Teide By Night — Local services in Arona

This trip should be called Teide by Nightmare!

This one star goes to the driver of the bus. She was awesome and the best part of the trip, otherwise I wish I could give zero.

Honestly it’s better to rent your own car and go to the Teide on your own and read the info on Wikipedia than wasting precious time and money with them. My partner and I went there with my mom and cousin, and it was a terrible experience. I would not recommend this trip even if it was for free!

They promise a tour in the national park with a specialized guide that should explain and talk about the beauty, an “aperitivo” at sunset, a nice dinner and watching the stars with a guide that explains constellations.

But that is not what we got.

At first they brought us to a lousy farm that sells aloe vera products and stayed there for one hour. We never signed in for that! Such a waste of our time!

During the trip the guide gave poor explanations and spent his time talking with the driver, instead explaining the ton of info he could have to us paying customers.

When we arrived at the Teide the guide just told us to get off the bus and come back in one hour… without telling us where to go and what to do. Afterwards we discovered a path that led us into an amazing view, but my mom could not see that because by not receiving any directions we found that way too late.

Then we got back on the bus and went to the direction of the sunset spot, but the amazing lunar landscape? They just skipped that amazing part! And suddenly we stop and wait in the bus for another 20 minutes for another guide to come… Why?!?!?!?! When she arrives she makes the bus turn, to bring us back on the same road we were just before! … That was the third time we did the same road again, damit! There is so much to see, why keep on staying there?!?!? They made us get out of the bus again, in a parking lot and then the bus just left. People had their jackets on the bus and they needed them very badly because it was -4 C°! They left us there for 2 hours and a half! We were freezing and we were all bored! No sunset to see, just an empty parking lot! But they give us a glass of cheap and warm cava..!

The star explanation would have been interesting if we were not freezing and wishing to go home so badly. They let us spend too much time there in the cold.

The trip ended wit a poor dinner with cold rice, burned chicken, vinegar whine with a drunk man and our tour guide singing drunk, it was torture!

We complained to the Teide by Night and they told us they wont refund anything and that nobody complains so they don’t care.

That’s why I write this comment, I want to warn people to not get into this scam like we did. Save your money but most of all save your time from this...

My fiancé and I were excited for the Teide by Night experience, but the way the tour guide Isabel and the bus driver Antonio treated us completely ruined it.

During the sunset stop, we were first told to be back at the bus by 6:30 PM, which we did. Later, Isabel said we could stay and watch the sunset until it got dark. Since the sun actually set around 7:00 PM, by the time we made it back to the bus, it was 7:05 PM.

As soon as we approached the bus, Isabel and Antonio started scolding us like we were misbehaving kids, saying we had delayed the group by 15 minutes—even though other tourists later told us that another bus was blocking the way, and the actual wait was only about 5 minutes. No one had been complaining, especially since they had seen us earlier talking to Isabel, specifically asking about a return time.

But the worst part? Both Isabel and the driver, Antonio, started badmouthing us in Spanish, even though they knew I spoke Spanish. I didn’t want to get into a shouting match since I was sitting in the 5th row, but their comments were completely unprofessional and unnecessary. Those words damaged our entire experience, and I can only imagine how many non-Spanish-speaking tourists have been insulted behind their backs without ever realizing it.

On top of that, their instructions for returning to the bus were completely unclear—“come back when it gets dark” is not a real time. If they needed everyone back at a specific time, they should have just said so, especially if they claim to have been working for this company for years.

The food at the restaurant was also disappointing—definitely not something worth looking forward to. If you're expecting a quality meal as part of the experience, lower your expectations. After the tour, I reached out to the company to express my concerns, hoping they would take the situation seriously. Instead, I was met with a generic response that defended the guide’s reputation rather than actually investigating what happened or addressing our complaints. They showed no real interest in fixing the problem or making things right.

Yes, you get access to telescopes, but you’re only allowed to see 3-4 celestial bodies—which isn’t much considering the €178 price tag. Honestly, you’re better off just renting a car and going on your own. That way, you can enjoy the views at your own pace, avoid the rude staff, and actually get your money’s worth. The stars were beautiful, but honestly, this tour left a bad taste in our mouths. If you still decide to book after reading this, the only thing I can recommend is bringing really warm jackets because up in Mount Teide, the temperatures are freezing, and you will be miserable if you’re not prepared.

Would I recommend...

wanted to go up into the national park to see the stars and decided to go on an organised tour rather than do it myself. I am glad I did and that I did it with these guys; it was really well organised but, more than that, it had been put together with thought, was very engaging and just got better as the tour went on. The icing on the cake was our guide, Nico.

The coach was waiting for us at the appointed time (no hanging around). The tour company sells the tour in different languages and separates coaches by language, so our coach was an English language tour (no listening to the guide repeating in different languages). After we had picked up the other guests and started heading up towards the national park the guide started and pretty much didn’t stop until we were heading back down after the telescopes. I learned a ton about the history of the Canary Islands both political and geological, their flora and fauna and, of course, the stars.

There was a stop on the way up for a coffee or ice cream and then a few stops in the national park for photo s of the volcanic landscape before dinner. I wasn’t expecting much for dinner (it was a set menu) and had to satisfy everyone, including children, but it was well cooked and tasty. After dinner, we headed out again to find a spot to watch the sunset with a glass or two of cava; it’s a moment to enjoy where there are no other signs of life other than the tour group (no houses visible, just the volcanic landscape and El Teide itself). It’s then back to the restaurant for another glass of cava or a hot chocolate as the sky gets dark so that you can head back out away from the lights of the restaurant, let your eyes adjust to the dark and enjoy the stars with a guided talk on a few of the constellations.

As well as a talk through several of the constellations, we saw a few shooting stars and the Starlink satellite train tacking across the sky. The highlight was the Milly Way. I have seen it before but not as clear as this.

We then headed to a spot where telescopes had been set up for us to show us one of the stars in one of the constellations we had been looking at earlier (it’s a binary system), a cluster within the Milky Way (a collection of stars that have consumed all the material of a supernova) and a look at the planet Saturn and its rings). Finally we headed back to our hotel and bed.

Both my thirteen year old son and I thought it was brilliant and beyond what we expected....