Tenerife · North-east Tenerife
Anaga and Taganana
A forest older than the ice ages
Anaga’s ridges are knife-thin, and its laurel forest is a living fossil of the kind that covered the Mediterranean basin before the ice ages, above valleys that fall to beaches of fine black sand. Line 946 crosses the ridge to Taganana, one of the oldest villages on the island, and runs on to Almáciga.
Photo: Perlaroques, CC BY-SA 4.0, cropped
- Come for
- Laurisilva, mountain villages and experienced hikers
- Make time for
- A full day; longer plans need dedicated transport
- By bus
- Reached by a published TITSA line
The journey is part of the day
Getting to Anaga and Taganana
Follow the Santa Cruz–Taganana guide for line 946, which runs from Santa Cruz Intercambiador via San Andrés and Cruce El Bailadero to Taganana and continues to Almáciga. Confirm which endpoint serves your actual plan. The bus page supplies a corridor and timetable, not trailhead geometry or a guaranteed connection to a walk.
Checked Sources: TITSA, WebTenerife
Bus guides
- Santa Cruz to Taganana Line 946 Direct
- Santa Cruz to La Laguna Line 15, Tram line 1 Direct
- Santa Cruz cruise port
Lines from this site’s guides. Times are in this page’s timetable.
Before you settle in
Keep the way home in mind.
Before walking, confirm whether your chosen return starts at Taganana or Almáciga and save TITSA’s correct day-specific table. Finish with a large margin and stand at the verified stop for the Santa Cruz direction. Line 946 will not wait for hikers, and published trail duration cannot guarantee that you will meet a particular departure.
See the next busesA little introduction
Get to know Anaga and Taganana.
Anaga occupies Tenerife’s rugged north-east, where narrow ridges fall into deep valleys and old laurel forest catches the trade-wind cloud. Taganana is one of the area’s most characterful settlements, a rural village threaded across the slope above the Atlantic. Public bus 946 gives it a connection from Santa Cruz through San Andrés and Cruce El Bailadero, but the landscape calls for cautious planning: roads are winding, trails are steep, and a return departure cannot adapt to a walker’s pace. A rewarding day may be as simple as the village, a short viewpoint walk and time on the coast.
Why go
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The best laurel forest on Tenerife
The high ground holds the island’s finest laurisilva, a relic of the forest that covered the Mediterranean basin until the ice ages, forty million years old.
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Three beaches of black sand
Roque de las Bodegas is the busiest and most family-friendly of Taganana’s beaches, with smaller waves than Almáciga and Benijo; Almáciga is a surfers’ beach for its heavy swell.
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A village older than the conquest towns
Taganana keeps the island’s traditional architecture and one of its oldest churches, Nuestra Señora de las Nieves, with a sixteenth-century Flemish-school triptych.
Checked – 2026 Sources: WebTenerife, TITSA
Make a day of it
What to do in Anaga and Taganana
- Sight Don’t miss
Taganana village
Spend time following the sloping lanes and understanding the settlement’s position between mountains and sea. Taganana is a destination in itself, not merely a trail junction, and works well for visitors who want Anaga without committing to a long hike.
- Walk Don’t miss
Anaga’s laurel forest
The surviving laurisilva gives the uplands their damp, green atmosphere. Mist can transform visibility quickly, so enjoy the forest at the scale conditions allow and avoid using a distant viewpoint as a fixed promise.
- Walk Don’t miss
PR-TF 8 Afur–Taganana–Afur
This circular route passes through the Chorro hamlet and Taganana, linking demanding terrain with settlement history. It deserves a dedicated hiking plan, suitable footwear and an honest assessment of distance and ascent; it is not a casual extension of the bus ride.
- Beach
Roque de las Bodegas
A 380 m beach of rock, gravel and black sand below the Anaga cliffs, with fish restaurants beside it; WebTenerife warns of frequent currents and unexpected waves even here, the calmest of the three.
Show all 7 Show fewer
- Food & drink
Papas arrugadas and fresh fish
WebTenerife’s own advice for after a swim at Roque de las Bodegas: wrinkled potatoes with mojo and the fresh fish typical of the coast.
- Sight
Almáciga and Benijo
Beyond the Roque, Almáciga is a small farming hamlet with a chapel to the Virgen de Begoña and a surf beach; a path continues to Benijo, a hamlet of some twenty people recorded since 1536, with Canarian restaurants.
- Sight
El Bailadero viewpoint
The road from Santa Cruz crosses the ridge at El Bailadero, whose viewpoint gives the photogenic panorama of Taganana between the mountains and the sea.
Checked – 2026 Sources: WebTenerife
A day here
How a day in Anaga and Taganana feels
A plan built on the buses this guide already names. The departure times are in the board on this page; choose your bus back before you set out.
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Morning
Line 946 over the ridge
From Santa Cruz Intercambiador, line 946 runs via San Andrés and Cruce El Bailadero to Taganana and continues to Almáciga. Decide at boarding which end serves your day: the village, or the beaches beyond it.
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Middle of the day
Village lanes, then the coast
Walk Taganana’s sloping streets to the church, then follow the road down to Roque de las Bodegas for a swim if the sea allows and lunch at the beach restaurants.
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Afternoon
The bus back decides the day
Line 946 times Taganana on the way back to Santa Cruz; the board on this page lists the departures from Almáciga and Taganana. Be at the stop with a margin: there is no later alternative.
Checked Sources: TITSA, WebTenerife
Asked and answered
Questions people ask about Anaga and Taganana
How do I get to Anaga from Santa Cruz by bus?
Line 946 from Santa Cruz Intercambiador goes to Taganana and Almáciga over the El Bailadero ridge, with working-day and weekend tables; it is the line for the villages and the beaches. For the laurel forest and Cruz del Carmen, go from La Laguna on line 076 (daily) or 273 (weekends and holidays). WebTenerife also lists lines 945 and 947 from Santa Cruz and 077, 274 and 275 from La Laguna, which this site has not checked.
Can you swim at the Anaga beaches?
Yes, with care. Roque de las Bodegas is the most family-friendly, with smaller waves than Almáciga and Benijo, but WebTenerife warns that currents and sudden waves are frequent on this coast; Almáciga is a surf beach. Look at the sea first and follow the lifeguards and the signs: on the Canary health service's flag code red means bathing is prohibited and yellow caution, and 112 Canarias says never to bathe under a red flag or without surveillance.
Is the Afur–Taganana trail doable by bus?
The PR-TF 8 circuit passes Afur, Taganana and the Barranco de Tamadite and takes about seven hours at medium difficulty, by WebTenerife’s description. Line 946 serves Taganana and line 076 serves Afur, but neither will wait: fix the return departure before you start and keep the walk shorter than the day.
Checked Sources: TITSA, WebTenerife, Gobierno de Canarias, Servicio Canario de la Salud +1
Good to know
Small details. Better days.
Show 4 local tips Show fewer
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Keep a village-first fallback
If cloud, rain or footing makes the trail unsuitable, spend the day around Taganana and nearby accessible viewpoints. The landscape remains rewarding without forcing a long circular hike.
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Carry what the terrain requires
Use proper footwear, water, sun and rain protection, and an offline route. Mobile coverage and conditions can vary in steep valleys, so do not depend on a last-minute timetable search from the trail.
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Reach the forest ridge from La Laguna
For the laurel forest rather than the coast, start in La Laguna: TITSA line 076 runs via Las Mercedes to Cruz del Carmen and down to Afur, where the PR-TF 8 circuit begins, on working days and weekends, while line 273 serves Las Mercedes and Cruz del Carmen on weekends and holidays only.
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On a cruise call, count back from all-aboard
TITSA gives line 946 about an hour each way, so a return from Almáciga that reaches Santa Cruz around your ship’s all-aboard time has already missed it. Take off the walk from the Intercambiador to your quay and a buffer of at least an hour, and use only a return that arrives before that: on most calls an early one, never the last bus or the one before it out of habit. No bus guarantees the ship.
Checked – 2026 Sources: WebTenerife, Gobierno de Canarias, Servicio Canario de la Salud, Gobierno de Canarias, 1-1-2 Canarias +2
Photos and film
Anaga and Taganana in pictures
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Watch before you go
Ross Angell Plays through YouTube’s privacy-enhanced player; nothing loads from YouTube until you press play. -
Benijo is beyond Almáciga, the end of line 946; the beaches of this coast have strong currents, and the bus back from Taganana or Almáciga decides the day. Photo: David Perez Perez, CC BY-SA 4.0 (cropped), via Wikimedia Commons -
Roque de las Bodegas is the calmest of Taganana’s three beaches and has the fish restaurants; line 946 passes on its way between Taganana and Almáciga. Photo: Beneharo Hdez., CC BY-SA 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons
Make room for something memorable
Book something around Anaga and Taganana
Affiliate links: we may earn a commission if you book, at no extra cost to you. Selected activity links open GetYourGuide; destination photos are illustrative. Check the date, current price, meeting point and what is included before booking.
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Perlaroques / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0 La Laguna and Anaga
Santa Cruz, La Laguna and laurel forest tour
A multi-stop guided day joining the capital, La Laguna and the green laurel-forest landscape of Anaga.
Why consider it Choose it when you want historical context and Anaga scenery in one organised itinerary.
View experience: Santa Cruz, La Laguna and laurel forest tour on GetYourGuide (opens in a new tab)Meeting point & getting there: Santa Cruz, La Laguna and laurel forest tour
Check the meeting point and any pickup on the product page before booking; this site could not read them.
Current experiences on GetYourGuide
Tours and activities on Tenerife as GetYourGuide lists them today, with current prices and reviews.
There’s more around the corner
Where next?
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Diego Delso / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 3.0 North-east Tenerife
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
Architecture, markets, museums and an urban day without a car
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Ronny Siegel / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY 3.0 -
Pimlico27 / Wikimedia Commons · CC BY-SA 4.0
Guide checked · How we check · Suggest a correction
Sources for this page
The sources this page cites, each with the date we checked it. Two dates mean the facts that cite it were checked on different days.
TITSA
- Line 946 timetable Checked – 2026
- Line 076: La Laguna–Cruz del Carmen–Afur Checked – Oct 2026
- Line 273: La Laguna–Cruz del Carmen Checked – Oct 2026
WebTenerife
- Taganana Checked
- PR-TF 8 Afur–Taganana–Afur trail Checked – 2026
- Anaga Rural Park Checked – 2026
- Playa del Roque de las Bodegas Checked
- Taganana Checked
- Santa Cruz de Tenerife sights Checked
Gobierno de Canarias, Servicio Canario de la Salud
Gobierno de Canarias, 1-1-2 Canarias
Gobierno de Canarias, Dirección General de Emergencias
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