Walking tour Tenerife: La Laguna, Anaga and the Camino Real

Both days are sold as hikes, and both leave from the south of the island, but they spend the day very differently. The La Laguna & Anaga day is the shorter walk and the longer outing: the itinerary lists two hours of hiking in the Anaga Mountains and one hour in La Laguna, inside an eight-hour day. Its listing describes a hike through the impressive laurel forest of Las Mercedes, with a mountain guide who explains the local flora, then time to stroll the pedestrian streets of a UNESCO World Heritage-listed city.

The Camino Real is the walker's choice. The itinerary lists a 45-minute bus ride and four hours of hiking around Santiago del Teide, inside a six-hour day. The listing calls it an ancient road on traditional paths once used to move food, livestock and trade, with a view of Mount Teide and endemic plants such as tabaibas and cardones.

So the choice is simple. For a walking tour Tenerife day with a town in it, take La Laguna. For a longer stretch on foot, take the Camino Real.

This is not a guided walking tour La Laguna Tenerife style, street by street. The town part is one hour at your own pace in La Laguna; the guiding happens in the forest, where the listing promises a mountain guide who explains the flora as you go. Another Anaga listing on this site calls this laurel forest one of the oldest forests in Europe.

Reviewers are clear that the hour goes fast. Deborah from the United Kingdom: «Very little time in Laguna … Had time to wander or eat but not both! Walk and guides were great.» That is a fair summary of this walking tour Tenerife day. Bring something to eat, as the listing asks, and you can spend the whole hour on the streets.

Most guided days on Tenerife chase a summit or a forest. The Camino Real is about a road. Its listing describes traditional paths that islanders once used for survival, to carry food, drive livestock and trade. On this walking tour Tenerife history sits under your boots, and the plants along the way are the dry-country endemics the listing names: tabaibas and cardones.

Four hours on foot is the most walking on this page. The listing gives no distance and no difficulty grade, so plan on a full walking day. One German-language review calls the stony path hard going, with constant ups and downs, and notes there was no toilet stop. Carmel from Ireland saw it differently: «This was an excellent hike. Have no improvements to suggest».

The listing gives no packing list. The one on the La Laguna day is a sensible guide: proper shoes, a jacket, water and something to eat.

These two days sit at the bottom of the site's ratings, next to the Masca Gorge walk, and we would rather say so. The La Laguna & Anaga day holds 4.3 from 20 reviews; the Camino Real 4.2 from 7. For comparison, the forest walk above Masca holds 4.9 from 466.

Read the reviews and the pattern is about the format, not the guiding. On the La Laguna day, the complaints are about the short town hour, a late pickup and a hot minibus ride; the praise is for the walk and the guides. On the Camino Real, the one critical review is about how hard the stony path felt and the lack of a toilet stop, and it still calls the guide kind.

So a walking tour Tenerife day like these suits you if you know what you are buying: a guided forest walk with a short town stop, or a long day on an old road.

Book the La Laguna & Anaga day if you stay in the south and want a laurel forest and a UNESCO town in one walking tour Tenerife day. Book the Camino Real for four hours on foot with Teide in view. For a cheaper forest walk, the Anaga guided hike is $27, 4.8 from 266 reviews. For the big day, our top pick, Teide at sunrise.

Choose by what you want to walk through. A walking tour Tenerife day with forest and a historic town: La Laguna. A long walk on history itself: the Camino Real. Both include pickup and a live guide in four languages.