Costa Adeje toLos GigantesCar hire brought to your address · Masca and the Teide crater within the hour

Costa Adeje to Los Gigantes is about 27 minutes and 26 km without traffic, and the hire car for the day is brought to you. Adeje has no named pickup point: it is delivery only, so the car comes to the address you give, a hotel or an apartment, and each listing shows whether delivery is included or priced. The drive to the town of Los Gigantes is the shortest of the three big day drives from the strip; Masca is about 29 minutes and 34 km away, and the Parador in the Teide caldera about 52 minutes and 50 km.

Masca is reached on the TF-436, the only road in and out of the village, and the Parador and the cable car base stand on the TF-21 inside the national park. Hire cars are allowed on paved public roads only, so the tracks in Teno stay off the plan. The shortest chargeable rental is 24 hours, so a car booked for a single day out is charged as a full day.

The TF-436 into Masca has narrow sections where even firefighting vehicles struggle to pass oncoming traffic, and a smaller car is easier to place on them. The TF-21 climbs from the coast to the cable car base at 2,356 m, and the cable car's top station, La Rambleta, stands at 3,555 m.

Automatics are a minority of the list, found mainly in the compact and crossover classes rather than the economy one, so if nobody in the party drives a manual, filter for an automatic from the start. Seven-seaters are scarce, and with children filling one on the crater days, the car seat rules in Spain decide where they sit, so book early.

In Costa Adeje, before setting off. There is no fuel station inside the Teide national park, and none in Los Gigantes or Puerto de Santiago, where the nearest is a DISA on the TF-454 above the resort. On the strip, the BP at Siam Mall on Avenida Siam is open 24 hours, the DISA in San Eugenio from 08:00 to 17:30, and the TGAS Trebol sits at the La Caleta and Adeje junction of the TF-1.

The car goes back with the fuel level it had at the handover. A lower level is charged at the rental company's rates, and a fuller tank is not refunded. Fuel in the Canaries is cheaper than in mainland Spain or the UK; the islands apply neither IVA nor the state hydrocarbons excise, and levy their own fuel tax and IGIC instead. Tenerife's motorways are toll-free, and fuel, parking and fines are the renter's to pay.

These times are without traffic, so a real drive takes that long or longer. Up in the crater it is about 11 degrees colder than on the coast on the annual average, about 14 colder in January and 5 or 6 in August. Tenerife South Airport is about 30 minutes and 22 km the other way.

The handover in Costa Adeje happens at the address you give, so everything an airport handover needs has to be there with you. That is the licence card itself, with its details in Latin script and an expiry no earlier than the end of the rental, since copies and electronic licences are not accepted, and the card the booking asks for in the main driver's name, which can be a physical embossed credit card. If a debit card is accepted, the booking and the voucher say so, and it too has to be physical, personalised, embossed and in the main driver's name.

The phone number given at booking must be reachable throughout the rental and on the day before the car is due. Each car's minimum driver age and experience are on its page, and the agent can refuse the handover if they are not met. How the rest of the rental is paid, how the deposit is held and when it comes back are in the booking and the voucher.

Standard insurance does not cover the wheels, the undercarriage, the windscreen or the interior, and those are the parts a narrow mountain road is most likely to damage. That is the standard level. Each car lists the cover levels it offers and what a higher level adds, so the cover for the Masca and Teide days is picked per car in the search.

After any insured event, tell the rental agent at once and get a police report; without both, the insurance is cancelled and the driver is fully responsible. Deliberate damage or neglect voids the insurance as well.

The questions below cover the day drives from Costa Adeje and the car for them: how long each drive takes, where the car is handed over and what the cover leaves out. The rental conditions are set out in full on the terms page.