Tenerife – Anaga Mountains, the mountainous face of Tenerife

Tenerife - Anaga Mountains, view of Teide

While in Tenerife, take one day to go to the Anaga Mountains – geologically the oldest area of Tenerife. The mountains are stunning with views, spaces, precipices and narrow, sharp roads.

How will our small and agile Volkswagen UP perform on them? And why did we make two approaches?

We went to the mountains in Tenerife by rental car, of course. Our concerns were the engine capacity and power of the car, but it turned out to be unnecessary, as the car was maneuverable and small, which made quite a difference when negotiating the next mountain serpentine. He climbed up as if he was made for climbing (down he somehow managed somehow too :-)).

Table of contents

Another visit to Playa de Las Teresitas

We drove toward the capital, Santa Cruz, to bounce there to the village of Taganana and climb high into the mountains, from which there are beautiful views of both the eastern and western parts of the island. The road to Taganana itself starts right next to a beach we wrote about once before, Playa de Las Teresitas – in our opinion one of the best (if not the best) in the Canary Islands.

Since the weather was fine we put a moment to sunbathe. How not to go for a swim here when you are near such a beautiful beach!

The weather in Tenerife is changeable….

Unfortunately, the weather is unpredictable and got slightly…. spoiled :( So in the end we made two approaches to the Anaga Mountains. The first time we hit clouds and visibility was very poor. The second time, we found ourselves in much better weather and our eyes were treated to beautiful views that we did not expect at all the first time.

For comparison, nice and ugly weather:

The truth is that the clouds in the Anaga mountains can be quite dense, while a few kilometers below is full sun. Just like just now on the beach :) Ot the charms of Tenerife!

Journey through the Anaga Mountains

At the outset, it is worth writing that the road through the Anaga mountains is not one of the most difficult we have traveled (we will write more about them), but it requires skill and mastery. Paweł, as usual, loves such roads and it went quite well ;) The roads are winding, narrow and very steep :)

Driving in from the Santa Cruz side, we kept hammering up the mountain. Unfortunately, there is no vantage point here, and by stopping on the road we create a danger. So we admired the views of the east coast only from the car. When we finally reached the right altitude, we passed the tunnel and found ourselves on the western side of the island – from here, in just a moment, there is a vantage point on the right, from which you can see Taganana. Views super, until we lack words to describe them :)

After much admiration, we got in the car and retraced our steps along the same road and headed for La Laguna. For a while we drove, as it were, along the tops of the mountains, where time and again there were beautiful views of either the east or west coast of the island. It is worth stopping at observation points.

Of course, the first time we sometimes broke through very thick fog. It was menacing (it appeared suddenly, out of nowhere), but also beautiful (clouds passing over the mountains).

After several kilometers, we arrive at Cruz del Carmen, a place where there is an observation deck overlooking La Laguna with El Teide in the background and where the health/educational paths begin.

A good place for trekking, walking in the woods, however, at every turn they warn of thieves who are willing to take care of cars left for a few hours.

After several minutes and dozens of photos, we drove on toward La Laguna, where we also stopped for a while.

El Sauzal Wine Museum

On our way back to Puerto, we decided to stop in the small village of El Sauzal, where the Wine Museum is located. There is a fee for the museum (3eur), but the ticket entitles us to a discount of the same value at a store on the museum grounds. In general, maybe we were not lucky, but we were the only visitors to this property ;-) You can see that the owners are trying to make the place interesting.

It’s worth a look, but rather if it’s a point along the way, rather than specifically driving to this part of the island. We went there mainly to buy good local wine, but you can also buy it at Carrefour ;)

To sum up…

To briefly summarize: the Anaga Mountains are definitely one of the best attractions in Tenerife! However, if you don’t drive a car every day, covering the route can be stressful to say the least …but Paweł loves such routes :)

Finally, some views from our trip overlooking Teide and an invitation to the full photo gallery.