Walking on Tenerife in Summer

Although there are far fewer walkers on Tenerife in summer than there are in winter months, it doesn’t mean that you can’t enjoy a long hike around the countryside.

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However, we learned the hard way to be extra careful when deciding what routes to walk on Tenerife between July and September.

Although the temperature rises to the upper 20s (in the shade) during the summer months on Tenerife, the island generally speaking doesn’t get blasted by the searing heat that has Spanish mainlanders descending on Tenerife in their droves.

We were recently walking in The Pyrenees and when the sun was out full blast, found the going quite challenging in shadeless areas.

Anaga Mountains, Tenerife

Our hot weather wake up call on Tenerife happened many years ago in the Anaga Mountains – a beautiful area of Tenerife where the weather gods have a wicked sense of mischief. The Anaga Mountains are a hard place to judge when it comes to weather; criss-crossing micro-climates can lead to quite extreme differences.

And so it was on the day we set off on a route that began shrouded in mist like a tropical rainforest and ended with us traipsing up a shadeless ravine being battered by an unrelenting sun whilst our too-little water supplies seemed to evaporate in the bottle. It was one of those situations when we would have cheered on reaching civilisation again – if our parched throats had allowed us to do so.

After that we made sure that summer walking was done mainly along routes where there was a lot of shade.

Walking in the Pine Forest, La Orotava Valley, Tenerife

Generally speaking La Orotava routes are okay as the valley’s pine forest provides a lot of shade. Additionally, in summer the cloud can hug the valley around the 1000 metre mark which can even make walking quite cool if the bruma (low cloud) decides to wrap itself around you.

For similar reasons, The Anaga Mountains are a good choice for summer walking as long as you choose routes that are mainly through forested areas.

Apart from those main areas we tend to stick to coastal walking where there’s often a sea breeze to keep things from overheating… and usually a bar somewhere along the way.

Rambla del Castro, Los Realejos, Tenerife

The main thing though about walking in summer on Tenerife is to wear a hat, take plenty of water and check the weather forecast before setting out. If there is a weather alert for high temperatures or calima, don’t risk it.

Walking in high temperatures can be as dangerous as walking in gale force winds or monsoon rains.

Jack is co-owner, writer and photographer for Walking Tenerife, The Real Tenerife travel websites and Buzztrips as well as a contributor to lots of other places. Follow Jack on Google+

About Jack 471 Articles
Jack is co-editor, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites as well as a contributor to online travel sites and travel magazines. Follow Jack on Google+

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