The coast gets the photographs, but Tenerife’s mountain roads are what drivers remember. Two areas stand above the rest: the Teno massif in the far west, where the road to Masca descends through a gorge in a series of tight hairpins, and Anaga in the north-east, where narrow lanes thread through ancient laurel forest along knife-edge ridges. Neither is a road to hurry. Both are extraordinary with the roof down.
The road to Masca
Masca sits in a fold of the Teno mountains, a scatter of stone houses on a ridge with steep ravines falling away on either side. The approach from Santiago del Teide climbs first, crosses a pass, and then begins the descent that gives the road its reputation: a succession of hairpins cut into the mountainside, with the village appearing and disappearing below you as you turn.
It is narrow. In places two cars pass with care and nothing larger passes at all, which is why access for buses and long vehicles is restricted. A compact convertible is close to the ideal vehicle here: small enough for the corners, open enough to see up the ravine walls. Parking in the village is genuinely limited, so if the few spaces are taken, continue through and turn where the road allows rather than improvising.
The Barranco de Masca, the gorge that runs from the village down to the sea, is one of the island’s best known walks. Access is controlled: numbers are limited, a permit must be booked in advance, and equipment requirements apply. It is not something to attempt spontaneously on the strength of having driven there. If your interest is the drive and the village, that needs no booking at all.
Anaga’s laurel-forest ridges
Anaga is the oldest part of the island and it feels it. The ridges are sharp, the valleys are deep, and the upper slopes carry laurisilva, a subtropical laurel forest that once covered large parts of southern Europe and survives here in unusual completeness. The area is a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, and driving into it from La Laguna is like changing islands: cool, green, damp, often with mist moving through the canopy.
The spine road runs along the ridge with viewpoints on both sides, so you can look north to the Atlantic and south towards the interior within a few hundred metres. Cruz del Carmen has a visitor centre and marked trails; Pico del Ingles gives one of the widest panoramas on the island. Side roads drop steeply to the coast at Taganana, Roque de las Bodegas and Benijo, where the seafood restaurants are the reason many locals make the trip.
Open-top driving suits the forest sections especially well. Under the canopy the air is cool and smells of damp vegetation, birds are audible over the engine, and the light comes through in patches. Then the road turns a corner, the trees end, and the whole north coast appears below. That contrast, repeated a dozen times in an afternoon, is the character of Anaga.
Driving hairpins with confidence
The technique is straightforward and it is mostly about patience. Slow before the corner rather than in it, select a low gear and stay in it, and let the engine do the braking on long descents so the brakes stay cool. Riding the brakes down a mountain road is the single most common mistake, and it is the one that leads to the smell of hot pads and fading pedal feel near the bottom.
Position matters. Keep right, especially on blind corners, and assume something is coming the other way, because eventually it will be. Local drivers know these roads intimately and will move faster than you; let them past at the first safe opportunity rather than holding a queue. On the narrowest sections the convention is simple courtesy, with the driver closest to a passing place reversing to it.
Passengers deserve a thought too. Continuous hairpins are hard on anyone prone to motion sickness, and an open roof helps considerably with fresh air but does not eliminate it. Steady speeds, smooth inputs and a stop every twenty minutes make a large difference. So does giving the front seat to whoever suffers most.
Timing to beat the crowds
Both areas have a rhythm. Organised excursions arrive in the middle of the day, which means Masca is busiest from late morning until mid-afternoon, and the popular Anaga viewpoints follow a similar pattern. Arrive before that window and you may have entire stretches of road to yourself; arrive during it and you will spend more time waiting to pass than driving.
Weather shapes the day as much as traffic. Anaga catches the trade winds and is frequently cloudy or misty when the south is clear, which is atmospheric rather than disappointing, though it does hide the long views. Mornings tend to be brighter before cloud builds. Teno is generally drier and sunnier, so if the north looks heavily overcast, Masca is the better use of the day.
Allow far more time than distances suggest. Fifty kilometres of mountain road here is a half day once you include stops, and rushing removes the entire point. Start early, take a jacket for the ridges, keep the tank comfortably full, and treat the drive itself as the destination rather than the connection between two places.
