Climbing Pico del Teide: the permit and the cable car, step by step
The Teide cable car takes you to 3,555 metres. The summit, Pico del Teide, is at 3,715. Between the two lie a little over a hundred and sixty metres of ascent and a trail that requires a separate permit, requested in advance and online.
This is the island's most expensive misunderstanding. Not expensive in money, but in the fact that people ride up convinced they are heading for the summit, only to learn at the upper station that the checkpoint wants a document nobody told them about. The view from there is magnificent. But it is not the summit.
What the Telesforo Bravo is, and why it needs a permit
The Telesforo Bravo is trail number 10, climbing from La Rambleta (3,550 m) to Pico del Teide (3,715 m). It is the only route to the summit, and it is an out-and-back walk.
The restriction is not red tape. The crater and its surroundings are designated a Reserve Zone in the park's management plan: leaving the marked path, walking around the crater rim and entering the crater are all forbidden. The permit controls how many people tread the same few square metres each day.
The rules in force come from a Cabildo de Tenerife resolution signed in October 2025, and they remain the reference. For the wider setting, see our page on Teide National Park.
The permit is free, but not where most guidebooks send you
This is the single most useful thing to know, and where most articles go wrong:
The permit is issued through the Tenerife ON platform (the tenerifeon.es website or the Tenerife ON app), run by the Cabildo de Tenerife. Not through the national parks' former central booking system, which is what many guidebooks still list. That old system says so on its own page: bookings must be made and managed directly on Tenerife ON.
Anyone holding a permit valid until 31 December 2025, issued under the old system, does not need a new one and continues to manage it there.
The permit costs nothing. The cable car operator's own website confirms it: you apply online, free of charge. If someone is charging you, you are not paying for the permit but for a guided tour or an intermediary's service.
Which slot to pick, and where the places actually are
There are three windows each day:
06:00 to 09:00, if you want sunrise from the summit
09:00 to 17:00, split into four two-hour intervals
18:00 to 22:00, for sunset
The four daytime intervals are 09:00-11:00, 11:00-13:00, 13:00-15:00 and 15:00-17:00.
And here is what almost nobody spells out, even though it decides whether you get a place at all. The four intervals are not the same size. The trail's maximum load is fifty people per interval, but the places available to the general public break down like this:
09:00-11:00 → 20 places
11:00-13:00 → 50 places
13:00-15:00 → 40 places
15:00-17:00 → 50 places
The early 09:00-11:00 slot is the tightest, because much of that capacity is allocated to registered professional guides. If you have a free choice, the two widest windows are 11:00-13:00 and 15:00-17:00.
The sunrise window (06:00 to 09:00) has fifty places, but up to eighty per cent is reserved for people who spend the night at the Altavista Refuge. In other words, if you set off from the bottom before dawn, you are competing for whatever is left. Check the refuge's current status before you plan, as it changes seasonally.
A private individual can include up to nine companions on one application, only one interval per day, and one permit every seven days. That last rule is worth thinking through in advance if you had several dates in mind for the same trip.
What you have to carry
The permit alone is not enough. Bring it on paper or on your phone, and with it an identity document for every single person named on it. This is not just about you: staff can ask anyone in the group, and if someone cannot show it, or the details do not match, the permit is cancelled. Not only theirs.
Park staff may also check the mandatory equipment and turn you back without it. It varies by season and time slot, and there is sense in that: if the cable car stops for technical or weather reasons, you descend on foot, over steep ground and through severe temperature swings.
Who it is not for
The regulations say this outright, and not out of excessive caution. The Telesforo Bravo is a high-mountain trail: steep drops, unstable surfaces and areas with a risk of falling. Sudden temperature changes combined with low oxygen pressure can cause extreme fatigue, dizziness and general malaise.
It is not suitable for people with heart, respiratory or mobility problems, nor for anyone without high-mountain experience. Children under 3 cannot go up, and under-16s only with an adult.
If the weather turns
Ice, snow or anything else that leaves the trail without minimum safety guarantees can close it. That applies to people who already hold a permit too. There is nothing to claim: on that day, nobody goes up.
Just as important: the permit and the cable car are two different things. The 09:00 to 17:00 window broadly matches the cable car's operating hours, but your authorisation is valid for that day and that slot whether or not the cable car runs that day. If you plan to come down by cable car, check its timetable beforehand rather than finding out at the top.
Getting to the start of the trail
There are two ways.
By cable car. It runs to the upper station at 3,555 metres, and from there it is a few minutes on foot to La Rambleta and the start of the trail. Tickets start at 24 euros on the operator's website, and booking ahead is worth it, because the queue at the ticket office can be long.
On foot. From the base, usually via the Montaña Blanca trail (PNT-07). For that stretch, though, from the base of Teide to the start of the Telesforo Bravo, you need an additional authorisation, also obtained through Tenerife ON. Walking up does not sidestep the permit: it requires two.
The short version
The cable car does not reach the summit, it stops at 3,555 m
The summit needs a free permit, from Tenerife ON, in advance
The slots with most places are 11:00-13:00 and 15:00-17:00
Carry the permit and ID for everyone in the group
In bad weather the permit counts for nothing, and that is normal
If you are putting together a wider island route, what to see in Tenerife has the rest of the stops.
Updated: 16 August 2026. Prices and procedures change, so check the Tenerife ON website and the cable car timetable before you set out. If you find something different from what we describe here, write to us and we will correct it.
Sources: Cabildo de Tenerife resolution of October 2025 on access rules for the Telesforo Bravo trail; official information from the national parks' central booking system; the Teide cable car operator's website.
Cover photo: Andys, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons. Summit crater of Pico del Teide, 2008.
