A Week Island-Hopping the Canaries: Volcanoes, Whales, and Black Sand
I went to the Canary Islands expecting beach resorts and came home rearranging my mental ranking of European destinations. These islands are bizarre, beautiful, and vastly more interesting than their package-holiday reputation suggests.
Day 1: Tenerife — Arrival and Altitude Adjustment
Flew into Tenerife South (TFS). Picked up a rental car (25 EUR/day). Drove directly to Puerto de la Cruz on the north coast — a deliberate choice to avoid the resort-heavy south.
Puerto de la Cruz is an actual town with actual Canarian life happening. Old colonial architecture, a fishing harbor, banana plantations climbing the hills behind. Playa Jardin — the black sand beach designed by Cesar Manrique — was my first encounter with volcanic sand. It's not just visually dramatic; it feels different underfoot. Denser, warmer, slightly metallic.
Checked into a hotel (65 EUR/night, breakfast included, ocean view). The time zone caught me — the Canaries are 1 hour behind mainland Spain, which meant sunset wasn't until 9PM. I watched it from a rooftop bar with a local beer (Dorada, 2.50 EUR) and tried to process the fact that Africa was 100 km away.
Day 2: Teide — Above the Clouds
Drove from sea level to 2,100 meters in 45 minutes. The road climbs through pine forest, punches through the cloud layer (one of the most surreal driving experiences possible — you emerge above the clouds into blazing sunshine), and enters the Teide caldera.
The landscape is Martian. Red craters. Black lava flows. Rock formations called Roques de Garcia that look sculpted. Teide itself — 3,718 meters, Spain's highest peak — towers above everything with a wisp of volcanic steam.
Cable car to 3,555m: 40 EUR return (book at volcanoteide.com, sells out 1-2 weeks ahead). At the top station, the air was thin and cold — maybe 5°C despite June sunshine at sea level. I could see four other Canary Islands and the shadow of Teide stretching across the cloud sea below.
I'd booked a summit permit (free, limited to 200/day, applied 3 weeks before) but the wind was too strong for the final climb. Apparently this happens regularly. The ranger said "mañana, maybe" with the shrug of someone who's given this speech thousands of times.
Drove back through the clouds. Had dinner in La Orotava — grilled vieja (parrotfish) with papas arrugadas and mojo verde. 14 EUR. The restaurant was full of locals and zero tourists.
Day 3: Tenerife — Whales and Masca
Morning: whale watching from Puerto Colon (22 EUR, 2 hours). Within 15 minutes, we were alongside a pod of pilot whales — about 500 live permanently in the channel between Tenerife and La Gomera. They're dark, sleek, and completely indifferent to boats. A bottlenose dolphin surfed our bow wave. The guide said sighting rates exceed 90%.
Afternoon: drove to Masca village. The road has hairpin bends that I stopped counting at twelve. The village clings to a ridge at 600 meters inside a vertical gorge. I didn't have a hiking permit (booked out), but the village itself and the drive were worth the trip.
I ate at a tiny restaurant overlooking the gorge. Goat cheese, bread, wine. 8 EUR. The owner pointed at a cliff face across the ravine and said his grandfather had farmed there. I looked at the cliff — near-vertical, 300 meters above the gorge — and believed him entirely.
Day 4: La Gomera — The Cloud Forest
Fred Olsen ferry from Los Cristianos to San Sebastian de la Gomera: 50 minutes, 18 EUR one-way. Rented a car on La Gomera (28 EUR/day) and drove directly to Garajonay National Park.
Garajonay is a UNESCO site and it's as extraordinary as anything on Tenerife. A primeval laurel cloud forest — laurisilva — that covered southern Europe 15 million years ago. Walking through it, mist drifting through moss-draped trees, ferns reaching overhead, the silence broken only by birds, I understood why it's UNESCO-protected. This ecosystem is irreplaceable.
Did a 3-hour loop trail (marked, moderate difficulty, free). Saw three other hikers the entire time. The forest floor was thick with ferns and the canopy filtered the light into something green and ancient.
Stayed overnight in Vallehermoso (40 EUR, guest house with a terrace). At dinner, a man demonstrated Silbo Gomero — the whistled language used to communicate across the island's deep ravines. He whistled a full sentence to a friend on the next terrace, 50 meters away, and the friend whistled back. It sounded like birdsong. It was a conversation about football.
Day 5: La Gomera to Lanzarote
Ferry back to Tenerife. Binter Canarias flight to Lanzarote: 40 minutes, 38 EUR (booked a week ahead). Small planes, friendly crew, spectacular views of the island chain from above.
Lanzarote from the air is immediately different — black and ochre volcanic terrain with almost no green. The 1730-1736 eruptions buried a third of the island under lava and the landscape hasn't recovered. It probably won't for centuries.
Drove to Timanfaya National Park (15 EUR, bus tour through the eruption zone). The guide heated volcanic rock samples for us — 100°C just below the surface. At the El Diablo restaurant, they demonstrated cooking over a volcanic vent. A geyser of steam erupted from a pipe when the guide poured water in. The children in the group screamed. The guide smiled the smile of someone who does this 20 times a day.
Day 6: Lanzarote — Manrique's Island
Cesar Manrique is Lanzarote's defining artist. He returned from New York in 1968 and spent the rest of his life integrating art with the volcanic landscape, and convincing the island government to ban billboards, limit high-rise buildings, and preserve the aesthetic coherence that makes Lanzarote unique.
Jameos del Agua (12 EUR): An underground volcanic tunnel converted into a concert hall, bar, and pool. Blind albino crabs (jameitos) live in a subterranean lake. The bar is inside a lava bubble. It shouldn't work. It absolutely works.
Cueva de los Verdes (12 EUR): A lava tube tour that ends with one of the best visual tricks I've ever encountered in any tourist attraction anywhere. I won't spoil it. Pay the 12 EUR.
Mirador del Rio (5 EUR): A clifftop viewpoint at 475 meters, designed by Manrique, looking north to the island of La Graciosa. The viewing windows are curved into the rock. The cafe is built into the cliff. The view — red cliff, blue channel, golden island — is calendar-perfect.
5-site pass: 35 EUR. Worth it.
Day 7: Lanzarote Wine and Departure
Last morning: La Geria wine region. Lanzarote's wine is grown in individual stone crescents (zocos) that protect each vine from the wind. The black volcanic lapilli (gravel) retains moisture from the dew. The landscape — thousands of stone crescents in black gravel — is agricultural art.
Wine tasting at Bodega La Geria: 8 EUR for 3 wines. Malvasia Volcanica — a dry white with mineral notes that tastes like the island smells: dry, warm, volcanic. I bought two bottles for 12 EUR and declared them the best impulse purchase of the trip.
Drove to the airport. Returned the car. Sat at the gate looking at photographs of places that don't look like anywhere else in Europe.
Would I Go Back?
I'm going back in January. The Canary Islands are year-round — 18-28°C every month. Winter is when Europeans escape to the islands for sun, and the hiking conditions on Tenerife and La Gomera are actually better without summer heat.
I want to see Fuerteventura's dunes. I want to hike La Palma's Caldera de Taburiente. I want to find El Hierro — the smallest, most remote island — and see its underwater volcanic formations.
Seven islands. I've done three. The Canaries are the kind of destination that expands the more you explore it.
Verdict: Go. Start with Tenerife. Add La Gomera. Add Lanzarote. Then come back for the rest. Bring a jacket for Teide and an open mind for volcanic wine. For help choosing between islands, our Canary Islands comparison guide breaks down beaches, hiking, culture, and nightlife across all four main islands. And if Atlantic island-hopping sparks your curiosity, Ibiza offers a very different Balearic island experience just a short flight away.
