Tenerife Cycling Climbs

Climb	Town	Altitude (m)	Length (km)	Gradient (%)	Difficulty	Rating
El Teide	Los Gigantes	2325	51.8	4.5	1221	*****
El Teide	Playa de San Juan	2325	53	4.4	1221	*****
El Teide	El Médano	2325	51.5	4.5	1302	****
El Teide	Puerto de la Cruz	2325	46.7	5	1356	****
El Teide	Santa Cruz	2325	63.7	3.6	1316	***
Mirador de Masca	Masca	1045	4.2	10.3	684	*****
Mirador de Chirche	Guia de Isora	874	3.6	11.6	679	***
Mirador de la Cumbre	Arafo	1690	19	6.9	1014	****
Erjos	Garachico	1090	20.1	5.4	645	***
Pico del Inglés	La Laguna	965	9.2	4.5	252	****
Pico del Inglés	San Andrés	965	22.8	4.2	559	*****
Taganana	Playa de las Bodegas	555	6.5	8.4	790	*****
Teno Alto	El Palmar	861	3.9	8.6	542	***
Teno Alto	Teno	861	5.1	4.3	243	****
Tierra de Trigo	Sibora	1105	13.5	8.2	1544	****

Mountains

Tenerife is a cycling paradise for riders that love to climb. The whole island is basically one large volcano and you will be hard pressed to find many flat roads.

At the centre of the island is the peak of El Teide, the highest mountain in all of Spain and home to many professional cyclists during the winter. Elsewhere on Tenerife there are excellent climbs to be found in the Añaga Natural Park and the Teno Natural Park, at either extreme of the island.

Scenery

Tenerife is a beautiful island witha lot of diversity. The Teide National Park in the centre is as spectacular as you would expect for a 3.700m high volcano. In the south of the island the landscape is predominantly dry and rocky, whereas towards the north it is more forested and wild.

You can check out some of our favourite routes in our short Guide to Cycling in Tenerife.

Roads

The road surfaces are of a consistently high quality in Tenerife and are a pleasure to ride on a road bike.

Most of the traffic is situated around the towns of La Laguna and Santa Cruz, as well as on the motorways in the south of the island. The climbs are generally pretty quiet; just take care in planning how you get to and from the start.

Getting There

Tenerife is easily accessible from most European countries. There are two airports, both of which have regular low cost flights to the continent, including daily flights to Madrid and Barcelona.

There are also two ferries from the Spanish mainland that go to Tenerife, one from Huelva and one from C´diz. However, these take between 30 and 40 hours one way and are considerably more expensive than most flights.

Weather

Tenerife has a sub-tropical climate, with little variation in temeprature throughout the year. This makes it arguably the best place in Europe to cycle during the winter, when daily temperatures are usually above 20°C.

Rain is also uncommon, particularly in the winter. Showers are more likely in the north of the island - but don't let this put you off cycling there as it is generally a dry climate. After all - Tenerife is only a few hundred kilometres from the Sahara Desert!

Cycling Holidays

Our Best of Tenerife cycling holiday tackles the best climbs and most scenic routes on the island.

It is a multi-centered tour which crosses almost the entire length and width of Tenerife, allowing you to really get to know the diverse parts of the island. You can find out more details about this and similar tours that we run in the links below.