What can you do if you cannot get a permit?
The cable car works without a summit climb and needs no summit permit. Walkers who skip the quota trails can use other paths in Teide National Park, and the rural parks of Anaga and Teno, which the Cabildo (the island government) manages as protected areas, are further options.
No alternative routes have been checked, so look up route descriptions, fees and access rules for Anaga and Teno on Tenerife ON or tenerife.es before you set off. The rules have changed several times since 2024, so check the current version.
The Cabildo and RTVC name three typical mistakes: turning up at the summit trail without a permit, climbing without the required equipment, and travelling to Masca without a booking or on a weekday. Good preparation avoids fines of up to 600 euros and a wasted journey.
When is the best time to visit Tenerife?
The AEMET (the state weather service) normals for 1981 to 2010 from the Santa Cruz de Tenerife station (C449C, 36 metres) show an annual mean of 21.5 degrees, 226 millimetres of rain on 29.7 days and 2,913 hours of sunshine. The station sits on the sunnier, drier east coast and does not represent the north or the mountains.
July and August are the warmest months, with an August mean of 25.5 degrees and a mean maximum of 29.0 degrees. July brings 337 hours of sunshine and no rain, while January averages 18.2 degrees, with a mean maximum of 21.0 degrees and a minimum of 15.4 degrees.
December is the wettest month with 43 millimetres over 5.4 rainy days, followed by March with 38, February with 35 and November with 34 millimetres, while April gets 12, May 4 and June 1. Lowland walkers find mild temperatures in spring and autumn, with mean maxima between 22.7 degrees in April and 26.3 degrees in October.
No checked normals exist for sea temperature or for trade-wind and calima periods. For current values and warnings, see CITA weather (cita.news/de/wetter.html) and AEMET, and note that the station says nothing about the weather on Teide.
How many tourists come to Tenerife?
Tenerife received 539,411 tourists in May 2025, according to ISTAC (the Canary Islands statistics institute), about four in ten of all arrivals in the Canaries. According to eldiario.es, the sector expected a record of almost 18.6 million visitors for the Canaries in 2025, but that was a forecast and the final ISTAC figure is still to come.
The island’s museums counted more than 287,000 visitors, according to RTVC on 4 April 2026. In its 2025 review, the Cabildo spoke of millions of visitors but gave no figure.
What is planned for the coming years?
In its 2025 review, reported by RTVC on 30 December 2025, the Cabildo announced a rail line from San Isidro to Costa Adeje. The budget is 950 million euros and the journey should take 13 minutes, but this is a plan, not a service, and the report gave no opening date.
Access rules may change again. The Cabildo has introduced quotas and fees for Teide and Masca, and RTVC described further steps for Masca as planned, so only the details on Tenerife ON and from the Cabildo on the day of travel are binding.