Day Hikes on Tenerife and Gran Canaria

Rather than spend another couple of months on Lanzarote this past winter, I changed my plans and chose instead to revisit two other Canary Islands that I had only cursorily explored, in the case of Gran Canary, more than 37 years ago! Two center-based group hiking weeks in November fit the bill perfectly, before heading to Southeast Asia and Australia for the winter. As a geography refresher, below is a map of the Canary Islands, located a bit more than 100 kilometers off the coast of Morocco. (Nevertheless, I needed to fly via London Gatwick to get from Marrakech to Tenerife!)

The Canary Islands, a province of Spain
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Tenerife

With a land area of about 2000 km² and a population of nearly 1 million, Tenerife is the largest and most-populous island of the Canary Islands. Visitors are concentrated around its southern towns and beaches, yet just a few kilometers away are some amazing mountain hiking trails. I had only once briefly visited the island, completing two iconic walks following a week in February 2020 hiking on the nearby Island of La Gomera, the subject of a previous blog post. For this trip, I went with a new (to me – it was founded in 1913!) company, HF Holidays. We were based for the first three nights in Santiago del Tiede in the southwest, and for the final four nights in La Laguna in the north of Tenerife.

Santiago del Tiede to San Jose de Los Llanos

16 km with 600 m elevation gain

Prickly pear covered with cochineal, a scale insect used to make the natural dye carmine

Our guide, Guillermo, explaining the life cycle of the endemic biennial Mount Teide bugloss (*Echium wildpretii*). Earlier in the year this stalk featured bright red flowers.

Landscape with Canarian pine (*Pinus canariensis*)

Volcanic landscape with pines and Mt Tiede, back right. This was the first of two hikes in Mt Tiede National Park.

Erjoz to Cruz de Hilda

9 km with 300 m elevation gain

Banana passionfruit (*Passiflora mollissima*)

A bold Blue Spotted lizard eyeing my picnic lunch

Our path was along this high ridge in the Macizo de Teno

Masca village, at 650 m elevation, where we chilled at the end of our hike that day.

Mirador de Samara to Boca Tauce

13 km with 600 m elevation gain

View of the island of La Gomera in “two halves” due to low clouds

Euphorbia with Mt Tiede in the distance. At 3715m, Tiede is the highest mountain in Spain.

The astute reader will note that I have only included three hikes from my walking week, rather than the expected five. For at least the third time this past year, plantar fasciitis caused a curtailment of my hiking plans. Fortunately, after several days rest, I suffered no lingering affects and was able to hike the following week on Gran Canaria.

Gran Canaria

As alluded to in my introductory paragraph, I had only once been to Gran Canaria, for a two week spring break back in my late 20’s. Apart from three days bombing around the island in a jeep, my past explorations had been confined to the the pool and beach scenes around the southern fleshpot of Maspalomas. Hence, nearly four decades on, the hiking was all new to me! A 40 minute flight from Tenerife took me to Gran Canaria. Our first lodging with Explore Worldwide was in the lovely town of Agüimes, where I had an extra day to see the sights.

Church of San Sebastian seen from the Plaza del Rosario

Well-behaved youth in the Plaza del Rosario

Courtyard of the local history museum in Agüimes. Our group also spent time in a natural and human history museum during our hike in Guayedeque Canyon. Both museums were fascinating.

Guayedeque Canyon circular from Agüimes

13 km with 500 m elevation gain

Guayedeque Canyon view with aqueduct. As on Tenerife, water is truly life in this arid climate.

Tree houseleek (*Aeonium arboreum*). Though far larger than the alpine Cobweb houseleek I have featured in past Italy posts, there is nonetheless a clear resemblance.

A former cave dwelling. Many limestone caves in this rugged landscape were once inhabited; some still are.

Lunch view from the plateau. The canyon is on the left here, with Agüimes in the right background.

On the Road, part 1

The dramatic bus transfer across the island to our next hike and second lodging was definitely photo-worthy.

*Caldera de los Marteles*, near a high vehicular pass

Tree of baroda (*Kleinia neriifolia*) with *Roque Nublo* background

Degollada* del Aserrador to La Culata via Roque Nublo

8 km with 400 m elevation gain

Reflections in a lagoon near the start of our traverse. It was a very hazy day, likely due to sand being blown across from the Sahara

Hikers on the basal plateau of *Roque Nublo*

The other side of *Roque Nublo* during our long descent

* Degollada, a Spanish word for “pass,” also means beheaded

Degollada La Aldea to Mogan via Veneguera

12 km with 350 m elevation gain

Our guide, Brian, with a VERY STRANGE creation

On the Road, part 2

After an off day which I used to walk around town and chill by our pool, the following day we headed back across the island to our first hotel, far closer to the airport.

Rugged landscape view back across the mountains. The road is cut into the side of the mountain on the left.

Dramatic *Roque Nublo* vista from a beautiful but touristy mountain town where we stopped to pick up items for a picnic lunch

Pico de las Nieves to Cruz Grande

8 km with 100 m elevation gain

Forest descent from the *Pico de las Nieves*, at 1949m the highest point on Gran Canaria.

Still a long way down. With my knees bothering me a bit, along with some others I took a bus ride down the last few km to the town.

I did miss the final hike as I rescheduled my flight to leave earlier back to the UK to give me more time to prepare for my long winter trip.

Completely unrelated to hiking, below is one final photo, taken at Las Palmas airport while waiting for my flight back to Tenerife:

**Three Condors of the Day**, with apologies to Sydney Pollack and Robert Redford

I am currently at my Airbnb outside of Perth, Western Australia, hiking and planning my 2026 travels. Here is the current list, some items of which are fixed and others still in flux:

Feb 10 – March 7: Peninsular Malaysia and Northern Borneo (Sabah)
March 7 – 15: Bali, Indonesia
March 15 – 23: Hastings, UK
March 24 – Apr 29: St. George, Utah
April 30 – May 7: Hastings, UK
May 7 – July 10: Four weeks each in Arco (Trentino), and Aosta, Italy, with 1 week in Tuscany in between
Jul 10 – 17: Hastings, UK
July 17 – Aug 1: Madagascar
Aug 1 – Sept 3: Hastings and Cornwall/Devon UK (Southwest Coast Path)
Sep 3 – Oct 22: Mainly South Africa and Namibia, with short visits to Victoria Falls and a layover in Addis Ababa possible
Oct 23 – 31: Hastings, UK
Winter 2026-7: My plans are being developed over the next few months

By the way, I am no longer updating the Calendar Tab on this blog site as the amount of effort is simply more than I want to put into it.

The Vagabond Hiker

Comments

Terri Rylander says

January 13, 2026 at 12:04 am

Wow. It’s SO beautiful! A place I’d love to see. Did you know there is an ultramarathon on Gran Canaria?

Transgrancanaria is a long-distance race that is held annually on Gran Canaria, one of the Canary Islands. It was the first ultramarathon in Spain, and remains a popular and demanding mountain-ultramarathons on the international calendar.[2] The route of the Transgrancanaria Classic has a course length of 115–130 km (71–81 mi), with a cumulative elevation gain of 6,750–8,500 m (22,150–27,890 ft)