Parque Rural de Anaga

A Forest from the Dinosaur Era

The Anaga Massif, located in the northeastern tip of Tenerife, is home to one of Europe's most valuable natural treasures: a laurel forest that is a living fossil from the Tertiary era, a surviving fragment of the subtropical forests that covered the Mediterranean millions of years ago, before the glaciers wiped them from the continent.

Declared a Biosphere Reserve by UNESCO, Anaga boasts the highest density of endemic species in all of Europe. Laurels, tree heathers, viñátigos, and tilos form such a dense canopy that light barely penetrates, creating a green and humid world where ferns grow to impossible heights and lichens hang from branches like ghostly curtains.

Trails Among the Clouds

More than 20 marked trails crisscross the massif, ranging from accessible walks to challenging treks. The Path of the Senses (1.5 km), adapted for people with reduced mobility, offers a sensory immersion in the forest. The route from Cruz del Carmen to Chinamada (3 hours) descends along ridges with sea views to a troglodyte village where families still live in caves carved into the rock.

The isolated hamlets of Anaga — Taganana, Afur, Chinamada, Roque Bermejo — are villages where time seems to have stood still. Accessible only by trails or narrow roads, they preserve a rural way of life that has changed little over centuries. In Taganana, Malvasia vineyards descend in terraces to the sea, and restaurants serve fresh fish with papas and mojo on terraces overlooking the Atlantic.

Anaga is proof that Tenerife is not just sun and volcano: it is also mist, moss, silence, and the aroma of a forest that has been waiting for you for millions of years.