Mount Teide
12,188 feet, the highest point in Spain, inside a crater of red desert.
Duration
5 hrs – 8 hrs
Difficulty
●●○○○
Best time
Mornings, before the wind
Open
Every day
Entry price
To confirm
Teide reaches three thousand seven hundred and fifteen metres: the highest point in Spain and, measured from the ocean floor, the third-highest volcano in the world. It is active, its last eruption being in 1909.
It stands in the middle of the Cañadas, a caldera sixteen kilometres across whose floor is a desert of lava and pumice in strong colours — that landscape, more than the summit, is what strikes you. A cable car climbs to three thousand five hundred and fifty-five metres; the last two hundred and thirty metres to the crater need a separate permit.
Getting there
An hour's drive from Santa Cruz or Los Cristianos. The cable car leaves from two thousand three hundred and fifty-six metres and is booked online.
What the price covers
the national park is free; the cable car and the permit for the last six hundred feet are charged
What to bring
- Windbreaker
Rules on site
Access to the summit crater needs a free but named permit, applied for online weeks ahead: without it you stop at the upper station. The cable car closes in high wind, and altitude sickness is common after so fast a climb.
