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1. Hi Dawn,
   Out of curiosity, which email address did you contact? I searched for your email address and couldn’t find anything. La Gomera and Gran Canaria are particularly good for walking from rural hotels straight onto trails. My first choice on La Gomera would be Vallehermoso and somewhere like the Tamahuche. On Gran Canaria Tejeda is a crossroads of walking paths. The Parador is perfectly placed. But there’s also Hotel Fonda de la Tea in the village itself.
   On Tenerife Casona del Patio in Santiago del Teide is a good base if you want to walk straight onto some good routes.
   Those would be my first choices but there are places on most of the islands where you could access walks from certain hotels. There are a couple of other things to consider. Public transport connections and also the level of walking you’re looking for. Some areas have routes to suit different levels, whereas in others it can be more challenging. Each of the islands has a different personality, so even what type of landscape you prefer (forests, lush valleys, volcanic etc.) is worth thinking about as well.

2. That waiting till your in a middle of a big walking group before they set off annoys the hell out of me as well. Yours sounds ridiculous, no wonder you were gobsmacked. We’ve just walked the Samaria Gorge in Crete and managed to avoid groups apart from one where the guide was off like a hare and then waited for the whole group to catch up at every single resting area. We’d catch up, then she’d pass us again before waiting at the next rest area for the slowest walkers in the group. We’d pass the group again, she’d pass us again… and so on. Not only was it annoying, it meant they dominated every single picnic area until the slowest walkers mutinied and then we never saw them for the rest of the route.

3. Hi! My wife, son and I are considering a trip to Tenerife in January. We love trekking from town to town, and wondered if there is a three day route that would take us through some of the beautiful parts of Tenerife to stay in decent accommodations without a lot of travel on paved roads. Your website describes a lot of amazing places, but it seems like there are too many choices, and I am not sure which publication to buy. We would appreciate any guidance you might be able to give us!

4. Hi Kirk,

   Thanks for the comments and you’re right, there is a wonderful range of choices. There’s rural accommodation all across Tenerife, but because of the shape of the island and the population centres it’s not always the best walking between them. It is possible though. We created a package for a specialist walking company in the UK and it took a lot of time to piece together routes. Our own routes are mostly circular so that people don’t have to bother about the logistics of getting back to the start when they’ve completed the route. It would require a customised package for what you’re looking for and I’m afraid we just don’t have the time to offer that service. One option would be to base yourself in various rural hotels where there are routes from the door and explore the walking in each area. The Parador in Teide National Park is good for that, but quite expensive. From the Casona del Patio in Santiago del Teide you can access a variety of diverse walks. Sorry I can’t be more helpful. J

5. Hi

   We are coming to Tenerife over December and looking forward to hiking in the Anaga mountains in the North. Can you tell me please where would be a good place to base ourselves for several day, one or two towns, that is outside the cities, but that has facilities like resteraunts and groceries etc please. Much obliged

6. Hi there do you have any hotels that you can recommend minimum 3 star based near the north for walking and exploring from 8-15 December?

   Thank you
   Sharon
   Scotland

7. There are loads of hotels Sharon, far too many to list. It depends where you want to base yourself. Whether you want coast or inland, a place with a good choice of restaurants etc or you prefer to go rural. And whether you want a base which is traditional, a mix of traditional and resort, or resort.

8. The irony of Anaga is that although it’s a remote part of Tenerife, it’s also close to the most populated part of Tenerife, La Laguna and Santa Cruz. La Laguna is the most convenient base for accessing Anaga. However, it is a city. But its old quarter is a UNESCO World Heritage Site though. For quieter towns look at San Andrés or, better, around Bajamar/Punta de Hidalgo on the opposite coast. You can walk right into the Anagas from Punta de Hidalgo.

9. Dear Jack and Andy
   We are staying in San Andres for the first two weeks in April. We have two children aged 4 and 6, used to doing 5-8 km walks. We have the Walk! Tenerife book but most walks seem a little ambitious with kids in tow. If you could recommend any walks either in the Anaga or further afield we would be really grateful (w e plan to visit the Mt Tiede national park at some point but I imagine its a long car journey from San Andres. Clear and relatively easy paths would be helpful. We will have a car. Day walks or half-day walks or just an hour or two rambles all appreciated.

10. Hi Sam,
    In our Walk This Way Tenerife book we have an Appendix which lists 11 family-friendly walks which we’ve defined as being under 10km or 3hrs and having some element of fun or surprise during or at the end. Those walks include three in Teide National Park (one of which might be a bit tough for your two as they’re so young) which includes the chance to ‘surf’ down a small volcano and which are in our Hiking Highs PDFs; one in Santiago del Teide which includes dragonfly and duck populated pools and is in our Into The Valley PDFs; and an easy, flat, circular route around the site of the island’s last volcanic eruption which is in our Lost Worlds & Lava PDFs; PLUS, the coastal walks of Buenavista, Guimar and San Juan de la Rambla are all nice ones for families, all of which are in the free copy of Captivating Coastline you get with any purchase.
    Have a great holiday!

11. Hi
    In a former life (as a Travel Rep) I worked in the South so know the island pretty well, but I didn’t do any hiking then. We are planning on revisiting TNF and would like to stay away from the resorts so could you suggest a good central location for hiking your routes (we are both experienced hill walkers/mountaineers)? We will be hiring a car so can you advise on any issues with parking at trail heads etc? Finally am I correct in assuming that the road infrastructure has improved since I was there in the 1980 or has this just been offset by an increase in traffic? If that is the case would you suggest staying in the North rather than the South/West? We are planning on visiting in December.

12. Hi Richard,
    The routes cover the island so there are sets to suit most areas. Although you’d prefer to stay away from the resorts, we usually suggest Puerto de la Cruz as the best base for walking in the north as you can access Anaga, Teno, Teide National Park and the Orotava Valley (the best walking areas in our opinion) relatively easily. It’s where the Tourist Board uses as a base for Tenerife’s Walking Festival. But if you wanted somewhere less like a resort, La Orotava is right behind Puerto (as I’m sure you know) and has a handful of small, historic hotels. Garachico is also a good, traditional base with a couple of excellent boutique/historic small hotels, but not quite as central for accessing all the northern routes.

    If you’d prefer to stay south and travel, or just stick to the routes in the south, south west, and west then Santiago del Teide is a good base for walking (there’s one good rural hotel there) but it is a bit limited in terms of restaurants etc. The south west trio of Los Gigantes, Puerto Santiago and Playa de la Arena are obviously resorts, but Alcala and Playa San Juan still have more of a Canarian feel if you want too stick to the coast. The southwest hill towns are more authentic but lack charm.

    We include details of where to park with each route (there’s always somewhere) and yes, the road system has improved. It’s easy to get around (a newish road now links the south west with the north). One of the up sides to improvements to the TF motorway is the older roads are now quieter if anything, although the TFs can get congested.

    Hope this helps.

    Jack

13. Jack, I’m returning to Puerto de la Cruz for the second time this year, and intend walking routes around “Caldera”. I notice route PR-TF 35 is officially closed – are there other routes open from “Caldera” down to Aguamansa?

    Thanks for your articles.

14. Hi Brian, You might find our update from last year interesting. Here’s a link. One of the routes we include in our Northern Exposure set is a shorter circular route from La Caldera to Aguamansa.

15. HI
    My husband and I are going to Tenerife from the 12.-16. December, him for a meeting and me to relax. BUT we have 1 day extra before returning home and would love to hike in Rural de Anaga park. Our first stay on the island and don’t know much!
    We are staying at La Laguna Gran Hotel and would like to ask you for your advise for a walk at around 8-10 km? We are both use to hike but as I have had a hip operation the grade of difficulties should not be too high! We don’t have a car but will need to take public transport.
    Thank you so very much for your help – enjoy the day!
    Susan Fey
    Denmark

16. Sorry for the delay in replying, we’ve been out and about researching new walking routes (not in Tenerife). Anaga is our favourite area on Tenerife for walking and you’re in the best location for getting there by public transport;although bus routes are infrequent (it’s not a heavily populated are) so careful planning is required. I’m afraid all three routes we have in our Anaga walking package are over 10km. I’m not sure it’s the right area for you at the moment as, apart from very short routes from the likes of Cruz del Carmen, the terrain in that area means most routes involve some steepish ascents and descents on quite rough paths. You could always set off from Cruz del Carmen on one of the signed routes and walk as far as you feel comfortable with. A couple of alternatives are to catch a bus to Tegueste (inland traditional town with a good circular walk) or Punta de Hidalgo where you can walk along the coast into the foothills of the Anagas. We don’t have routes for either of these. The coast at Punta de Hidalgo is obvious but Tegueste isn’t so well signposted so would require some map work to piece together. It’s a nice little route though. The other good thing about these is that the buses are more frequent. Incidentally, La Laguna Gran is a very nice hotel, the old city is wonderful for exploring and there are lots of atmospheric traditional restaurants to try.

17. Just bought your book Walk this way tenerife on Amazon in readiness for our trip to Tenerife next week!

    I’ve tried some of the GPS references for the start of the walk and it seems to show the middle of the ocean. Is there an updated list?

18. Hi John,

    There is. I’ve just sent them to you by email. We’ve no idea how that happened but have now checked all the GPS references and are in the process of updating them in the guidebook.

19. Hi Jack – we have just returned from a 9 week winter break in Tenerife staying in Puerto de Santiago. We managed to fit in 18 walks,13 of them from your fantastic book! ……mostly up up up and up – just over 350km! Not bad for a couple of pensioners?

    Can’t recommend your book highly enough – I downloaded the kindle version onto my phone and the directions were superb.

    This winter we are planning to stay over on the East coast – somewhere between El Medano and Candelaria – P de S was a little too commercialised for us but it was ok as a base.

    I wondered if there is somewhere on that coast you would recommend?

20. Hi Jennefer, and thanks for the feedback. I can’t tell you how much it means to us to hear that you enjoyed the book and the walking as much as we did putting it all together. On the east coast I’d probably favour El Medano as it has a totally different vibe to any other coastal town/resort and is a nice size to use as a base. It is breezy of course, hence the windsurfers and kite-boarders, but that’s the east coast for you. I like Candelaria as well but it has two sides to it. The older area around the Basilica has a load of charm and the coast is pleasant enough, but the sprawling surrounding newer town, although authentic, can be a bit charmless.

21. Hi, just wanted to say we have just come back from a week’s hiking on Tenerife and used your Walk this Way book everyday! Really appreciated the detailed directions and the well organised information. We started on your favourites list but still have a few more to do! We were staying in El Sauzal and found it a good base for accessing the different mountain areas. How would you compare it to some of the other locations you mention on the north coast? Glad to hear we weren’t the only ones having trouble with the GPS locations – fortunately google maps could find all your restaurants, parking spots and bars no problem!

22. Thanks Louise. Really glad you found the book useful. We like El Sauzal (some very decent restaurants), and it’s not badly placed for accessing Anaga routes. But maybe limited for a longish stay. I’d say the same for most of the other northern hill towns which tend to be more working towns, although still with historic and interesting parts. The old half of La Orotava is an exception. It attracts a lot of tourists during the day but is a very different pace after dark. The Tenerife Tourist Board use Puerto de la Cruz as a base for the Walking Festival as it’s good for accessing north east and north west walks as well as the Orotava Valley. La Orotava ticks that box as well. We’ve just been checking route directions and stayed in La Laguna for easy access to Anaga (it means completely bypassing the commuter traffic which clogs up the TF5 in the mornings) and then Garachico for easy access to north western routes. We like being in decent-sized, historical centres with a good choice of restaurants so La Orotava, La Laguna and Garachico fit the bill. The downside is that both La Laguna and La Orotava are cooler than at the coast, especially La Laguna.

23. HI I AM TRYING TO PURCHASE TENERIFE SOUTH WALKING ROUTES TO INCLUDE CAPTIVATING COASTLINE COASTAL WALKS BUT PAYPAL IS NOT WORKING FOR ME IS THERE A PROBLEM?

24. Hello Maurice,

    As far as I’m aware there isn’t an issue with Paypal. It’s a worldwide online payments system used by millions of businesses, so it would be headline news if there were technical problems with users being unable to make transactions. I’ve accessed it using our accounts and checked out information sources online but can’t see any notifications of known issues. What specific problems are you experiencing?

25. Hi folks,
    Thought I’d reach out and ask advice before purchasing anything.
    I’m considering a week long trip to Tenerife probably the first week of March ’23. I’d like to spend 3-5 dyas of that week hiking.
    Having always hired cars in the past I recently spent a week hiking on Madeira only using public transport. I basically used the Rother hiking book. Everything was great and I wondered if the same was possible on Tenerife.
    I’ve never been to the Island before and know nothing about where to base myself etc
    I’m a solo traveller who usually self caters in airbnbs but I’m always open to other options-just never really like the restrictive nature of hotels.
    Would really appreciate any advice you could give and what walks would be best for myself.
    Having read your post about hiking using paublic transport I realise that some are simply too much work.
    Hoping you might be able to help.

26. Hi Simon,
    Public transport is never going to make walks as accessible as having your own means of getting around. But the public transport network is very good, cheap, and you can use it to get to many great walking routes (we include bus options in the guides). However, it’s important to be based somewhere with a good bus network. The best walking is in the north of Tenerife and, as most Canarios live in the north, the most comprehensive routes are there as well. Puerto de la Cruz is the best place to base yourself for the widest choice of routes – you can get to the heart of the Orotava Valley, Teide National Park, routes in Isla Baja, and to La Laguna where you can pick up buses to Anaga (more infrequent).
    Hope this helps you decide.

27. Hi, my husband and I like to have a walking holiday in January either in the Canaries or Madeira. We have been to several islands but not Tenerife. We like to use buses and don’t hire a car. The best place to stay seems to be Puerto de la Cruz, if we stay there for around 10 days would we be able to access enough walks, we like to walk 10 – 15 km but not too mountainous as my husband now has a bad back.

28. Good choice, Puerto de la Cruz is the base for the annual walking festival because it’s best placed for accessing a variety of great walks either by car or public transport. There are plenty of diverse walks within that range – routes through the volcanic landscape of Teide National Park, in the pine forest (although some parts are currently out of bounds due to the impact of the summer fire, along the coast, in the laurel forests and valleys of Anaga to the east and Teno to the west. You can access most of the island via public transport; although, the more rural the area, the less frequent the service. Like the other western Canaries, it is quite mountainous. Parts aren’t unlike Madeira, so you should have an idea what to expect. It is a fab island for walking.

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