The north's rock pools and natural pools, nearest first

The north coast has no big sandy beaches, but it has something the south lacks: rock pools left where the lava met the sea. From Icod there are seven half an hour's drive away or less. No two work the same way: some want low tide, one wants high tide, and all of them depend on the same thing, a calm Atlantic.

The seven, nearest first

• El Caletón pools (Garachico), 9 min. Left by the 1706 lava flow and linked to the promenade. The busiest in the north-west; they close in heavy swell.
• Charco de La Laja (San Juan de la Rambla), 13 min. Right in the old quarter; you see it from the viewpoint and go down a flight of steps. Best at low tide.
• Charco del Viento (La Guancha), 15 min. Black lava flows running into the sea, no facilities. Only with a calm sea; access was reorganised in 2025.
• Charco Los Chochos (Los Silos), 21 min. Stone steps with a handrail, a sunbathing area and about two metres at the deepest point. Low tide, and only when the sea allows.
• Charco del Cumplido (La Caleta de Interián, Los Silos), no drive time calculated. Long and narrow, with a ramp and no more than two metres deep. This is the one that wants high tide.
• Charco Roque (Buenavista del Norte), 26 min. Between Las Arenas and El Fraile beaches, a local favourite in summer. Mid tide.
• Lago Martiánez (Puerto de la Cruz), 30 min. Not a rock pool: the seafront pool complex designed by César Manrique's team, listed as a Historic Garden. It is the plan when the sea says no.

At low tide

La Laja, Los Chochos

At mid tide

Charco Roque

At high tide

Charco del Cumplido

Whatever the sea

Lago Martiánez

Close to Icod: El Caletón, La Laja and Charco del Viento

All three are a quarter of an hour away or less. El Caletón has a promenade and people; La Laja has steps and a sunbathing area, and the official listing describes it as a summer pool; Charco del Viento is the wildest of the three, with no facilities and a track access worth reading about before you go.

Towards Teno: Los Silos and Buenavista

The Los Silos and Buenavista coast has three more pools, and they pair well with a morning in Los Silos or the Buenavista old town. Mind the tide: Los Chochos and Charco Roque want low or mid tide, and Charco del Cumplido the opposite.

When not to swim

• In a swell. It is the warning repeated across the pools' listings.
• At the wrong tide. A low-tide pool at high tide stops being a pool: the swell gets in.
• If you cannot see where you get in and out. Volcanic rock is slippery and sharp; water shoes beat flip-flops.
• If nobody is around and you do not know the spot. In an unsupervised pool, nobody will warn you about a set of waves.

If the sea will not let you

Two more sheltered options. San Marcos beach, in Icod itself, is a black-sand cove whose shape shields it from heavy swell. And Lago Martiánez, on the Puerto de la Cruz seafront, has an artificial 27,000 m³ seawater lake and seven pools, four for adults and three for children.