Experience · A whole day
Black, blue and lava
This is the day for understanding what the north is made of. It starts in the water, continues through the pools left by the 1706 eruption and ends walking on the lava of the last one, in 1909.
- 6–8 happroximately
- 3places
- Yescar needed
The plan, step by step
Morning
San Marcos, with a calm sea
Icod's town beach: a shell-shaped cove sheltered from the heavy swell, black sand, showers, toilets and restaurants on the promenade. Six minutes from the house.
Midday
The El Caletón rock pools
The 1706 lava flows ran into the sea at Garachico and left these named pools: Las Viejas, Los Niños, Los Chorros. With a northerly swell they close or turn dangerous: check the sea before going down.
Afternoon
Walking on the lava of 1909
The Chinyero Special Nature Reserve is the site of Tenerife's last eruption. A network of PR-TF 43 trails offers variants of different lengths: pick the short one for an afternoon. Free access for individual visitors.
Reserva Natural Especial del Chinyero →The guide →Directions ↗
Good to know
The order matters: swimming goes in the morning because the trade wind tends to lift the sea in the afternoon, and Chinyero walks better once the sun is off the badlands.
Goes with
A whole day
From the volcano to the Atlantic
Up to Teide in the morning, the whole island from La Rambleta at 3,555 metres, and down to swim at San Marcos in the afternoon. Only possible from the north.
An evening
Garachico at dusk
The town once the coaches leave: a walk through the listed old quarter, the seafront with the pools below, and dinner at one of its twenty-nine restaurants.