1 day
What to do if it dawns raining
North Tenerife is green for a reason. When the trade wind comes in loaded, the day is not ruined, the plan changes: what is down here works just as well under cloud.
- Length
- 1 day
- Stops
- 4
- Furthest point
- 12 min
- Car needed
- Yes
Morning
Underground: the Cueva del Viento
9 min · 3.8 km from Icod old town · booking required
Inside a lava tube the weather outside is irrelevant. Advance booking required, groups of fifteen, minimum age five. One caveat: the visit can be called off in heavy rain, because part of the approach is an outdoor path, so confirm by phone that morning.
Mid-morning
The Mariposario del Drago
2 min · 0.8 km from Icod old town
Entirely indoors and two minutes from the dragon tree. With small children it is the day's hour of calm.
Lunch
A long lunch
3 min · 1.1 km from Icod old town
This is the day for a long lunch. In the Icod old town there is Canarian cooking a minute from the dragon tree, and the places that deliver are there if you would rather eat at the house.
Afternoon
A winery of the denomination
12 min · 10.1 km from Icod old town · booking required
Icod gives its name to the Ycoden-Daute-Isora wine district. Bodegas Viñátigo, twelve minutes away in La Guancha, works with recovered Canarian varieties, and the visit is indoors and by appointment.
If it clears
Climb above the clouds
This is what almost nobody tells you about the north: the sea of clouds has a ceiling. Many rainy days down here are sunny days above 1,500 metres, and the TF-21 crosses that layer in a quarter of an hour of climbing.
Good to know
In heavy rain the rock pools are ruled out, no discussion: El Caletón and Charco del Viento close or turn dangerous with swell. That is not excess caution, it is in the official warnings.
Other days
If this one does not fit
A whole day without leaving the municipality
The dragon tree, the old town, Europe's largest lava tube and a black-sand beach, in one day and under six kilometres of driving.
A day that children can take
Black sand in a sheltered cove, a park you walk in an hour, an indoor butterfly house and natural pools with proper access.