6 checked places
The north does not have the south's beaches and does not pretend to. It has black sand, lava-flow pools and an Atlantic you should look at before getting in.
The municipality's beach is San Marcos: black sand tucked into an enclosed cove, six minutes from the old town. That cove is what makes it the area's beach for children, because the sea comes in far calmer than anywhere else on this coast.
The other thing the north has, and the south does not, are the charcos: pools carved by lava meeting the sea. The El Caletón pools in Garachico have proper access and a promenade from town. Charco del Viento, in La Guancha, does not: it is undeveloped rock, spectacular with a calm sea and a bad idea with swell.
A warning we repeat on every entry because it is in the official notices and not in the small print: with northern swell the rock pools close or turn dangerous. It is not a swimming pool, it is the open ocean with a rock wall in front.
Places
The minutes are driving time from the Icod old town, computed over OpenStreetMap data. What has no figure carries no number.
6 places
Icod's town beach and one of the calmest in the north: a shell-shaped cove sheltered from the heavy swell. Black volcanic sand, 160 m by 40, with restaurants along the promenade. The easiest, most family-friendly swim near the house.
Black sand in an enclosed cove, which is what makes it the municipality's beach for children. And it is six minutes away.
A volcanic rock pool on the La Guancha coast, strikingly photogenic, where black lava flows meet the sea. It is not an equipped beach: a track leads down, there are no facilities and it is exposed to the northern swell.
Undeveloped volcanic rock pools. Spectacular with a calm sea and a bad idea with swell: it is not a pool, it is the Atlantic.
Natural pools carved out where the 1706 lava met the sea, each with its own name: Las Viejas, Los Niños, Los Chorros. The most popular bathing spot in the north-west, linked to Garachico's seafront by the promenade.
Pools with proper access and a promenade from town, which is what sets them apart from a wild rock pool. They close with northern swell: check the sea before going down.
Puerto de la Cruz's icon, designed by César Manrique: three linked black-sand beaches with gardens, waterfalls and rock caves. Breakwaters shelter the bathing area. The north's fully serviced beach.
Black sand, César Manrique gardens and full services. The north's family beach.
A wild black-sand cove below the El Rincón cliff, 200 m by 40, with volcanic stacks rising out of the sea. A few minutes down a stepped path, or a 45-minute walk from Puerto de la Cruz.
Still the north's wild beach, with the walk down that implies. Not a pushchair beach.
An open, wild Anaga beach, 300 m long, dark sand that vanishes at high tide. No promenade, and only a footpath down from the hamlet.
An hour and twenty by car through Anaga. You go for the landscape and the sea stacks, not to swim.
Nothing matches that filter.
This guide is written from a house in Icod, and the house is for rent.
Finca Julia
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