Is it legal for someone to drive you on an excursion around the Canary Islands?

Someone in a Facebook group offers to show you the island: they pick you up, take you to Icod de los Vinos, to La Orotava, you stop for lunch and back home again, all for a good price. It sounds convenient and friendly. But before you say yes, there is one thing worth knowing: driving tourists on an excursion for money is not just any old favour, and doing it without the right permits is illegal.

This article is the second instalment in our series on legal excursions in the Canary Islands. If the first covered adventure and hiking routes (turismo activo, active tourism), this one deals with a very different and very common case: the tourist drive by car or van from village to village.

It's not active tourism: it's transport

A drive through the villages by car does not fall under the rules of turismo activo (active tourism). It is governed by other regulations, which is why many people believe, in good faith, that they are "just taking a few friends along." The difference lies in the money: giving someone a lift for free is a favour; charging to carry travellers is a regulated activity that requires authorisation.

And where is the line? A genuine favour, without any profit motive, or occasionally splitting the cost of petrol between acquaintances, is not the same as offering a service. In fact, that is why ride-sharing platforms such as BlaBlaCar are legal (a 2017 court ruling confirmed it): the driver shares only the direct costs of the journey (petrol and tolls), without making a profit. What turns the drive into a regulated activity is charging for it with a profit motive, doing it with a certain regularity and, above all, advertising it as a service to tourists. As soon as there is a fixed price and an open offer, it is no longer a favour: it is passenger transport.

In Spain, road passenger transport is regulated by the Ley 16/1987 de Ordenación de los Transportes Terrestres (LOTT) (the national land transport act). The Canary Islands also have their own regional law, the Ley 13/2007 de Ordenación del Transporte por Carretera de Canarias (the Canary Islands road transport act). Both make the same thing clear: to carry travellers for money you need an enabling licence.

Three permits, not one

A paid tourist excursion can bring together as many as three distinct activities, and each one has its own requirement.

The transport

To move paying travellers, only the authorised forms are valid, and each one suits a different kind of outing better: the taxi (with a municipal licence and a meter) for one-off trips or a few people; the VTC (chauffeur-driven hire vehicle, with its own authorisation and always booked in advance) for a bespoke private service; and the discretionary bus or coach when the group is large. What does not exist is the option of a private car that charges without any of these authorisations: that is what is popularly called a "taxi pirata" (pirate taxi), and it is a very serious infraction of the LOTT. According to the sector's guidelines, the penalty starts at 4,001 euros, and since the 2013 reform even the simple act of offering the service without authorisation is classified as an offence.

The guide

If, in addition to driving, the person explains the monuments, history and culture of each village to you, they are acting as a guide. For that you need the official guía de turismo (tourist guide) accreditation of the Canary Islands, just as we saw in the first instalment. Knowing the island well is not enough: the profession is regulated.

The sale of the package

And if that person is the one who organises, advertises and sells the excursion as a product, they are carrying out an activity proper to an agencia de viajes (travel agency), which must also be registered as a tourism intermediary. These are three layers that can overlap on one and the same outing, but each one requires its own permit.

How to recognise a legal trip or excursion

You don't need to be an expert. A service that is in order can prove it to you:

The VTC carries a compulsory adhesive badge on the windscreen and a blue rear number plate with white characters (the front one is still white; the design of the badge depends on the region). And one key detail: a VTC can never pick up customers in the street; the service is always booked in advance by app or website, and getting into one without a prior reservation is illegal. The taxi, on the other hand, can indeed stop in the street and carries a municipal licence number and a meter.
The service issues an invoice. If they charge you in cash with no receipt at all, that is a warning sign.
Legal operators usually appear on platforms such as Civitatis or GetYourGuide, or work with a registered travel agency. Even so, the golden rule is being able to ask for the licence and the invoice.

What you risk in a "taxi pirata"

Beyond the fine the driver risks, the problem falls on the passenger.

The insurance may not respond. A car insured for private use does not cover commercial use: if it is used for undeclared paid transport, the insurer may refuse to cover the damage or later reclaim what it paid out. In an accident during an illegal excursion, driver and passengers are left exposed. The Cabildo de Lanzarote (the island council of Lanzarote) warns without mincing words: the user of a fake taxi is left "in a situation of total defencelessness."
It is not a theoretical risk. In the Canary Islands, enforcement is real and active. The Policía Canaria (the Canary Islands regional police) carries out regular checks at Tenerife Sur airport against the irregular transport of travellers, including excursions run by people without a guide qualification, in unauthorised vehicles and without adequate insurance. The Cabildo de Lanzarote went so far as to investigate 44 cases of illegal transport.

Did you know? Since the 2013 reform of the LOTT, you don't even have to actually make the trip: offering passenger transport without the corresponding authorisation is in itself an infraction.

How to book with peace of mind

Choosing well doesn't take the outing away from you, it secures it. You can book the excursion with a discretionary transport company or a licensed agency, go with an official guide if you want the explanations, or book through platforms such as Civitatis or GetYourGuide. Always ask for the licence and the invoice, and enjoy Icod, La Orotava or whatever corner it may be with nothing left hanging.

This is the second of four instalments. In the next ones we'll see how to set up a tourist activity legally if you are the one who wants to start a business, and why unregulated competition harms the companies that do play by the rules. For the case of adventure and hiking routes, review the first instalment: how to recognise a legal excursion.