Mount Teide: cable car tickets, summit permit and tours

If you have a car, buy your cable car ticket direct at volcanoteide.com: it's the only place that sells it on its own, and no platform has it cheaper. If you'd rather not drive up the mountain, Volcano Teide's tour with the cable car and hotel pick-up costs €92 on its website and the same on GetYourGuide, Tiqets or Headout. And if you want to stand on the summit, the ticket isn't enough: you need the Tenerife ON permit, which you can book up to eight weeks ahead and which now costs €15 for anyone who doesn't live in the Canary Islands.

Our picks

1

Cable car without driving

The tour run by Volcano Teide, the cable car operator itself: pick-up, ticket included and 7 hours. Same price on every platform.

GetYourGuide7 hours

Tenerife: Mount Teide Tour with Cable Car Ticket & Transfer

4.3 (6,095 reviews)

from €92Check availability

2

The big island day out

Teide, Icod, Garachico and Masca in 9 hours. For anyone doing just one long excursion; the listing doesn't include the cable car.

GetYourGuide9 hours

Tenerife: Teide National Park, Masca, Icod & Garachico Tour

4.6 (3,035 reviews)

from €58Check availability

3

Small group with sunset

Masca, the national park and the sunset in 6 hours, with one of the best ratings in the catalogue.

GetYourGuide6 hours

Tenerife: Masca, Teide National Park & Sunset – Small group

4.8 (266 reviews)

from €60Check availability

4

To reach the summit

Guided ascent with permit and cable car included (€178): you avoid the scramble for a Tenerife ON slot.

Tiqets06:00

Mount Teide: Guided Tour, Summit Hike + Cable Car

4.3 (31 reviews)

from €178Check availability

Teide cable car ticket prices and who sells them

The cable car is run by Teleférico del Pico de Teide, S.A., trading as Volcano Teide. Tickets are sold online only, for a specific time slot:

You'll see €42 on some websites, including one of the operator's own pages: that's the old fare, and you're charged €43 when you book. Under-3s can't go up, and child and resident discounts must be backed by ID (the resident fares are for Canary Islands residents only). If you walk up with a permit, you can buy the cable car ride down at the top with a QR code (€23). The ticket includes the "Science and Legend" ("Ciencia y Leyenda") exhibition at the base station, which is also where you'll find the café and the shop.

Free changes and cancellation until 18:00 the day before (three date changes a year at most); after that you pay 100%. No platform sells the ticket on its own: if you see "Teide cable car" on GetYourGuide, Tiqets or Headout, it's a tour that includes it. We look at the operator in our Volcano Teide review.

What's at the top and what you can do without a permit

The base station sits at 2,356 m, at km 43 of the TF-21. The 44-person cabin takes about eight minutes to reach La Rambleta (3,555 m). From there to the summit it's 660 m of path and 183 m of climbing: the stretch that needs a permit.

Your time at the top is rationed: one hour with a normal ticket and two if you have a summit permit. The top station has wifi, toilets and vending machines, but no café. Without a permit you can do one of these two trails:

• PNT 11 Mirador de La Fortaleza: 0.58 km, about 45 minutes according to Tenerife ON.
• PNT 12 Mirador de Pico Viejo: 0.72 km, about 55 minutes.

One hour isn't enough for both. Walking down isn't a free-for-all either: trails PNT 07, 09, 23 and 28 need their own permit, and the up-only ticket no longer lets you descend on foot.

A word on the height: Spain's National Geographic Institute (Instituto Geográfico Nacional) puts Teide at 3,715 m (measured in 1983, confirmed by GPS in 2011). The 3,718 m you'll see on signs, on the cable car website and even on Tenerife ON is the old figure.

Mount Teide summit permit and eco-tax

The final stretch is the PNT 10 Telesforo Bravo trail, about 55 minutes on the way up. The permit is issued by the island council (Cabildo) on Tenerife ON, no longer the old national parks website, and it's separate from the cable car ticket. The Cabildo caps numbers at 300 people a day, 50 per slot. Since 19 January the slots from 09:00 to 17:00 carry an eco-tax (the "public price"), paid by card as part of the booking:

Under-14s don't pay on PNT 10 (the fees page mentions 16, so if you're travelling with a 14- or 15-year-old, check when you book). The sunrise (06:00–09:00) and sunset (18:00–22:00) slots carry no eco-tax but still have to be booked, and 80% of the sunrise slots go to people staying at the Altavista refuge.

Before you book, be clear on the following:

• One booking per person every 15 days, in your name: bring the same passport or ID card you booked with, or you won't get in.
• It's valid only for its date and slot, whether or not the cable car is running. The eco-tax is refunded if the trail closes, if the cable car doesn't run (with Volcano Teide's closure email) or if you cancel three or more days ahead. No changes allowed.
• Not turning up without cancelling can get you a three-month booking ban; climbing without a permit, fines of up to €600.
• Compulsory kit, checked at the control point: hiking boots or shoes, long trousers and a warm layer. Without it you'll be turned back. With ice or snow: crampons, an ice axe, adults only and a signed declaration of experience and insurance.
• Not allowed: under-3s, under-16s without an adult, pets, leaving the path, and entering or walking round the crater.

How to get the permit, step by step

No slots left: guided ascent or a night at Altavista

Volcano Teide's guided ascent includes the permit and the cable car for €178; book at least seven days ahead.

The other way up is the Altavista Refuge (Refugio de Altavista, 3,260 m), reopened in July: 49 beds, €71 a night (€56.80 for mountaineering club members, €29 for Tenerife residents), one night at most and bookings only on refugioaltavista.com. A bed includes the permits to walk up PNT 07 on the afternoon you arrive and to summit at sunrise (06:00–09:00). Minimum age 14, sleeping bag compulsory, no showers or meals, no refund if you cancel. Right now it's the simplest way to watch the sunrise from the summit with everything above board.

If you just want a walk, the first 4.6 km of PNT 07 to Montaña Blanca need no permit: we cover it in hiking trails in Tenerife.

Altitude and health: who shouldn't go up

You go from 2,356 to 3,555 m in eight minutes, with no time to acclimatise. That's why the operator doesn't take under-3s, pregnant women, people with heart or circulation problems or anyone showing symptoms of altitude sickness. Nor does it take people with reduced mobility: if the cable car stops, everyone at the top walks down on steep paths, and evacuation isn't guaranteed. Under-16s go up with an adult. For roadside alternatives, see Tenerife with kids and accessible Tenerife.

Getting to Mount Teide: bus, car or tour

By bus (the "guagua", as buses are called in the Canaries). Two TITSA lines, each with a single trip a day in each direction (timetables on titsa.com):

These are special-fare lines, with no discount on the Ten+ card. They give you about five hours in the park, and if you miss the return bus your only option is a taxi. Double-check the return stop for the 348, because the stop order on the website is confusing. More in our TITSA guide.

By car. You drive up on the TF-21 from La Orotava or Vilaflor, the TF-24 from La Esperanza and the TF-38 from Chío. From Costa Adeje it's about 52 km and just under an hour. The base station car park has 220 spaces, opens only during cable car hours, and the operator asks you to arrive after 13:00. Road conditions: the Cabildo's incident map.

On a tour. Hotel pick-up, no parking and no relying on the bus. Quads and buggies always stick to tarmac: we explain why in quads and buggies.

Mount Teide tours: which one to choose

The tour with the cable car is Volcano Teide's own product and costs €92 everywhere. No platform undercuts it; what changes are the terms: Tiqets and Headout offer free cancellation up to 24 hours before and Headout lets you pay later, whereas on GetYourGuide it's worth checking the listing. The version without the cable car costs €52. More comparisons in the price comparison table.

The formats, from shortest to longest:

• Half day in Las Cañadas (4–5 h): from €45.
• National park with cable car (7 h): €92, ticket included.
• Teide with Masca, Icod and Garachico (8–9.5 h): from €56. Lots of coach time, not much at each stop; see island tours and Masca.
• Jeep or small group: from €60, with more stops and fewer people.
• Sunset and stars: in stargazing on Teide.

GetYourGuide7 hours

Tenerife: Mount Teide Tour with Cable Car Ticket & Transfer

4.3 (6,095 reviews)

from €92Check availability

GetYourGuide9 hours

Tenerife: Teide National Park, Masca, Icod & Garachico Tour

4.6 (3,035 reviews)

from €58Check availability

GetYourGuide8 hours

Tenerife: Teide National Park Full-Day Tour with Pick-up

4.5 (1,922 reviews)

from €59Check availability

Tiqets05:00

Tenerife: Half-Day Guided Tour to Teide National Park

no reviews yet

from €45Check availability

GetYourGuide7 hours

From Playa de las Américas: Full-Day Teide Jeep Safari

4.6 (1,177 reviews)

from €68Check availability

GetYourGuide8 hours

From Puerto de la Cruz: Teide and Masca VIP Tour

4.7 (759 reviews)

from €86Check availability

See all options on GetYourGuide →

The maths: a couple with a hire car pays €86 for the cable car against €184 for the tour, so going independently clearly wins. Without a car, the €92 tour is a safer bet than the bus, which gives you no second chance.

See the tour with the cable carfrom €92Affiliate link: it costs you nothing extra.

When to go and the weather at the top

The cable car opens at 09:00. The last ride up is at 16:00 from January to March, mid-April to June and late October to December; at 17:40 from 28 March to 12 April and from July to September; and at 17:00 or 16:30 in October. You need to be at boarding 20 minutes before your slot: arrive late and you lose your turn. Exact dates on volcanoteide.com.

The climate up there is different: at Izaña, level with the base station, the average January low is around 1 °C and it snows two or three days a month between December and March, according to Spain's met office (AEMET). Bring a jacket even if you're in short sleeves down on the coast.

The cable car closes for wind, ice or breakdowns, and the call is made first thing: anyone with a booking gets an email or text around 08:30 and can switch time or day or ask for a refund. If a stoppage delays boarding by 90 minutes or more, you're refunded too. The operator doesn't publish how many days a year it closes, so check the Teide status and webcams the evening before and again that morning.

New rules in the national park

• The Cabildo now runs the park, which has a new management plan, the Plan Rector de Uso y Gestión (Decree 182/2025), challenged in the Canary Islands High Court (TSJC) by environmental groups.
• No smoking or vaping anywhere in the park, car parks and viewpoints included.
• The Cañada Blanca visitor centre needs a ticket (Tenerife ON or the machines at reception), with last entry at 15:30.
• No camping, and no sleeping in your car or campervan inside the park.

On nights with big events the road may be closed: during the eclipse and the August Perseids, private cars were banned from 17:00 to 05:00 and TITSA laid on special buses.

FAQs