Tenerife North & Anaga: Black-Sand Beaches Beyond the Resorts

Most people who fly to Tenerife never leave a ten-kilometre strip between Los Cristianos and Playa de las Américas. That's their loss — and, honestly, a bit of your gain. The north and northeast of the island are a completely different country: ancient laurel forest, volcanic black-sand beaches where the only sound is the Atlantic, and small towns that still revolve around fish and wine rather than all-inclusive buffets.

If you're asking what to do in north Tenerife beyond the resorts, the short answer is: hike Anaga, swim at Benijo or Almáciga, eat in La Laguna, and take the winding TF-12 road at least once. That covers the essentials. Everything below is the detail that makes the difference between a good day and a genuinely memorable one.

Why the North Feels Like a Different Island

Tenerife is cleaved in two by altitude and trade winds. The south gets 300-odd days of sun and almost no rain. The north gets cloud, mist, green hills and, in the Anaga massif, one of the oldest and most intact laurel forests in the world. Laurisilva — the same ecosystem that covered much of southern Europe before the last ice age — survived here because the northeast trade winds keep the mountains permanently damp. Walking through it feels genuinely prehistoric.

The north also has the island's two most interesting cities. Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the capital: a proper working port city with a good contemporary art museum (TEA, worth two hours of your time), a covered market, and a carnival in February that is, without exaggeration, one of the largest in the world after Rio. San Cristóbal de La Laguna — just fifteen minutes inland by tram — is a UNESCO World Heritage city of 16th-century colonial architecture that became the template for cities across Latin America. It's also a university town, which means cheap coffee, good bookshops and bars that don't close at ten.

Anaga Rural Park: What You Actually Need to Know

Anaga is the jagged, forested finger of mountains that juts northeast from the island. It covers roughly 14,000 hectares and has around 50 hiking trails of varying difficulty. The park authority (Cabildo de Tenerife) maintains a useful trail map — pick one up at the Anaga Rural Park visitor centre at Cruz del Carmen, which sits on the TF-12 ridge road and is the most logical starting point for most walks.

The most-walked route is the Cruz del Carmen to Chinamada trail, about 7km one way, dropping through laurel forest to a tiny hamlet where some residents still live in cave houses. It's not technically demanding but the descent is steep enough that your knees will know about it. Allow three to four hours return, more if you stop (and you will stop — the views over the Taganana valley are the kind that make you sit down).

For something quieter, the Barranco de Ijuana loop from Taborno is less trafficked and arguably more dramatic. Taborno itself is a village of maybe thirty houses clinging to a ridge at around 700 metres. There's a small bar. It opens when it opens.

A few practical things nobody puts in the glossy brochures: the TF-12 ridge road is single-track in places and coaches use it, so drive carefully and pull over without drama when something comes the other way. Parking at Cruz del Carmen fills by 10am on weekends in summer — get there by 9am or take the bus (line 075 from Santa Cruz, roughly every two hours, check current timetable at titsa.com). The forest is genuinely cool even in August; bring a layer. And the paths are muddy after rain. Proper shoes, not trainers.

The Black-Sand Beaches of the Northeast

The beaches of the Anaga coast are the ones that make people stop mid-scroll when they appear on someone's Instagram. Black volcanic sand, dark cliffs, turquoise water, almost no sun loungers. They're also not easy to reach, which is exactly why they're still like this.

Benijo is the most accessible of the wild ones. It's at the end of the TF-134 from Taganana, there's a car park (small, fills fast), and a bar-restaurant above the beach that does grilled fish and papas arrugadas at prices that won't make you wince — around €12–16 for a main, as of 2026. The beach itself faces north, so the swell can be rough; swimming is possible but check conditions. The view back towards the Roques de Anaga — two dramatic sea stacks — is the one you've seen on postcards.

Almáciga is a ten-minute walk from Benijo along the coast path. Smaller, darker sand, fewer people. Worth doing if you want to feel like you've actually found something rather than followed a sign.

Playa de Roque de las Bodegas is the other big one in Taganana valley — broader, slightly more sheltered, a small chiringuito in season. Good for families.

Skip Playa de las Teresitas near Santa Cruz unless you specifically want a calm, safe, family-friendly beach with golden sand (it was imported from the Sahara in the 1970s). It's pleasant enough but it's not the wild Tenerife experience.

La Laguna: The Best Town on the Island

I'll say it plainly: La Laguna is the best place to spend time on Tenerife. The historic centre is a grid of 16th and 17th-century buildings in faded ochre, terracotta and white. There are almost no souvenir shops in the centre. People actually live there — students, academics, families — and the restaurants and cafés serve them rather than tourists.

Eat at the Mercado Municipal on Calle Nava y Grimón — a proper covered market where you can get fresh cheese, mojo rojo, local wine and a plate of ropa vieja for very little. For dinner, the streets around Calle Herradores have a cluster of good options; Casa Maquila has been doing traditional Canarian food properly for years.

The tram (tranvía) connecting La Laguna to Santa Cruz runs every eight minutes or so, costs about €1.35 per journey, and is one of the more pleasant urban transport experiences in Spain. Use it.

The Wine and the Food

North Tenerife produces wine under the Tacoronte-Acentejo DO — mainly Listán Negro reds that are earthy, low in alcohol by mainland standards (around 12–13%), and genuinely interesting. You won't find them in supermarkets outside the Canaries easily. The bodega scene is low-key; a few places offer tastings but this isn't La Rioja — you'll mostly drink them in local bars and restaurants. Ask for vino de la zona and you'll get something local.

Food in the north revolves around fish (vieja, cherne, sama), papas arrugadas with mojo verde or mojo rojo, gofio (roasted grain flour, used in everything from soup to dessert), and fresh goat's cheese. The rancho canario — a thick stew of chickpeas, meat and vegetables — is the thing to order when it's on a menu. It usually is on Sundays.

If You're Thinking of Staying Longer

Anaga and the north have pulled in a steady trickle of remote workers and slow travellers who discover that €700–900 a month gets you a decent apartment in La Laguna or the villages around it — a fraction of what the same money gets you in the south's tourist belt. The infrastructure is real: fast fibre internet, a university hospital in La Laguna, good transport links to the airport at Los Rodeos (TFN), which handles most inter-island and some mainland flights.

If you're considering making this more permanent, the paperwork side of Spanish life applies here exactly as it does everywhere else on the peninsula. Getting your empadronamiento sorted early matters — particularly if you're going to be accessing services or working remotely with any official status. If you're arriving from outside the EU, the Spanish Digital Nomad Visa on Minimum Salary: Is It Worth It? piece is worth reading before you commit to anything. And once you're registered and working, questions like whether you need a gestor to register as autónomo in Spain will come up sooner than you expect.

Healthcare is often the thing people underestimate. If you're in that gap between arriving and getting your TIE, healthcare in Spain before your TIE arrives explains what you're actually covered for and what you're not — the Canaries operate under the same national health system as the rest of Spain, so the rules are identical.

Getting Around the North Without a Car

You can do La Laguna, Santa Cruz and even Cruz del Carmen without a car using the tram and TITSA buses. But for Anaga — the real Anaga, the villages and the coast — a car makes an enormous difference. The bus routes exist but they're infrequent and the last one back from Taganana to Santa Cruz typically leaves mid-afternoon. Check titsa.com for current schedules before you rely on them.

Renting a car in Tenerife is cheap by European standards — you can find a small automatic for €25–35 a day from local companies at TFN airport, though prices spike in August and around carnival. Book ahead. And remember that the TF-12 is not a road to drive quickly; it rewards the opposite.

The north rewards the patient and the curious. Come for two nights minimum — one day for Anaga, one for La Laguna — and you'll leave wondering why you ever went south.