Punta de Teno: how to get there and what awaits at the lighthouse
A single narrow road leads to Punta de Teno, the westernmost point of Tenerife: the TF-445. Today you can't use it by car, on foot or by bike. According to the access page of the Buenavista del Norte town council (last modified on 12 June 2026), travel by private vehicle, on foot and by bicycle is totally prohibited every day of the week. That leaves you two options: the guagua, as the scheduled bus is called in the Canary Islands, and a taxi.
According to the official text, the bus takes you out in two seasonal windows:
from 1 October to 20 June, every day between 10:00 and 19:00,
from 21 June to 30 September, every day between 8:00 and 20:00.
You can go by taxi in both periods. So in autumn and winter, the 10:00 to 19:00 window applies.
This rule has changed many times in recent years, and separate arrangements have even been issued for holidays. Before you set off, check the town council's official page.
Expect two more things. On 19 January 2026, roadworks began on the road to Punta de Teno, and the council's page about them gives no end date. We found no official announcement that the work has finished, and according to the press, the deadline for building the car parks was extended as recently as August. During the works, taxis and authorised vehicles can get through, but with waiting times. The other thing is the weather: according to the council, the road may occasionally be closed because of weather warnings, maintenance or other hazards, and TITSA may then suspend the bus service as well.
Why you can't drive there, and since when
The first reason is the road itself. In September 2013 the Cabildo, the island government, closed the TF-445 after a technical report from its roads department warned that keeping it open was dangerous, and it ordered emergency works. In February 2022 it was closed again, because the rockfall nets and other protective structures needed repairs. According to the Cabildo's open data, there are three tunnels between kilometres 4.5 and 4.8 of the road; the longest, Teno 2, is about 468 metres long, and none of them has any lighting.
The second reason is traffic. In August 2020 the Cabildo's governing council restricted traffic because it had already gone beyond what the management plan of the Teno Rural Park (Plan Rector de Uso y Gestión) had allowed for. That plan, approved in 2006, already stated that if visitors' cars needed more space than the car parks could hold, an alternative transport service to the lighthouse would have to be set up. So today's bus is no improvisation: it was already written into a plan twenty years ago. The pressure hasn't eased since: according to press reports citing the Cabildo's daily figures, 22,955 people came here in March 2025.
The rule got stricter step by step:
August 2020: alongside the restriction, vehicles carrying boats, cars displaying a disabled badge, taxis, emergency vehicles and bicycles could still go freely.
June 2022: from Monday to Thursday you could only go by bus, between 9:00 and 20:00, and at weekends the barrier stayed down from 9:00 on Friday to 9:00 on Monday.
April 2025: according to the Cabildo, the bus ran in winter, from 1 October to 30 June, between 10:00 and 19:00, and in summer, from 1 July, between 9:00 and 20:00.
June 2026: the summer window starts on 21 June and runs from 8:00 to 20:00, and walkers and cyclists are banned as well.
That's why so many older guidebooks and blogs give bad advice. Some say the car ban only applies at weekends, some say you can still drive in before 10:00, and some recommend cycling. Today's official text puts no time limit on the ban, and says nothing about being allowed to drive out outside the bus window. So don't count on it.
How to get there: bus, parking, taxi
Bus, TITSA line 369: the TITSA line page itself states that Teno can only be reached by guagua. The line leaves from the Buenavista bus station and reaches Punta de Teno via San Sebastián, Cruz de Toledo and Barranco Itobal, in about 20 minutes according to the council. According to the local tourism site, you can board at several points in the centre of Buenavista. The timetable and fare change, so check them on the TITSA site and plan your return trip around them too. The daily and weekly tourist passes are valid on this line.
Where to leave the car: according to TITSA, parking is easy around the Buenavista bus station and the Cruz de Toledo stop.
Taxi: according to the official text, besides the bus, you can also go by taxi; during the roadworks, expect waiting times.
Sunset: many people want to watch the sun go down from the island's westernmost point, but the bus window ends at 19:00 in autumn and winter and at 20:00 in summer. By our own calculation, the sun sets at Punta de Teno around 19:55 in early October, around 18:25 at the end of October once the clocks have changed, around 18:15 in December and around 21:05 in June. So by bus you can catch it roughly from November to February, and never in summer. If the sunset is what you're going for, arrange your return trip with a taxi in advance.
Exceptions: holders of the disabled parking card (the blue card) may drive, although the council recommends public transport to them too. Vehicles carrying a boat or bulky equipment that won't fit on the bus may drive out between 8:15 and 20:15, until the car park at Punta de Teno is full; outside those hours, they can't.
If you're coming from the other side of the island without a car, you can read about the buses and passes in our article on travelling without a car.
The lighthouse: two towers, one place
At the end of the road you see two towers, and both are the same lighthouse. According to the Spanish Ministry of Culture's 2017 catalogue of lighthouses of heritage value, the original was first lit in 1897 and the current one in 1978. The 1897 building survives along with its lantern, but it no longer works; as the catalogue puts it, here you can see two phases of one and the same lighthouse. Its light marked the passage around the western tip of the island.
You can't go inside either tower: according to the local tourism site, you can only see the old one and the new one from the outside. The Cabildo plans to restore the old tower and set up an interpretation centre in it, but we found no official information on when it will open, so don't count on it.
Why the Canary lighthouses stand exactly where they do is something we explained in our article on the lighthouses.
The protected area
Punta de Teno is part of the Teno Rural Park (Parque Rural de Teno), which the island's tourist board calls one of Tenerife's most important natural areas. Its protection was built up in stages: in 1987 it was declared a natural park, in 1991 the Teno massif was added to the network of Special Protection Areas for birds (ZEPA in Spanish), and in 1994 it was reclassified as a rural park. The revision of its management plan was approved on 20 July 2006. The park covers 8,063.6 hectares shared by four municipalities, and 69.4 percent of its area belongs to Buenavista del Norte.
According to the plan, only an information centre, a car park and visitor facilities may stand at the tip of the cape, around the lighthouse. The western cliffs, the plan says, are nesting sites for seabirds and birds of prey, some of them endangered, and they are also home to a large part of the population of the giant lizard, which had only recently been discovered at the time. Throughout the park, lighting fires and camping outside designated places are prohibited.
The view
According to the tourist board, this is the westernmost point of Tenerife and the place with the most hours of sunshine a year. From the lighthouse you can see the north coast and, to the west, the cliffs of Los Gigantes, and according to the local tourism site, this is where the northern and southern seas meet. If you'd like to see the Los Gigantes cliffs from the sea, the council suggests a kayak or a boat trip, booked in advance.
We've gathered Tenerife's other viewpoints in our article on the viewpoints.
Swimming: only with care
According to the local tourism site, there are a few small coves at Punta de Teno where you can swim, and if you don't want to walk, you can also get into the water at La Ballenita when the weather allows. La Ballenita is a landing place too: the park's 2006 plan proposed turning its breakwater into a landing stage for visitors arriving by sea, and into a shelter for fishing boats as well, and fishermen still head out from Punta de Teno today. So expect boats.
We found no official hazard rating, nor anything on whether there's a lifeguard. Before you go in, look at the signs and at the sea, and if you're unsure, stay on the shore. We've written about dangerous currents here: Rip currents in the Canary Islands.
Drones and fishing
Drones: the park's 2006 plan bans motorised aircraft from flying below 300 metres over two strictly protected zones, the western cliffs and Monte del Agua; Punta de Teno itself is not one of them. The Teno massif has, however, been a bird protection area (ZEPA) since 1991. Before you take off, check the official ENAIRE drone map: it tells you where you can fly and under what conditions.
Fishing: fishermen head out from here, but we found no specific official rule on recreational fishing from the shore.
Today Punta de Teno belongs to those willing to give up the steering wheel for the length of a bus ride. In return, you stand at the very edge of the island, between two towers, with nothing around you but water and cliffs.
Sources: Buenavista del Norte town council (buenavistadelnorte.es): access to Punta de Teno (modified 12 June 2026), the page on the roadworks, the 2024 Easter arrangements; Buenavista del Norte tourism site (buenavistadelnorte.travel); TITSA (titsa.com); Cabildo de Tenerife: Tenerife + Sostenible (2025), open data (the TF-445 tunnels), the Turismo de Tenerife corporate blog (2013); Turismo de Tenerife (webtenerife.com); Catálogo de faros con valor patrimonial de España (IPCE and Puertos del Estado, 2017); Gobierno de Canarias: the management plan (Plan Rector de Uso y Gestión) of the Parque Rural de Teno, Boletín Oficial de Canarias 2006/241; press: COPE (2020), Atlántico Hoy (2022, 2024, 2026), elDiario.es (2025). Checked on 5 October 2026.
Cover photo (cropped): Punta de Teno with the lighthouse and the Teno mountains, aerial photo, Buenavista del Norte. Werner Wilmes, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons.
