Important: The best walks are predominately in protected areas. So before arriving in Tenerife you either need to book the walk in advance, or at least have knowledge of when the booking slots you desire become available (this is the best advice I can give, below I’ll provide links to the correct websites to book and provide examples of what the permits look like).
Also important: For the forests to be lush and beautiful it obviously rains, wear/bring proper foot gear to Tenerife, and a rain jacket! It’s stunning even when it’s wet! Tenerife is awesome.
La Ensillada – Cabezo de Tejo – La Ensillada
How to book: https://www.tenerifeon.es/en/routes/hiking/pra-72-la-ensillada-cabezo-del-tejo
Once booked you’ll get a booking confirmation that looks a bit like this… make sure you all save a copy to your phones etc, as without this the fine is pretty big!
The path slides into the laurel forest, that damp green lung of Anaga which feels as though it’s been lifted wholesale from a Japanese Studio Ghibli background and plonked down here. The trees lean in like nosy relatives at a wedding reception, trunks twisted by centuries of wind and gossip. Everything smells faintly of moss, wet wood, and the suggestion of ancient myth.
Then, suddenly, the trees loosen their grip and you’re spat out onto a ridge. And there’s Cabezo de Tejo, a viewpoint so astonishing it feels like an unsubtle act of tourism marketing: the entire north coast of Tenerife unspools beneath you in cinematic widescreen, with cliffs doing their best impression of dragons’ backs and the Atlantic endlessly rolling in as if it’s on a looped track. If the day’s clear, Gran Canaria floats on the horizon like a mirage, a neighbour popping round uninvited. Well… that description is what I was expecting to see… what we actually saw was a lot of cloud… so I’ve got to do it all again… lol!
The return leg curves back towards La Ensillada, the forest re-swallowing you, shadows stitching the trail back together. It’s a loop, yes, but one that bends time as much as geography: you’ve travelled a few kilometres but also a few centuries, stepping from timeless forest to raw volcanic drama and back again.
By the time you re-emerge at the car park, your shoes damp and your phone bulging with overexposed panoramas, the whole thing feels like a secret you shouldn’t tell anyone — except, of course, you will. Because who could resist saying: “Oh, Cabezo de Tejo? Yeah, I’ve walked that.”
If you are there at the coliving space in Tenerife whilst I’m there, then happy to wander on walks around the island.
