Teideby carAn hour up from the coast · and ten degrees colder
The crater is about an hour from the southern coast in a rental car, and the road to it is the best drive on the island. From the south you climb the TF-21 through Vilaflor, out of the scrub and into the pine forest, then out of the trees altogether onto a floor of lava that looks like a different planet with a volcano standing on it. From the north the approach comes round to El Portillo and takes about a quarter of an hour longer. Same park, different film.
Two things are worth knowing before you plan the day around a number. The drive is longer than the distance because almost all of it is climbing: fifty kilometres that gain two thousand metres take an hour whatever you drive. And the time depends heavily on where you start, far more than people expect. From the northern coast the crater is closer than from any southern resort, because the north side of the island is simply higher up to begin with.
The one most people take, and the most dramatic: out of the dry scrub, through the terraces at Vilaflor, into the pines and then out above them onto the lava. Wide, sealed and endlessly switchbacked. Vilaflor is the last place to fill up or buy anything.
Up through La Orotava and the northern pine forest to the park's northern gate. The shortest approach on the island if you are staying anywhere on the north coast, and the one that most reliably climbs you out of the cloud within twenty minutes.
The long way, and for a certain kind of driver the best: an old road that runs the spine of the island through pine forest with views down both coasts. Slower than the map suggests and worth taking one way and coming back another.
Up from Santiago del Teide, and the quietest of the four. It joins the main park road on the western side and pairs neatly with a day that also takes in the west coast cliffs.
Puerto de la Cruz, 38 minTo El Portillo, twenty-nine kilometres. The shortest run to the park from anywhere on the island, which is the strongest practical argument for basing a driving holiday in the north.
Tenerife North airport, 46 minForty-three kilometres to El Portillo, up through La Laguna. If your flights allow the northern airport, the crater is an easy first morning rather than a planned expedition.
Playa de las Americas, 51 minForty-seven kilometres to the Parador on the caldera floor, up the TF-21. Costa Adeje is a minute more and Los Cristianos two, so the whole southern strip is within an hour.
El Medano, 51 minForty-seven kilometres, inland through Granadilla and up to Vilaflor. The same hour as the resorts, from the opposite end of the southern coast.
Tenerife South airport, 62 minForty-nine kilometres via Vilaflor. It is perfectly possible to land, collect at the terminal and drive straight up, though the light and the cold at the top make an early start the better plan.
Santa Cruz, 52 to 67 minFifty-two minutes to El Portillo along the ridge, sixty-seven round to the Parador. From the capital the ridge road is the one to take, and it is the drive rather than the destination.
Those are free-flow times measured by routing, so a real journey is that or longer, never shorter. Add time for stopping, because you will stop, and add more in the afternoon when the coaches are coming back down.
Price a car for your dates and your own pickup point, and the crater is an hour away from almost anywhere on the island.
You finish at over two thousand metres, and both you and the car notice. A small petrol engine loses a noticeable slice of its power in thin air, so the last climb is slower than you expect and an automatic makes the switchbacks considerably less tiring. Coming down, stay in a low gear rather than riding the brakes: an hour of continuous descent is what overheats them.
The cold is the part people underprepare for. Ten degrees below the coast is the working rule and the gap is wider at dawn and after sunset, so a car that left a resort at twenty-four degrees can arrive at the caldera in single figures with a wind on top of it. Air conditioning will not be what you want; the heater will, and the windscreen will fog on the way back down as you drop into warmer air. That is normal and it clears in a minute with the blower on.
One more mechanical note. The last part of the climb is long, steady and in second or third gear, and a small engine will sit near the top of its range for a while doing it. That is what the car is for and it will not hurt it, but it is loud, it uses fuel faster than the flat, and it is genuinely tiring in a manual with four people aboard. If your party is four adults, hiring a class up is money spent on this one drive.
Ten degrees colder is the rule of thumb, and more at dawn or after sunset. Snow sits up there for weeks most winters, and when it falls heavily the park roads close outright for a day or two rather than needing chains.
There are no petrol stations inside the park. Fill up in Vilaflor or on the motorway, because an hour up and an hour back is a real chunk of a small tank.
The park is a World Heritage site and the tracks off the main roads are for the wardens. Hire terms allow paved public roads only in any case, so the sealed roads are both the legal option and the one your insurance recognises.
The park is at its best before the coaches and the cloud, and the light on the lava in the first two hours is the reason photographers go up at dawn. In winter, check before you set off: heavy snow closes the roads outright for a day or two rather than making them passable with chains.
It runs from the roadside on the caldera floor and it queues, so if that is the plan, arrive early and park before the bays fill. The drive itself is worth the day regardless, and the road across the caldera is the best part of it.
Standard insurance excludes the wheels, the underside, the windscreen and the interior, and a park road with lava at the edge of it is a good place to find the first two. It is worth reading the cover before you pick the car rather than after.
Any car on the island will get up there, and the park roads are wide and sealed the whole way, so this is a question about comfort rather than capability. Two adults in a small car have an easy day. Four adults with luggage in the smallest class will spend the last twenty minutes at high revs, and the difference a class up makes on that climb is larger than the difference in the daily rate.
An automatic is the other upgrade that earns its money here. The approach roads are switchbacks for the better part of an hour, and in thin air a small petrol engine loses power, so a manual asks for constant gear changes on the way up and disciplined use of a low gear on the way down. Automatics are a smaller share of the of them here than in the UK and they go first in the busy weeks, so filter for one from the start rather than hoping.
The questions below are the ones that decide how the day goes: how long it takes from your side of the island, what the car needs to be, and what the weather at two thousand metres does to a plan made on the coast.
How long does it take from the south?
About an hour from the airport to the caldera floor, roughly fifty kilometres by the TF-21 through Vilaflor, and a little under an hour from the resorts, which start further west but higher up the road. From the north side, coming round to El Portillo, it is thirty-eight minutes from Puerto de la Cruz and forty-six from the northern airport. Neither approach is a hard drive; both are longer than the distance suggests.
Do I need a four wheel drive or snow chains?
No. The park roads are sealed and well maintained and an ordinary hire car does it all year. Snow closes the roads outright for a day or two most winters rather than making them passable with chains, so if it snows, the answer is to go another day.
Is the cable car worth booking?
If you want the summit, yes, and book ahead because it sells out. Note that the very top requires a separate permit obtained well in advance; the cable car takes you to the upper station, not the crater rim.
How cold does it get up there?
Reckon on ten degrees colder than the coast, more in winter and at dawn. People arrive from a beach resort in shorts and last about four minutes outside the car. Take a jacket even in August.
Can I stay for the sunset?
Yes, and it is the best reason to make the trip. Remember that the drive down afterwards is an hour of unlit hairpins, so it suits a driver who is happy in the dark and a car with headlights you have checked.
Live prices for your dates from any pickup point on the island, with the deposit and the cover shown on every car before you commit.