It got me thinking of all the places on Tenerife where you turn a corner or emerge above a ridge and are stopped in your tracks by the drama in front of you. Many of those WOW moments come when I’m out walking and they leave an indelible mark on the memory and an itching to go back and capture it again.

Here are just a few of those special places.

Mountain high.
With Mount Teide swathed in a blanket of snow, the winter’s a good time to catch some of the best views of the mountain.

Climbing out of the pretty hamlet of Valle de Arriba on the Erjos to Arguayo route, you follow a narrow path between dry stone walls which slogs endlessly uphill until suddenly the horizon fills with one of the best views of Mount Teide that I have seen on this island – it’s a real track stopper.

On the Pools and Pines walk, you climb to the ridge above the Erjos Pools and emerge onto a wide path where the views over Valle de Arriba open up with Mount Teide and Pico Viejo looming above the valley like Guardian Angels.

One of the enduring images of the mountain is from the path around Roques de Garcia in Teide National Park with the shillelagh-shaped Roque Chinchado framed in front of the peak. It’s an image that must be on millions of memory sticks by now but is no less magnificent for that.

For a truly awesome view, instead of framing Mount Teide, take the cable car ride to 200 metres below its summit and walk to the old peak (Pico Viejo) where you can look down into the volcano’s crater. Beyond it, on a clear day you can see La Gomera and El Hierro floating in the Atlantic – now that’s what I call a WOW view!

Valley deep.
Climb through the forest from La Caldera on the Northern Exposure route and you’ll emerge onto a ridge overlooking the La Orotava Valley and Puerto de la Cruz to the Atlantic Ocean beyond. If you’ve got any breath left after the climb, prepare to have it taken away.

Follow the Cruz Del Carmen to Chinamada route in the Anaga Mountains and after strolling through some of the most ancient forests on the planet you’ll follow a mountain trail that emerges above the cave dwellers settlement of Chinamada. Views open out in wide screen splendour all the way down the coast to Punta Del Hidalgo and inland along deep ravines dotted with tiny white houses clinging to the slopes like mountaineers.

Come to think of it, walk anywhere in the Anaga Mountains and you’re pretty much guaranteed to have your lips semi-permanently pursed in the WOW position. Until you’ve walked its paths, you can’t claim to have seen the best of Tenerife’s varied and spectacular walking terrain.

The Erjos Pools in Santiago del Teide are one of our favourite spots on Tenerife but for many a year events have conspired to prevent us from hiking them.
We first ‘discovered’ the pools in 2006 and enjoyed a fabulous walk which we then vowed to take our friend Sarah on when she next came to visit.

Unfortunately, on the day we chose to take Sarah, dense low bruma (cloud) shrouded the whole of the Santiago del Teide Valley and the Erjos Pools and we couldn’t even see the pine forest, let alone navigate our way to the path that led up through it. After wandering aimlessly in the drizzle whilst nursing serious hangovers (one of the side effects of a visit from Sarah), we abandoned the walk and headed to the Las Fleytas bar instead.

The following year forest fires devastated the entire area, destroying the forest and the undergrowth which led to the pools drying up and for the next two years we kept an anxious eye on the Erjos Pools to see if they would recover. Thankfully, they did.

A couple of weeks ago we spent an idyllic weekend at the Rural Hotel Señorio del Valle in Santiago del Teide and we took the opportunity to finally hike around the Erjos Pools again and this time, to record our route so we never lose the trail again, regardless of the weather.

After navigating our way through the maze of paths that riddle the pools, we set off to climb to the ridge…only to find that we weren’t on the same path we’d taken on our original walk! But we decided to persevere and see where it would lead us.

The path turned out to be a really lovely one that climbed above the pools and through the welcome shade of tree heathers before finally taking us to the ridge above Valle de Arriba with breathtaking views of the valley to Mount Teide and Pico Viejo.

We were very pleased with ourselves; not only had we finally returned to hike one of our favourite spots, but we’d chronicled a whole new route – an even better one than the one we originally did. We’ve called it Pools and Pines and it’s now part of the ‘Into the Valley – Erjos to Arguayo’ Island Walks.

As this is an update to an existing area, anyone who has bought the Into the Valley Island Walks from us, either individually or as part of the All Walks offer, just email me and I’ll send you the updated version free of charge.

And here’s just a little snippet of this lovely walk…

Perfectly placed for anyone who intends hiking the Masca Barranco, it’s also an idyllic base from which to explore the natural beauty of the Erjos Pools, the Chinyero National Park and the quaint hamlets of Valle de Arriba and Arguayo.

The hotel forms one part of a whole series of features built on the Casa del Patio site of the former home of Santiago del Teide’s 17th century Lord of the Manor, Fernando del Hoyo y Solórzano. With hens, ducks and the occasional cat running around the grounds freely, the original 1660s buildings have been restored to house a museum dedicated to the Chinyero eruption of November 1909; a characteristic bar and beautifully restored tasca serving excellent typical Canarian cuisine; an art gallery; a bodega and cheese museum and a small gift shop.
Here you’ll also find riding stables where you can book a lesson or a ride or take a trip in a pony and trap to the neighbouring hamlet of Valle de Arriba.

The Rural Hotel Señorio Del Valle is rustic simplicity at its best. High wooden beamed ceilings and warm terracotta walls are teamed up with modern artwork and WiFi to provide guests with the best of the old and the new. The 16 double rooms are all individually decorated and named after local flowers and there are two rooms with large terraces and a Junior Suite. bedrooms are temperature controlled and have wonderful high, vaulted wooden ceilings. Beds are on the large side of king-sized, there’s plenty of wardrobe and drawer space and the views are breathtaking. Bathrooms are spacious with powerful showers and two hand basins. The hotel kitchen provides the food for the tasca as well as for the hotel dining room and is freshly cooked using organic vegetables and herbs from the kitchen garden. Besides the dining room, there’s a small cafeteria with a lovely covered terrace overlooking the stables and beyond them, Montaña Bilma and Pico Viejo (the old peak of Mount Teide).

The location is hard to beat for tranquillity and, other than the chiming of the bells of nearby Iglesia San Fernando Rey which only ring during ‘civilised’ hours, the silence is broken only by the occasional whinny of horses or the gossiping of the ducks.
When I stayed there, I could feel my shoulders relaxing from the moment I walked through its doors and I was very reluctant to pull myself away at the end of the two days.

You won’t find any night life in Santiago del Teide but a good shower, great food and wine beneath a star-studded sky and a comfortable bed in elegant, rustic surroundings are a hiker’s best friends.

Tossing a coin is only going to end in an argument, so why not catch the brand new Guagua de Vino (wine bus) which has just started running tours to the island’s vineyards every Saturday.

Between now and December, a whole range of different wine excursions have been planned, visiting vineyards and historic towns, as well as themed tapas & wine routes and special excursions to unforgettable events like the Corpus Christi carpets in La Orotava.

The Guagua de Vino departs from Puerto de la Cruz each Saturday and priced range from €20 (without food) to €40 (meals provided).

Details of routes and pick up points can be found here (in Spanish)