In November 2007, we spent one week on Tenerife to escape the cold weather in Austria. We visited the Mount Teide National Park as a day trip from our accommodation at the south-west coast. We started early in the morning (at 7am) with our rental car in order to avoid the large tour buses, which start between 8 and 9 am from all major tourist centres. Another reason to get up early is that in the morning the air is clearer and the view is better, in the afternoon the Teide summit could often be hidden by clouds.

We took the road via Guia de Isora and arrived at the National Park after about 1.5 hours. The route is very interesting, you drive from sea level to 2,300 meters through different vegetation zones. First everything is green and colourful, we drove through banana plantations, followed by pine forests, and finally we arrived at the caldera Las Canadas, where rocks and solidified lava flows predominate. It reminded me of pictures from the Moon or Mars. Early in the morning we were almost alone on the road, so that we could stop everywhere to look around and to take pictures.

The most popular and most spectacular viewing point is the Roques de Garcia, opposite are a Hotel Parador and an information centre. The Roques are bizarre, unique rock formations. Plenty of needle-shaped rocks of different colours stand one after another at a length of several hundred meters. The rocks consist of different layers from various eruptions. And you have a beautiful view over the caldera with Mount Teide in the background (photo: Roque Chinchado). Starting at the visitor centre, we hiked along a well-marked path for about 2 hours through the lava field. I was surprised how varied this "moonscape" is: lots of red and brown colour tones, bizarre rock formations, and all together with a bright blue sky. When we returned from our hike, we were glad that we got up so early. The parking lot at the Roques was crowded with cars and tour buses.

A few kilometres further, a side road leads to the base station of the cable car to Mount Teide. But we drove on to the northern end of the National Park without a ride to the summit. The cable car ends at an observation deck, the summit is inaccessible without permission. Approval is given only in the main office of the National Park Service in the capital Santa Cruz. We came to many more interesting places that were worth a brief stop: beautiful views of the caldera and the Teide and places where you can see endemic plants like Tenerife bugloss or broom.

All in all, it was a rewarding trip to an exceptional landscape. If you are on Tenerife, you should not miss the Teide National Park.