During my Erasmus time in Valencia, Spain, my friend and I took a 3-day trip to Tenerife & Gran Canaria. Of course, we wished we could’ve stayed longer, but we only had friday until sunday since we had to attend our classes. Therefore, I planned everything to make it in 3 days, without having to rush. A lot of people where skeptical about it at first, but I can assure you, that it was not stressfull at all and we enjoyed every minute of it.
Itinerary: Tenerife South – Teide (Montaña Blanca) – Puerto de la Cruz – Santa Cruz de Tenerife – Las Palmas de Gran Canaria – Teror – Agaeta/Puerto de las Nieves -Puerto de Mogan – Maspalomas – Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Budget: (flights not included, boat & car rental included): ca. € 150
Duration: 3 days (thursday night until sunday evening)
Flights: At the time we found flights from Valencia to Tenerife and back from Gran Canaria for only 40 euros. When you’re not flying in from Spain, the flight will probably be more expensive.
Thursday.
Midnight arrival at Tenerife south airport.
Taxi to hostel “Los Amigos Backpackers”, breakfast included.
Friday.
Hostel – hiking at El Teide (Montaña Blanca) – black sand beaches at Puerto de la cruz – Santa Cruz de Tenerife
8.35 bus to Los Cristianos, from there take a bus to El Teide. Get off at “montaña blanca” (the whole bus trip takes about 2.5 – 3 hours).
It’s at 2.364 meters and from there on you can hike up the volcano. You can see lava fields and the “huevos del teide” – round black lava rocks laying in yellow lava fields.
We only did 5 kilometers and got to ca. 2700 meters because I was completely exhausted from the altitude (heart racing even when standing still, not being able to breath). At the time I didn’t know anything about altitude and I had no idea what was happening. The last part of the hike, to get to the top of the Teide is only accessible if you got a special permit
Also be prepared for the cold! You’re literally walking above the clouds.
It was about 1° C.
It takes about 2 hours to hike up to 2700 meters. Going down is only 45 minutes.
The last bus to Puerto de la Cruz was at 16h. We got back around 15h and decided to walk to the next bus stop. Note: It’s not a good idea 🙂 you won’t get there in time.
Fortunately, some guy was nice enough to give us a ride and we got on the bus to Puerto de la Cruz. In puerto de la cruz we went to the black sand beaches. They’re black because of the lava. It was incredible to see!
We then took a bus to Santa Cruz de Tenerife (ca. 30 minutes) and got to a pension.
I think it was “pension Milema” (ca. 25 euros per night for a double room), but to be honest; I’m not sure.
Saturday.
Boat from Santa Cruz de Tenerife to Las Palmas de Gran Canaria – village ‘Teror’ – Agaeta & puerto de los nieves – Puerto de Mogan
7am- boat to Gran Canaria (ca. 2 hours). Buy your tickets upfront online!!
Once we arrived at Gran Canaria, we went to look for a rental car. We got one for 25 euros about 30 hours.
We had a snack at the beach of Gran Canaria and then went on our way to a small village called “Teror”. It’s name doesn’t do it justice, since it’s about the cutest town ever. There was a little market with delicious sweets and it’s the perfect place to admire the canary architecture. From there we drove to the coast of Agaete and stopped at El puerto de nieves to watch “el dedo de dios” – basically, a rock. But the coast line is absolutely stunning.
We then drove through the mountains and valleys all the way down to Puerto de Mogan. There are several places where you can stop to take pictures. I recommend an experiences driver, since the curves and roads are not too wide and apparently it’s the favorite place for crazy motorbikers who like to pass by cars at a unhuman speed even though they can’t see anything around the corner. The landscape on this part of the island is very green, unspoiled and so impressive. Once we arrived at Puerto de Mogan, we got to “Pension Eva”. It was featured in my lonely planet guide, but impossible to find anything about it online. We just asked someone at the town about where it was. The owner is not the nicest lady ever, but we got a bed for 10 euros and even had a shared terrace and a kitchen. Perfect. I can recommend a late night walk along the beach.
Sunday.
Puerto de Mogan – Maspalomas – Las Palmas de Gran Canaria
Sunday morning we went to visit the village. There are white houses and flowers everywhere – it was so beautiful.
Around 10 we took off to Maspalomas. The way there was the complete opposite of what we had seen the day before. We had just left the valley of Mogan and encountered one 5-star hotel after the other. It didn’t look anything like the unspoiled place we had passed through on saturday. I do not recommend staying there, the whole coast and every valley was basically just a giant vacation village.
Maspalomas was still quite touristy, but absolutely worth it: it’s sand dunes that make it look as if you’re standing in the middle of the desert.
From Maspalamos it was only a 30 min drive back to Las Palmas to take our flight back in the afternooon.
