Frequently Asked Questions
About Island Walks…
Q How can I get your walking guides?
A Just click the ‘Buy Island Walks’ tab at the top of the page or follow this link and use the ‘Add to Cart’ buttons.
Q Do I have to pay for your walking guides?
A We are trying to find a way to exist without eating, drinking or paying any bills. As soon as we’ve cracked it, we’ll give our guides away. Until then I’m afraid we have to make a small charge.
Q Can I buy just one walking guide?
A No. Until February 2019 we sold routes for individual areas on Tenerife. But due to an ever increasing demand for automatic downloads we have changed to a system where we can deliver this. The downside to this improvement is that we can only do this with the full set of all Tenerife walking routes.
Q Can I just buy the Captivating Coastline guide?
A A free copy of Captivating Coastline is sent with every order for Island Walks, Island Drives, and Town & City Guides. It is not available to buy separately. Think of it as a gift from us to our customers.
Q I’m not sure about using Paypal; can I just send you a cheque instead?
A Paypal is a fast, convenient and extremely secure way to pay. The cost to us of banking a cheque (particularly in currencies other than the euro) can be higher than its value – something we hope you’ll understand is simply not good business practice. For that reason, we’re sorry but we cannot accept cheques as payment.
Q Paypal only asked me for a delivery address so how can you send the guides to my email?
A Paypal informs us of the email address used to make the order and that is the one we send the guides to. If you wish to have your order delivered to a different email address, just send us a message as soon as you’ve completed your order.
Q Are your walks available in a book?
A Yes. Walk This Way Tenerife is available on Amazon.co.uk and on Amazon.com. Includes all of the walks available through downloadable PDFs plus additional routes in Teide National Park, Vilaflor, Teno Rural Park and Adeje.
Q What is a PDF document?
A Portable Document File is like an electronic version of a printed page which makes it very easy to send, store, view and print pages online. In order to view and print PDFs, you need Acrobat Reader which is pre-installed on most computers. If you don’t have it, you can upload it free of charge quickly, easily and safely from here.
Walking Areas on Tenerife
Q Where do you consider is the best area for walking on Tenerife?
A Without a doubt, the best walking on the island is in the north, showcased through our Northern Exposure and Stepping Back in Time walks. The best place to base yourself if you’re not hiring a car, is in Puerto de la Cruz. Buses will get you from the town into the La Orotava Valley, Teide National Park and into the Anaga Mountains (via La Laguna).
Q Can I get to your walking routes by public transport?
A All our walking guides include information on bus routes from the main resorts. Although there is a very good bus service on Tenerife, some walks are difficult to do using public transport due to the infrequency of the service and travelling time. For that reason, if you are based in the south or west of the island and do not intend hiring a car, the Cruz Del Carmen to Chinamada walks are probably beyond your reach.
Q How do I know which of your walks might be too hard for me?
A Each walk comes with our ‘level of difficulty’ guide from 2 to 5 (see top right of this page) and the descriptions for each walking area on the Buy Island Walks page show what level of walks are within that area so you can see before you buy. The majority of our walks are at 3 hikers level, well within the reach of any reasonably fit person without walking difficulties. Here’s a link to how we grade our routes.
Q I want to follow your Hiking Highs routes and go walking in Teide National Park. Can I get there by public transport?
A Yes…and no. There is a regular bus service to Teide National Park from Puerto de la Cruz, Los Cristianos and Playa de Las Américas so it’s feasible to do it if you’re staying in one of those resorts. But the bus only runs twice a day – once to get you up there, and once to get you back. If you’re staying anywhere else, trying to link up with the only bus could prove a bit risky. To get the most from walking in this spectacular landscape, we recommend hiring a car.
Q I am staying in Los Cristianos/Playa de Las Américas/Costa Adeje. Can you tell me some good walks to do in that area?
A The Old South walking routes are perfect for you with five fabulous walks from the leg stretching challenge of Mount Guaza, through cooling pine forests above Adeje and a pretty rural trail from the village of San Miguel to the classic Barranco del Infierno (Hell’s ravine) walk itself.
Q I am staying in Los Gigantes/Puerto Santiago/Playa de la Arena. Can you tell me some walks to do from here?
A The classic walk in the west of Tenerife is the Masca Barranco. It’s a 3 hour trek down a steep sided ravine from the remote village of Masca to the beach. From there, a boat ride will take you back to Los Gigantes (buy a ticket in Masca village before you set off). There are also some lovely walks in the hills above the west coast, all of these routes are in our West World series.
Q I am staying in Puerto de la Cruz/Santa Cruz. Can you tell me some good walks to do in that area?
A In our opinion, the best walking on Tenerife is in the north so you’re in for a treat! The lush forest beauty of La Orotava Valley is just a stone’s throw from Puerto de la Cruz and you can enjoy some truly stunning walks with the Northern Exposure routes.
But the pinnacle of Tenerife walking is without doubt the Anaga Mountains. Through ancient rain forests to troglodyte communities and coastal settlements accessible only by long mountain treks or from the sea, the Cruz del Carmen to Chinamada routes are guaranteed to wow you.
General
Q Can you tell me some short, easy walks I can do on Tenerife?
A This is always a tricky one for us because your idea of an easy walk might be our idea of a stroll, but generally speaking, the coastal walks in Captivating Coastline tend to be what we would call ‘easy’. If you’re staying in the south of Tenerife you can enjoy what’s known locally as The Geranium Walk. It’s the wide promenade that hugs the coast all the way from La Caleta to Los Cristianos and is easy walking, always within a hair’s breadth of cafes, bars and restaurants – perfect strolling ground. You can dip in and out of the Geranium Walk as you please and turn back when you feel you’ve gone half as far as you want to walk!
Can you walk dogs on these
You can take dogs for walks on most routes in the countryside, the locals do. In some places a leash is required.
Hi
I am looking for some sound local advice. We have booked 3 nights in the Montes De Anaga hostel in mid December. Our main aim ifs to do 3 days hiking. Having looked at various blogs and web sites we are a bit concerned about a few things. 1) is this one of the best locations we could stay to get some good hikes in? 2) Is there much chance of getting decent weather in Anaga this time of year? 2a) is there enough variety of walks from the hostel without a car? 2b) The roads look very narrow and winding is it a bit risky driving around that area? Any other advice you are willing to share would be most welcome. We have 3 weeks split between Tenerife and Gran Canaria, and as we live in Scotland we do want some winter sun but do not want to anywhere near the mass tourism evident on both Islands:) best wishes Fiona
Hi Fiona,
Interesting choice of accommodation. It’s an ideal base for exploring Anaga, but it is remote and basic. The roads are absolutely fine. They can be winding but mostly they’re wide enough for two cars. We think Anaga has the best walking on Tenerife, but one of Tenerife’s strengths is the diversity of its terrain, so although Anaga is wonderful for walking it’s a shame to miss out other walking highlights – Teno, Teide National Park, the upper Orotava Valley. Mass tourism is restricted only to the south and south west, you’ll find just about everywhere else is very Canarian. It’s the same on Gran Canaria, the southern resorts are nothing like most of the rest of the island.
As for sunshine. December is usually good, but the hostel is at around 700m above sea level and you’ll find it substantially cooler than at the coast. There’s also low cloud called bruma which can roll in at that level. However, you’re not far from the road leading to Playa de las Teresitas, not a tourist beach but a beach for Santa Cruceros, and that coast is an especially sunny one.
Hope this helps,
I’ve ordered your book . What Map/s do you recommend to use alongside it ?
Hi Neil,
Apologies for the slow response, we’ve been walking in the Algarve over the last week. The book’s designed in such a way that a map shouldn’t be necessary. Saying that, maps are always good safety nets to have. The truth is we’ve never found a map for Tenerife that we’ve been completely satisfied with, but the best in our opinion is Kompass.
Hello we are staying in fasnia and happy to drive for a maximum of an hour. Which guides should we buy which will offer the most impressive walking and be within reach. Thankns
Can I purchase a print copy of these guides once I am in Tenerife? They all look terrific, but I’d like to have a print copy as well as the pdf.
Hi. We have bought your book and have put the coordinates into Google but they end up off the coast of Tenerife in the sea. We have double checked we have put the coordinates in correctly and also googled the correct format but it still ends up in the sea. Any suggestions
Hi Leila,
Apologies for the delay in responding, we’ve just returned from hiking in the Scottish Highlands. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. I’ve checked a few and can’t quite understand why some are way out and others not, but still not on the button, as they were all recorded from a Garmin. The directions were originally written so that GPS wasn’t required to find the start of the routes. I’ll have a closer look at this and send you an updated list with the correct co-ordinates tomorrow (5/10/2018). Once again, apologies and thanks.
Jack
Are there any multi-day hikes? We prefer 3 day hikes and camping in our tent for the night! Is such a thing possible on Tenerife?
With the amount of trails on Tenerife it’s relatively easy to create any number of multi-day hikes. You can do it to link hotels (like the package we helped put together for Slow Travel specialists Inntravel in the UK), or so that you could link campsites. But they do take quite a bit of planning and knowledge of the terrain area etc, plus you have to prearrange permits for campsites if you want to camp officially.