Mount Teide summit permit: how to book, the time slots and the park rules

What the text says: no summit without a booking

Can you still climb to the summit of Teide without a permit? No, at any hour. The national park’s management plan, approved by the Canary Islands government in December 2025, requires every ascent of the peak to be booked online in advance, and states that the rule applies 24 hours a day [1]. The same text caps the number of people on the summit path at any one time at 50, and makes the Telesforo Bravo path, no. 10, the only authorised route to the top [1].

The path starts at La Rambleta, the top cable car station, at about 3,550 m, and climbs to the summit. It is short, 0.66 km with about 180 m of ascent, which the official trail page puts at 55 minutes, but the gradient reaches 60%, at an altitude where breath runs short quickly [2]. It is graded medium difficulty on Spain’s MIDE system, which is not the scale used by the Alpine T1 to T6 walking grades. Once at the top, there is no walking round the crater and no going into it: it is classed as a reserve zone and off limits, as is leaving the path [3].

Who issues the permit? The Cabildo de Tenerife, the island council that manages the national park, through its Tenerife ON platform [2]. Bookings moved there in 2025: permits issued through the old Spanish national parks booking centre were only valid until 31 December 2025 [4]. Any page that sends you elsewhere is therefore out of date.

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Booking on Tenerife ON, step by step

Bookings are online only, on the Tenerife ON website or app, from an account you create and then activate through the link sent by email [7]. Every Monday at 7am Canary Islands time (the same as UK time), the platform opens one more week, so that 56 days are always available to book [2]. In its own example, places for the week of 4 to 10 May went on sale on Monday 16 March 2026 [7].

1. Create your account on Tenerife ON a few days before booking opens, and activate it: no validated account, no booking [7].
2. Open the PNT 10 Telesforo Bravo trail page, enter the number of people, up to 9 per request, then the slot and the date [3].
3. Enter each person’s identity details and pay by card if the slot is a paid one [8].
4. On the day, show the booking, printed or on your phone, with each person’s ID card or passport: the original, or a certified copy [3].

Three limits tend to catch people out. Each person can get one place every 15 days: the system refuses any new booking in the 7 days before or after the date booked [2]. Nothing can be amended: changing the date, the slot or a name means cancelling and booking again [3]. And a booking left unused without good reason can earn a three-month ban from booking [3].

Time slots: what changes on 6 December 2026

This is where the web pages contradict one another, and for good reason: two systems overlap. A Cabildo resolution signed on 14 October 2026 reorganises the slots on path no. 10 and cuts each one from two hours to 90 minutes [3]. Tenerife ON applies it to bookings made from Monday 19 October, for walks on or after 6 December 2026 [9].

Until 5 December, the October 2025 rules still govern your booking: a 6am to 9am slot for sunrise, four two-hour slots between 9am and 5pm, and a 6pm to 10pm slot for sunset, with no more than 50 people per slot [4]. From 6 December, the day is divided as follows:

Two details matter. First, the end of the slot: staying on the path once your 90-minute slot is over is prohibited and can be penalised [3], and the platform makes clear that the whole visit, up and down, must fit within the slot booked [7]. Second, the official table keeps two longer blocks, 3pm to 5pm and 5pm to 10pm: we reproduce it as published. The federation climbers’ places go to members of the Canary Islands federation at weekends, and to those from other Spanish regions on weekdays [3].

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How much the summit permit costs

Since 19 January 2026, daytime slots on the two busiest paths, no. 10 and no. 7 from Montaña Blanca, have been charged to anyone who does not live on Tenerife [8]. The October 2026 resolution sets these public fees for the 9am to 5pm window; outside it, booking is still compulsory, but free [3].

The price depends on the place of residence shown on your ID card or passport, and on the time you choose [2]. Under-14s pay nothing on path no. 10 [3]. A telling detail about the past few months: the trail page shows, in a second box, free entry up to the age of 16, while the resolution says 14 [2] [3]. When in doubt, the signed text prevails.

None of this is unusual: Madeira’s walking routes have also been booked by time slot since January 2026, and America’s national parks charge foreign visitors more.

The cable car: times, prices and wind closures

The cable car has nothing to do with the permit, and mixing the two up is an expensive mistake: its operator lists access to the summit among the things the ticket does not include [10]. A private company, Teleférico del Pico de Teide, runs it under the Volcano Teide brand; its cabins link the bottom station, at 2,356 m, with the top station, at 3,555 m, in under 8 minutes [10].

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Its timetable follows the seasons. From 25 October to 31 December 2026, it runs from 9am to 5pm, with the last trip up at 4pm and the last trip down at 4.50pm [6]. A return ticket for an adult who lives outside the Canary Islands is listed from €42, €21 for a child aged 3 to 13, and prices vary with demand and the season [6] [10]. At the top, your stay is limited to one hour, extended to two hours if you hold a summit permit [10].

Wind, cold or ice can stop it: the operator sends an email or text at around 8.30am on the day, and refunds the ticket if a stoppage delays your trip up by at least 90 minutes [10]. It is also worth counting backwards. In winter, with a 3pm to 5pm slot, you need to be back at the top station before the last trip down, at 4.50pm. The 5pm to 10pm slot starts after the cable car has closed.

Without a permit, before 9am or at night: what is still possible

The question comes up endlessly, often with an out-of-date answer: go up at night, or before 9am, without a permit. You will still find it on older pages, which rely on the 2006 rules: they exempted guests at the Altavista hut from the permit, provided they had left the path by 9am [12]. Those days are over. The 2025 management plan requires a booking for every ascent, at any hour [1], and from 6 December 2026, no permits are issued between 10pm and 6am [3].

That leaves three legal ways to go up outside the cable car’s hours, and none of them works without a booking:

• A night at the Altavista hut, at 3,260 m, reopened on 17 July 2026 after five years’ closure: 49 places, €71 a night, €56.80 for members of the Spanish mountaineering federation, €29 for Tenerife residents [15]. The booking includes the permits for paths no. 7 and no. 10; guests must be 14 or over and bring a sleeping bag [16]. The hut advertises summit access from 6am to 9am, the rule in force until 5 December; after that, the resolution cuts it to 6am to 7.30am [3].
• An authorised bivvy, in one of the four designated areas above 2,500 m, booked in advance and for one night per area [1]. The one known as Teide, limited to 7 people, includes path no. 7 during the day and path no. 10 at sunrise the next morning [1] [3]. Tents remain banned throughout the park, as is sleeping in a vehicle [1].
• A slot outside the cable car’s hours, 7.30am to 9am or 5pm to 10pm from 6 December, free, with 7 and 40 places for individuals [3]. It means walking up and down, with a booking for path no. 7 as well.

Finally, guides accredited by the park have their own quota of places [3]. Going with one is another way to get a slot, provided they appear on the park’s register of guides, which the resolution requires [3]. For the etiquette of a night in a staffed hut, see also our guide to staying in a mountain hut.

The national park rules, from the path to the sky

The summit is only a small part of Teide National Park, the most visited in the Spanish network [5]. Its rules apply to everyone, permit or not:

• Other paths that need booking: as well as no. 10 and no. 7, paths no. 9 (Pico Viejo), no. 23 (Los Regatones Negros) and no. 28 (Chafarí) are booked on Tenerife ON, with a daily quota [3].
• Kit that gets checked: for the summit path, long trousers (worn or in your rucksack), a fleece or other warm layer, and mountain boots; on paths no. 7 and no. 9, you also need a charged phone, a survival blanket, water, a hat, gloves and a head torch with spare batteries. Without this kit, you will be turned away, booking or not [3].
• Ice and snow: paths are closed by resolution; afterwards, they reopen only to experienced mountaineers, with a signed declaration of responsibility, crampons, an ice axe where needed and a current mountaineering federation card, or to groups of 4 to 6 led by an accredited guide [3].
• Drones: flying below 22,000 feet without permission is banned, which is about 3,000 m above the summit; taking off and landing in the park are banned too [1].
• Fire and smoking: fires are banned [1]; so is smoking, e-cigarettes included, under the summit booking conditions [2].
• Walking poles: metal tips are banned, even with a rubber cap, except on snow or ice [1].
• Stones: no collecting rocks and no stacking stones into cairns [1].
• Dogs and children: on the volcano’s paths, no pets except guide dogs; no children under 3, and an adult with every child aged 3 to 16 [3].

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These rules do not carry over from one country to another: France’s national parks have their own on the same subjects, dogs, bivouacking, fires and drones, and they differ on several points.

3,715 m in a matter of minutes: what the authorities say

The cable car drops you at 3,555 m less than 8 minutes after leaving 2,356 m [10]. The NHS says altitude sickness usually affects people above 2,500 m, and is more likely if you go up quickly [17]; the UK government’s travel advice for Spain names Tenerife among the places where it may be a risk [18]. Teide’s own texts say the same thing in their way: the summit path is not suitable for people with heart, breathing or mobility problems, and sudden changes in temperature, combined with low oxygen, can cause extreme tiredness, dizziness and feeling unwell [3].

Check before you go

Teide’s summit has not moved; its rules have: three Cabildo resolutions in a year, in October 2025, April 2026 and October 2026 [3]. At the risk of being the team’s killjoy, here is the list to go through the evening before:

• the date of your walk, before or after 6 December 2026, which sets the length of your slot;
• the booking, with the right names, and each person’s original ID;
• the alerts and closures posted on Tenerife ON, that same morning;
• the cable car’s status and the time of its last trip down;
• the high mountain forecast, and the kit required for every path you will use.

And if a page, this one included, says something different from the path no. 10 page on Tenerife ON on the day you book, the trail page is right.

Gallery: Teide and its park in six photos

Six real photos of the volcano, its paths and the caldera around it, published under free licences on Wikimedia Commons by their authors, who are credited under each image. Tap or click a photo to enlarge it.

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Arnaud Couderc

Fact-checking, regulations and safety

Arnaud Couderc reviews our contributors’ articles and writes for Outfarer about regulations, safety, fishing, the sea and outdoor pursuits. He traces every rule back to its official text and every figure to its source, so that you set off with sound benchmarks.

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