Fiat Panda
5 seats · Manual · Economy
€24per day, cheapest in this class right now
✶ North coast, 82 minutes from TFS
Puerto de
la Cruz. The
other island.
The north is cooler, greener and older than the south, and it is where Tenerife was a destination a century before the resorts existed. It is also the best base on the island for the mountain, which is thirty-eight minutes up the valley from here.
✶ Live availability in Puerto de la Cruz
74 cars from €23 a day on these dates
Pick-up and drop-off
Dates
Free cancellation on many carsThe deposit is on the car, before you book itPrices in euros, the figure you see is the figure you pay
Pick-up
Dates
The rock coast, which is what the north has instead of sandTo Teide, El Portillo38 minThe northern entrance, and the shorter climb.
To Tenerife North27 minThirty-one kilometres on the TF-5.
To Santa Cruz30 minAlong the motorway to the capital.
To Tenerife South1 h 22The longest airport run on the island.
Why the north feels like somewhere else
Tenerife has two climates and the ridge down its spine separates them. The trade winds come from the north-east, hit the island, rise, cool, and leave their water on this coast. The result is a valley behind the town that is green all year and terraced with bananas, a coastline of black rock instead of imported sand, and mornings that are often grey when the south is not.
That is not a complaint, it is the reason to be here. The north has the botanical garden, the old streets, the Orotava valley, the laurel forest at Anaga, and the shorter road to the mountain. What it does not have is guaranteed beach weather, which is precisely why a car matters more on this side than on the other.
The drives from here, and they are good ones
This is the best-placed pick-up point on the island for the two things people most want to drive to. Teide at El Portillo is thirty-eight minutes, up through the valley and into the pines, and the road is wide and well surfaced the whole way. Anaga, the ancient laurel forest on the north-east tip, is under an hour, and the road out to Taganana is one of the great small roads in Europe: a ridge, a switchback descent, and a village at the bottom with the Atlantic in front of it.
Garachico is thirty-one minutes west and worth the trip for the lava rock pools alone. Icod de los Vinos, on the way, has a dragon tree that is somewhere between eight hundred and a thousand years old, depending on who you believe.
| Where | Time | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| La Orotava | 9 min | 7 km |
| Icod de los Vinos | 27 min | 22 km |
| Tenerife North | 27 min | 31 km |
| La Laguna | 27 min | 30 km |
| Santa Cruz | 30 min | 38 km |
| Garachico | 31 min | 26 km |
| Teide, El Portillo | 38 min | 29 km |
| Las Teresitas | 44 min | 47 km |
| Taganana (Anaga) | 47 min | 49 km |
| Masca | 49 min | 45 km |
| Teide, Parador de Las Cañadas | 54 min | 44 km |
| Costa Adeje | 1 h 09 | 66 km |
| Tenerife South | 1 h 22 | 97 km |
The airport question
Eighty-two minutes to the south airport is a real consideration and it works both ways. If you flew into the south terminal desks and are staying here, the drive up is the first thing you do and the drive back is the last, and both are an hour and a half of motorway with a mountain range in the middle.
If you can, use the northern airport instead: it is twenty-seven minutes away, it handles most mainland Spanish and inter-island traffic, and collecting there turns a ninety-minute transfer into a half-hour one. Where that is not possible, a one-way is worth pricing.
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✶ Asked about the north
Weather, roads,
and the drive back.
Is the weather really that different from the south?
Yes, and it is the single most useful thing to understand about Tenerife. The trade winds hit the north and leave their moisture on it, so this coast is greener, cooler and considerably cloudier than the south, especially before lunch. That is why the valley behind the town is farmland rather than desert. With a car you drive south for the sun in about an hour; without one you wait for the cloud to lift, and some days it does not.
Which way should I approach Teide from here?
El Portillo, the northern entrance, at thirty-eight minutes. It is much the shorter climb from this side and it goes up through the Orotava valley and into the pine belt, which is the better half of the drive. The Parador down on the crater floor is fifty-four minutes. Both are considerably quicker from here than from anywhere on the south coast, which is a real reason to base yourself in the north for the mountain.
How long is the airport run?
Eighty-two minutes and ninety-seven kilometres to Tenerife South, which is the longest transfer of any pick-up point on the island. Tenerife North is twenty-seven minutes and thirty-one kilometres. If your flight uses the north airport, this is one of the easiest places on Tenerife to base yourself.
Is parking in the old town possible?
Not easily. The centre is old, narrow and partly pedestrianised, which is much of its charm and all of its parking problem. Use the paid underground car parks around the edges and walk in. Blue-lined street bays are metered with a time limit, unmarked white bays are free and rare enough that finding one feels like an achievement.
✶ This side of the ridge
Other northern
collections.
✶ A different half of the island
The north rewards a car more.
Weather here moves between the coast and the ridge in an hour, and the best of it is inland. Many cars cancel free, so booking ahead costs nothing and gives you the option of chasing the sun.