Cycling in Tenerife - The ULTIMATE Guide!

Hello, I'm Alex from Moloko. I organize cycling trips for a living and last month I just took a group of 20 people on a cycling holiday to Tenerife and I thought in this video I would share all my tips and my favorite routes for you to organize an amazing cycling holiday there. So let's start about where to stay. It's a big topic because people tend to stay in the south for a few reasons. Firstly, it's a bit sunnier. Secondly, it's where everyone goes so people just tend to follow the flow. However, a bit controversial here, I would not recommend staying in the south and here is why. I choose to stay in the middle of the island in a town called San Cristobal de la Laguna. It is a UNESCO World Heritage Town because it's got incredible architecture, the gastronomy is epic and when you stay there you will feel like you are in Tenerife. It really feels authentic, you can experience the local culture and there are lots of things to do. Browsing around the town is really nice, you can enjoy all the variety of restaurants that are around there, you can go hiking in the national park nearby and you can just hop on the bus to get to the beach within 30 minutes which I think is a massive plus. San Cristobal de la Laguna is nestled in between two national parks, Anaga National Park and Taidín National Park which are both amazing and offer you a bigger variety and range of routes. Speaking of routes, let's talk about my favorite routes on the island. Let's start with the infamous Mount Taidín. This is an amazing route and is quite frankly the reason why people tend to go to Tenerife to climb that volcano. Mount Taidín is an epic 45 kilometers climb. Where else in Europe do you find that? It is just incredible. Climbing completed! And the best bit is that you can climb Taidín from four different sides of the island. Option one, you can climb Taidín from the south, from Los Cristianos, which is a really nice climb but again I'm not such a big fan about staying in the south so if you can do it, do it but it's not also the most beautiful one. However, it's the busiest one. Again, because people tend to stay in the south it means you're going to have lots of climbs and it's the busiest one out of the four. So again, nice climb but that's better. The other option to climb Mount Taidín is from the north coast and you will start it from Puerto de la Cruz. You're going to cross La Orotava to get to the top of Taidín. This route is beautiful, however, it's the steepest one of them all and it does shred your legs. This island keeps you on your toes but man, such a great place. So if you're really into climbing and you want a proper challenge as if 45k climb was not enough, feel free but again I prefer descending that side than climbing it. Third option, you can climb Taidín from San Cristobal de la Laguna all the way up to the crater and this is one of my favorite climbs ever. It is just epic. You cross the villages and then you start into a stunning forest and then you cross the clouds and then you see the peak of the volcano. You just see Mount Taidín in the distance and before you realize, well actually not before you realize because you have climbed 30k by then, but you just get into the crater of the volcano and it's a unique experience. You have the color of the volcanic rock and the dried lava and the road is like dark but a smooth tarmac, just incredible. That's one of the top ways to climb Taidín. And the fourth one, which is my favorite one, is to climb Mount Taidín from the southeast part of the island. So from San Cristobal de la Laguna you can just go towards the south and then get a hook to just climb on that side and wow it's again another 45 kilometers climb but you've got the coastal views and then you climb into a forest but a forest that feels very different than the one you have on the side of La Laguna and again it's just stunning, absolutely stunning. So what I do recommend is according to where you stay you can one day climb Taidín on the side and descend on another side and the next day climb on a different side and again descend on another side because it doesn't matter if you climb it or descending it's just pure joy and it's probably one of the best climbs in Europe to be honest. Next up is Anágar National Park and this is a proper hidden gem. Again because people tend to stay in the south they don't go all the way up to the north but this place is just something else. You have the most incredible coastal views. I call a ride that I like to do there the secret beach because you get all the way down and it looks like Jurassic Park. You have the broken cliff and the wind and the ocean and on top of this you've got again those butter smooth winding roads and it gives proper jungle vibes. It's really worth exploring. On the bike it's incredible, it's obviously my favorite but it's also amazing for hiking. It's a true paradise for natural lovers so I really really recommend if you're don't give this a miss because it's probably my favorite part of the island. And my third recommendation for cycling in Tenerife is Masca National Park. This place is nicknamed the Machu Picchu of Tenerife because it's got a mini village built on a rock and it's giving Machu Picchu vibes. La Masca is a little bit further away from La Laguna so what we did on the trip is we organized a transfer for the bikes and for the people to get there for the day. I recommend starting this ride from a fishing village called Galachico. It's a beautiful town on the coast with really good restaurants by the west. When you finish the ride it's really cool to have food by the beach. It's beautiful you can even swim because there are some natural pools in the rocks there so a really really cool spot. However the climbing in La Masca is again not for the faint-hearted. You've got some steep gradient there but nothing impossible. You can do a loop that has the shape of an 8 or you can do a bit of a shorter loop to explore the place. Worst case scenario you can go up to the viewpoint of La Masca, the Spanish Machu Picchu, and when you're there instead of finishing a loop you can just turn back down to make everything easy and you would have enjoyed stunning views on the national park. All the routes I've just spoken about are available for you to download. Just hit the link below and you're gonna access the collection. They've been re-kitted, they've been ridden quite a few times and they all have coffee stops in there so I hope you enjoy them. I hope you found this video useful. Please give us a like. Do not hesitate to give a comment if you have any more questions regarding Tenerife. Thank you so much for watching and see you in the next video!