TF-523 is a stunner
If you’re staying in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the islands old capital La Laguna or the sweet little town of Candelaria, then this is quite a nice loop, that’s not too long but you’ll still be doing some climbing.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
I chose the starting point for this route on the outskirts of Santa Cruz, right on a popular bicycle path. From there you’ll be riding through the islands capital, rather directly, to join TF-28 on which we’ll stay for a bit. This part of the route is going to take you through a number of little villages, of which some are cute until in La Hidalga we take a turn to start the main ascent.
To reach the highest point of this loop, which is about 1700 meters above sea level, you’ll be ascending on the stunning TF-523 road. While doing so you’ll ride through the Corona Forest and when the road ends you’ll take a right turn to start the descent on the iconic TF-24. Out of my own experience, I’d recommend to always thoroughly check the weather before you ascend and descend Teide as it can get really cold really quickly. On the way up the views are once more going to be breathtakingly beautiful, when looking over the barriers, along the mountain side of this island or just straight into this massive pine forest, which what the Corona Forest is.
Descending to La Laguna will be flowy adventure, as there are only very few sharp bends and most of the time the road surface is smooth. To me this part of the Corona Forest just looks so stunning with all those large and old trees standing tall right next to the road.
Stats / Difficulty
Distance: 88km
Elevation gain: ~2’200m
Duration: 4 – 6h
Endurance level: Medium
Map
GPX Download
Download GPX – Not Quite to the TopYou can import the .gpx file into any one of your prefered apps such as Strava, Komoot, Garmin Connect, … and change the route from there if you’d for example like to start from another location.