Rambla de Castro: the north's best walk

If you are only going to do one walk in northern Tenerife, do this one. Just over four flat kilometres along the cliff, between palms and sea, with three things to see along the way and no climb that punishes. Doable with children and with grandparents.

The numbers

What you see along the way

The palm grove

It is the first surprise: a dense stand of palms hanging over the Atlantic, on an island where the coastal landscape is usually bare rock. The route goes through it and then opens onto the cliff.

The manor and the San Pedro viewpoint

The Castro family manor gives the whole place its name. A little further on, the San Pedro viewpoint leans out over the cliff with Teide behind you on a clear day. It is where everyone takes out the camera.

The Gordejuela water lift

And here is the odd jewel: the ruins of a water lift clinging to the rock, home to the first steam engine used in Tenerife to raise water. It was built to irrigate the banana plantations above. Today it is a skeleton of stone and iron eaten by vegetation, and probably the most photographed thing on the walk.

How to plan it

• It is linear: 4.36 km each way, 1 h 50 according to the official catalogue. Turn back wherever you like.
• It starts at the El Burgado viewpoint in Los Realejos, where there is parking.
• Easy grade, with altitude moving between 45 and 147 metres.
• Individual visitors walk in freely. Only organised groups need a booking, with a daily cap of 80 people.
• Best late in the afternoon: the light on the cliff and the palm grove repays the early start you did not have to make.