7 checked places
What you have to see in this corner of Tenerife fits into two days, and much of it is walkable from the Icod old town.
Icod de los Vinos has a rarity: the municipality's most famous monument — the Millennial Dragon Tree, a National Monument since 1917 — stands on the same square as the church, the town hall and the tourist office. The whole historic quarter is listed as a Bien de Interés Cultural under Decree 142/2004 and is walked end to end in an hour or two.
Six kilometres away is Garachico, the island's main port until the 1706 lava flow buried it, and today the prettiest town on the north coast precisely because of that. And in the Icod municipality itself, nine minutes from the old town, is the Cueva del Viento: Europe's largest lava tube, visited by advance booking in groups of fifteen.
The hours and prices on this page come from each site's official page, with the date they were checked. Where the operator publishes no figure — and that happens more often than you would think — there is no number here: there is a sentence saying it is not published.
Places
The minutes are driving time from the Icod old town, computed over OpenStreetMap data. What has no figure carries no number.
7 places
The largest and oldest known dragon tree of its species, Dracaena draco, and the symbol of Icod. Declared a National Monument in 1917. You can glimpse it free from the square; the full visit is through the Parque del Drago.
It is the town's symbol and partly visible from the square without paying. With children it works because you can do it in twenty minutes if you need to.
A three-hectare botanical enclosure around the Millennial Dragon Tree, with paths through the island's ecosystems, a recreated Guanche cave, an ethnographic area and viewpoints over Teide and the Atlantic. Allow 45–60 minutes.
A short, flat circuit with a Guanche cave and viewpoints. It is how you see the whole dragon tree, and with children the hour it takes holds up on its own.
A Historic Site listed as a Bien de Interés Cultural under Decree 142/2004. Compact and remarkably well preserved: an hour or two on foot links Plaza de la Pila, San Marcos church, the former San Francisco convent and Calle San Sebastián.
You walk all of it, and it is literally next door. It still works in bad weather: the streets are short and there are arcades.
Icod's main square, opened in September 1632. Locals call it Plaza de la Pila after its 1716 stone fountain with a circular basin and four spouts. Grand old houses with heavy pine woodwork line it.
The town's real centre, and the place to sit at seven in the evening.
Icod's mother church, born as a chapel in the 16th century and extended into the 19th. Listed as a Monument in 2006. It holds a monumental 47 kg silver filigree cross made in Havana in 1665, considered the largest known work of filigree.
A hundred metres from the dragon tree, and what you visit when it starts raining.
A tropical greenhouse beside the Parque del Drago with over 800 exotic butterflies flying free and the full life cycle on show. A short visit, and a good one with children or on a grey 'panza de burro' morning.
One of the few places in the district that is entirely indoors, and with small children it buys you an hour of calm.
Hours todos los días 10:00–19:30 (horarios especiales 24, 25, 31 dic y 1 ene)
A coastal town minutes west of Icod. It was the island's main port until the 1706 eruption destroyed part of the old town and sealed the harbour. Rebuilt, it is now one of the loveliest towns in the north: a listed historic quarter since 1994, a 16th-century castle and the El Caletón natural pools carved by those same lava flows.
Six kilometres of road and the prettiest town on the north coast, with the pools left by the 1706 lava flow.
Nothing matches that filter.
To read slowly
The Millennial Dragon Tree, the listed old town, Plaza de la Pila and San Marcos beach. A guide to a town you can walk in a morning.
Reviewed on
You can see it from the square for nothing, or see all of it from the Parque del Drago for €5. What changes between the two, plus checked hours and prices.
Reviewed on
This guide is written from a house in Icod, and the house is for rent.
Finca Julia
★ 4,96 · 52 reviews