiny little bar that looks very modest, but the owner was very nice, and we bought local cheese, bread and drinks from her. It was very good! A well-earned break!

To do this hike in a shorter version, it is possible just to walk along the ocean between Taganana and Tamadite (in that case, you park in Taganana and do the walk as an out-and-back). As for us, since we only devoted one day to Anaga Rural Park, we preferred the longer version. What’s more, I really liked the Afur -> Tamadite Beach part. In short, choose according to what you fancy! And of course, there are lots of other hikes in this beautiful park!

I hope these 5 varied hikes have given you a little glimpse of the landscapes on the island of Tenerife. I’ll finish with a few tips and other hiking ideas…

Getting ready for family hiking in Tenerife:

Have good hiking shoes because there are lots of stones and old lava flows (it can be a bit sharp and unstable). For the Samara, Chinyero and Roques de García hikes (1 – 2 and 3), it is possible in trainers, but proper hiking boots will always support the foot better.
As for clothing, we had (in December): windbreaker, fleece, T-shirt, hiking trousers. For Pico Viejo (and other high-altitude hikes), you need gloves, hats and ski jackets (we had them in our rucksacks). I’ll remind you that we were there in December. In summer, for the easy hikes, adapt your outfit to the weather, of course. On the other hand, for the high summits, it will always be cool. Don’t underestimate the temperature differences!
Always check the weather conditions and the temperature before setting off. Bring sun cream in all cases.
Have experience before setting off on a hike as long as the ascent of Pico Viejo or our long loop in Anaga.
Bring enough water and things to nibble on (fruit, dried fruit, biscuits, etc.), and even a picnic for the long hikes.
For choosing the hikes, I mainly looked at comments on Google Maps, on Tripadvisor and on many blogs, but I was also recommended the guide “Ténérife, les plus belles randonnées entre mer et montagne” published by Rother. Apparently, the visitor centre of Teide National Park is very interesting, with videos and lots of clear explanations about volcanoes. Every time we passed in front of it, we were either too early or too late (before or after our hikes), but next time we’ll arrange to stop there, which should be informative for the children, and I imagine you can also find information there about the park’s hikes.

rando famille tenerife — Roques de García

Other hiking ideas in Tenerife for next time!

Arenas Negras (easy): a small loop in the spirit of the Samara or Chinyero hike. It was near our accommodation, and we were very tempted, but we ran out of time.
Narices del Teide (intermediate): at mid-altitude in Teide National Park. It is possible to combine it with the ascent of Pico Viejo. We saw these “nostrils” of the volcano from the road below, and it is another very tempting landscape!
Los Gigantes (easy): by the sea along the cliffs. We were able to see the cliffs, but the path was closed when we were there because apparently there had been rockfalls.
Barranco de Masca (intermediate): this is a hike through a gorge, starting from the village of Masca. It is not always open. It wasn’t during our week. Access is free, but you need to book HERE because numbers are limited.
Teide (difficult): be careful, you absolutely must book a permit to access the summit of Teide! It is free, but numbers are limited. So it is better to do it several months in advance. However, since we were there completely out of season, we managed to get (by booking only one month ahead) a permit for the Sunday of our stay. BUT in the end, we couldn’t go! Why? To get to the summit of Teide, it takes a long time, and normally the good solution is to do it in two stages, sleeping at the refuge intended for that purpose. However, because of the pandemic, the refuge was closed. We had obtained a permit for 2pm. To reach the summit at that time, we would have had to set off much earlier. When we arrived at Pico Viejo, we judged that we would be too late for the summit of Teide. On the one hand, there couldn’t have been any checks because the cable car that also allows you to go up Teide was closed (because of the wind), so there would have been nobody to ask for permits (I imagine…). But precisely, the problem is that with the idea of climbing up to 3,715m, we had planned to come back down by cable car (1,600m of elevation gain on the way up and the same thing on the way down is really too much, even for us :-)). After doing some research, we also discovered that this cable car is often out of service (because of the wind). To conclude, we will go back to Tenerife when the refuge is open again, and we will book our permits and our beds in advance in order to do the ascent over 2 days. One last remark about the cable car: most tourists use it both on the way up and on the way down. Be aware that the cable car does not go all the way to the top. You have to walk the last metres to the summit, which is great, but so YOU NEED THE PERMIT. It would be a shame to pay a fortune for the cable car (it is expensive) and realise too late that access is only authorised for people who have booked.

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For information on visits, swimming spots, accommodation and car hire, see my article on our week in Tenerife as a family.

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So then? Fancy hiking in Tenerife as a family?

And these will also tempt you if you like to go hiking on vacation: