Mount Teide

How to visit.

🚠 Cable car: last cable car from the top goes at 5:20 pm. Normally cable car goes every 10 minutes. In most cases, you don't need to purchase tickets in advance, but to be on the safe side you can buy tickets before you go. Prices are 37 up-down or 21 for one direction.

🚏Parking: it’s free, maybe be crowded, but anyway you can park, the question is the distance from the cable car station. The best option is to drive to the station trying to find a slot.

📍Distance and travel time. Check on google and multiply by 2 as it’s a mountain road + you will make several stops to take photos. No gas stations are on the top(1000m above the sea level) but you have almost zero risk as you can drive down on neutral without pressing the gas pedal. Anyway better to have fuel to feel confident.

☀️Sun and weather. It’s very very sunny near the cable car station, on the top station and even on the way to Tiede. Sun protection cream and sunglasses are recommended. The way from 1000m to 2000m way be foggy 🌫 , rainy🌧. It’s difficult to drive back from the mountains in the fog😶‍🌫️ after the sunset, but it’s possible. It’s tricky expensive to drive using GPS🧭 and see only a few meters ahead. GPS is a must-have thing. Not because of the route complexity but because of the drive in dark fog. Better to see them turn on the map in case if you observe only a few meters in the windshield.

🚘Car: better to take a small car as it is easier to drive serpentines. You don’t need much power to climb roads in Tenerife. So don’t need to take a sedan or SUV. 🚌Bus: it’s an option but less interesting as you can’t stop everywhere you want. Moreover car rental is cheaper for 2 or more people. Information that it’s difficult to park a car - just a fake to sell you bus tickets.

🛂Pass to the top: after a cable car, you have ~ 170m to the top. It’s a trial with a special pass which you need to order in advance. Most like you didn’t order it and thinking is it possible to show them pass for the next month instead of pass for today. It works. They just ask you to show your pass number and ID/passport. So it is worse to try and in most cases, it works. You need ~40 min to the top + 30 minutes down to the cable car

👕🥾Cloth, shoes and other equipment: you need a backpack 🎒 to put warm clothes which you will put on on the top cable car station. Approximately it’s-20 degrees vs seashore. Shoes: better to have sports shoes comfortable to walk on steps. Walking sticks can be helpful but not mandatory.

🥪🍌💧Food and water. Take everything with you. You will find only vending machines with a few small and expensive products. Restrooms as available on top and down stations.

📶Cellular and WiFi. There is no mobile connection on some parts of the road to Teide. Better to use build the route in the maps app at the start, most navigation software like Apple or Google Maps doesn’t require a constant connection. Download the offline maps like organic maps (former mapsme) to have a map in any situation. In addition, offline maps have trails routes. Near Tiede, you will have a cellular connection (including the internet). Also, free WiFi is available near the down station of the cable car, but it may be difficult to connect to the access point. Power-bank can be helpful if want to photo, videos and walk trails.

🦺Guides: you don’t need such services as going up by cable car doesn’t require any specific knowledge.

🧗🏼‍♀️Go up without cable car: yes, it’s possible. You need to take into consideration the cable car schedule to ride back. The trail can take 4-6hours depending on your speed. So you should start no later than 11:30 am, so that start from the seaside is about 09:30 am. You will need to buy a back ticket for the cable car which is costs 21. You don’t need professional equipment for the trail but you should be well prepared.