Teide Cable Car

The Teide cable car climbs from a base station at 2,356 m to La Rambleta at 3,555 m on Mount Teide, which UNESCO calls the highest peak on Spanish soil and which Spain's own environment ministry measures at 3,715 m. It sits inside Teide National Park, the most visited park in Spain's national park network, with 5,242,653 visitors recorded in 2024. The ride is one of three separate Teide experiences that get blurred together in most guides: driving through the park needs no booking on any page read, the cable car is an operator ticket, and the crater trail is a personal reservation on Tenerife ON. This page keeps those three apart and reports the operator's own prices, hours and access rules.

What Is the Teide Cable Car?

The Teide cable car is a commercial cable car operated inside Teide National Park that carries passengers from a base station at 2,356 m to the upper station of La Rambleta at 3,555 m on Mount Teide. It is a ticketed ride on a stratovolcano, not a summit ticket: the crater trail from La Rambleta is a separate reservation made on Tenerife ON, and the operator's own guide says the permit is processed via Tenerife ON.

The national park was declared by decree on 22 January 1954 and covers 18,990 hectares, with a peripheral protection zone of a further 7,374.32 hectares, according to the ministry that runs Spain's national park network. UNESCO inscribed the park on the World Heritage list on 2 July 2007 under natural criteria (vii) and (viii). In UNESCO's wording, the volcano rises 7,500 m above the ocean floor and is regarded as the world's third-tallest volcanic structure.

The cable car exists because the alternative is a long walk. The operator's prices page records the two altitudes that define the ride, 2,356 m at the base and 3,555 m at La Rambleta, and the operator's access rules list who may not ride at all. The base station car park runs 08:00 to 18:00 in the standard season and to 19:40 in the extended periods, which matters for anyone planning a sunset or stargazing evening, a subject covered in depth on our Teide stargazing tours page.

How Much Is a Cable Car to Mount Teide?

A return ticket on the Teide cable car costs EUR 42.00 for a non-resident adult and EUR 21 for a non-resident child aged 3 to 13, with the operator showing these as price-from figures for 2026. Canary residents pay EUR 10.50 adult and EUR 5.25 child return. A one-way non-resident adult ticket is EUR 23.50, and the return ticket with the Teide Legend audio guide is EUR 45.50 adult and EUR 24.50 child.

Those figures come from the operator's own prices and opening times page. The resident rate is set by the place of residence shown on an ID card or passport, the same principle Tenerife ON applies to the trail fees, so the document has to travel with you. There is no infant fare because there is no infant travel: the operator does not allow children under 3 on the cable car at all.

The child fare band runs from age 3 to 13. Anyone aged 14 and over pays the adult fare, and the operator's rules page is the place to confirm the boundary before booking for a family. Visitors who want the mountain without hiring a car can book a coach tour that bundles the transfer and the cable car ticket; the operator's live listing carries the current price for that option.

Is the Teide Cable Car Running?

The cable car's standard 2026 hours are 09:00 to 17:00 from 1 January to 27 March and from 13 April to 30 June, 09:00 to 18:40 from 28 March to 12 April and from 1 July to 30 September, 09:00 to 18:00 from 1 to 13 October, and 09:00 to 17:30 from 14 to 24 October. The last ascent is one hour before closing and the last descent ten minutes before closing.

So on a 17:00 day the last ride up leaves at 16:00 and the last cabin down at 16:50. Hours for the last weeks of the year are not on file, so check the operator's timetable before a December visit. The operator can suspend service for weather, and Tenerife ON states that trail bookings can be suspended for fire risk or weather alerts, so the alerts page is the honest answer to whether today is a cable car day. The base station car park opens an hour before the first cabin in the standard season.

Is It Worth Going Up Teide Cable Car?

The cable car is the only way to reach 3,555 m on Mount Teide without a multi-hour hike, and it puts you within a short trail of views UNESCO used to justify World Heritage status. It is not worth it for anyone who cannot ride: the operator refuses people with cardiovascular conditions, pregnant women and children under 3, and the summit crater is not included, because that needs the separate PNT 10 permit.

That is the honest shape of the decision. What the ride buys is altitude quickly: 1,199 m of gain between the base and La Rambleta, on a volcano the ministry describes as the largest and oldest national park in the Canaries. What it does not buy is the crater. From La Rambleta the marked trails run along the ridge, and the crater trail, PNT 10 Telesforo Bravo, is a personal reservation listed on Tenerife ON with accredited guides required and organisations not allowed. Our Teide summit permit guide covers that booking in detail.

For visitors staying in the south resorts, the practical arithmetic is between driving up TF-21 yourself, booking a seat on a coach, or walking. The Teide tours round-up compares the operator-backed options, and the Teide from the south day-trip page lays out the route. A tour with hotel pickup and the cable car ticket included removes the mountain road and the parking question in one booking, and the listing carries the live price.

Cable Car or Summit Permit: Which Do You Need?

You need the cable car ticket to ride to La Rambleta, and you need a separate Tenerife ON reservation to walk the PNT 10 Telesforo Bravo trail into the crater. Since Monday 19 January 2026 the 09:00 to 17:00 slots on PNT 10 cost EUR 15 for visitors, EUR 6 for residents of the other Canary Islands and nothing for Tenerife residents and children. The cable car does not reach the summit, and a cable car ticket does not cover the crater trail.

Tenerife ON lists PNT 10 as requiring a personal reservation, with accredited guides required and organisations not allowed, and it lists bookable slots across the whole day: 06:00 to 09:00, the four two-hour daytime slots, and 18:00 to 22:00. The out-of-hours slots carry no fee mark, but they are still reservations, and walking without one can be penalised. A new week of slots is released every Monday at 07:00 Canary time, keeping 56 days bookable. No official page gives a figure for how fast they sell out, and this site does not show live availability. The wider set of guides lives on Tenerife Travel Guide.

Children are exempt from the PNT 10 fee, and the official page gives two different age cut-offs, so check the booking page for the age band that applies rather than trusting a round number from a search result. Access rules are separate from fees: no children under 3 on the trail, under-16s only with an adult, and the page warns the route is not suitable for people with heart, respiratory or mobility problems. Bookings are non-refundable, with no changes of date, slot or names, and refunds only if the trail is closed or the cable car is not operating. Failing to use a booking can bar you from new applications for three months.

The Altavista refuge reopened after its 2026 refurbishment and takes prior reservations at its own site, sleeping 49. What no official page confirms is that a night there replaces the summit permit, so treat the two as separate bookings. For visitors who want the crater with a guide, a guided summit hike exists and its listing carries the current price.

How Do You Get to the Cable Car Base Station?

The base station sits at 2,356 m on the TF-21 road through Teide National Park, with a car park open 08:00 to 18:00 in the standard season and to 19:40 in the extended periods. Driving yourself, booking a tour with transfer, or taking a bus from the south or Puerto de la Cruz are the options, and no official page read lists any park entry fee or paid parking on the drive up.

Hiring a car gives the most flexibility for a sunset or a quiet morning, and our car hire in Tenerife guide covers the practicalities. The mountain roads are covered in the driving guide, and visitors without a car have a full Tenerife without a car itinerary built around buses and booked tours. The do you need a car in Tenerife question is worth settling before you book anything on the mountain, because the answer changes which Teide products make sense.

One rule worth repeating because so many pages get it wrong: no official page lists an entry fee for the national park itself. The charges that exist are the per-booking public fees on the two trails, PNT 10 and PNT 07, since 19 January 2026, plus the Masca and Barranco del Infierno tickets elsewhere on the island. Driving through the park, the viewpoints and the other trails carry no charge on any page read.

What Is the Weather Like at 3,555 M?

AEMET's climate normals for the Izana station on the Teide observatory ridge at 2,369 m record a mean daily maximum of 7.5 C in January against 23 C in July, with 47 mm of rain in January and none in June or July. The air at the top of the cable car is roughly 20 C colder than the south coast on the same day, and ice and snow in winter add crampons and an ice axe to the mandatory equipment list on the stratovolcano trails.

That contrast is the single most under-planned part of a Teide day. A visitor leaving a 28.7 C July afternoon in Santa Cruz steps into an 18.5 C mean at Izana, and the mean daily minimum in January up there is 1.1 C. AEMET's normals are the 1981 to 2010 period. Sunshine is generous at altitude, 382 hours in both June and July, but the four and a half rain days of a January week are real, and the Cabildo's wildfire measures can close things down independently of the rain.

The operator's exclusion list is the boundary of what can be said about health at altitude: cardiovascular conditions, pregnancy and under-3s are refused, and anyone with a health problem is told to ask a doctor first. Beyond that, no altitude-sickness thresholds are stated here, because none are on file. The smoking ban covers all open-air spaces of the national park, car parks and viewpoints included, which is worth knowing before a cigarette at La Rambleta becomes a wildfire measure.

What Else Can You Combine with the Cable Car?

The Roques de Garcia rock formations, the Teide Observatory at Izana and the sunset and stargazing sessions in the park are the natural pairings, and none of them needs the cable car to work. The observatory runs guided visits by prior reservation only, the rocks sit below the Parador on the same TF-21 road, and the Fundacion Starlight has listed the Cumbres de Tenerife as a Starlight Reserve since October 2013.

The Roques de Garcia are the classic stop on the drive, and the Teide Observatory runs its visits on a reservation system with under-16s free and a resident discount, though the booking page carried a fully booked notice when the facts file was compiled, so plan ahead. Whether the volcano itself is sleeping is a question with its own answer on is Mount Teide active. For the evening, a small-group sunset and stargazing session with a telescope is the strongest pairing with a daytime cable car ride, and the listing carries the live price.

Visitors building a wider week can pair the mountain with the sea: a whale and dolphin cruise from Los Gigantes makes a clean contrast day, and Loro Parque in Puerto de la Cruz is the north-coast anchor. The trio below collects the three bookings this desk would compare first.

Planning Checklist for a Teide Cable Car Day

Book the cable car or a tour with the ticket included, book the PNT 10 permit separately and only if you want the crater, carry ID because the resident rate and the trail fee both depend on it, pack for a mountain 20 C colder than the coast, and check the Tenerife ON alerts page before setting out, because fire risk and weather can suspend the day.

The checklist below pulls the rules that actually bite into one table. Each row is the operator's or Tenerife ON's own condition, not an editorial judgement.

Common Questions About the Teide Cable Car