Acantilados de Los Gigantes

Interesting facts

The cliffs are cut into the Teno massif, one of the oldest parts of Tenerife, an ancient shield volcano built roughly six million years ago.

Tenerife grew from three old shield volcanoes, Roque del Conde, Teno and Anaga, which were later joined by the younger volcanic complex around Teide.

The waters off the cliffs belong to the Tenerife–La Gomera Marine Area, which in 2021 became Europe's first Whale Heritage Site.

Southwest Tenerife hosts a resident population of short-finned pilot whales, estimated by one study at about 636 animals in 2007–2009.

Around 28 species of whales and dolphins have been recorded in Tenerife's waters, among them resident sperm whales and bottlenose dolphins.

The resort town beneath the cliffs grew from the 1960s largely on British investment, on a stretch of coast with no settlement name on 1950s maps.

Why it is worth it

Along the western coast of Tenerife, dark basalt walls drop straight into the Atlantic from heights of roughly 300 to more than 600 metres. The Acantilados de Los Gigantes, the Cliffs of the Giants, are the product of the sea eating into old volcanic rock, at the seaward edge of the Teno massif. The Guanches, the island's indigenous people, are said to have called them the Wall of Hell, and the name fits the way the rock shuts off the interior: only a handful of steep ravines, such as Barranco Seco, Juan López and Carrizales, cut through to the sea.

Where those ravines meet the water they leave small coves of sand or gravel that are hard to reach on foot and are mostly visited by boat. The cliffs lie within the Teno Rural Park and are shared between the municipalities of Buenavista del Norte, which holds most of them, and Santiago del Teide. Unlike the walls above, the seabed at their foot is shallow, around 30 metres deep, and its relative isolation has left it rich in marine life that draws divers.

At the southern end of the wall, the resort town of Los Gigantes grew up from the 1960s, a place that did not appear on maps in the 1950s. Its marina, black sand beach and seawater pool sit right under the cliffs, and the viewpoints above the town look along the full length of the rock face. The village of Masca, reached through one of the deep Teno ravines, lies a short distance to the north.

Getting there

The cliffs rise directly above the town of Los Gigantes in the municipality of Santiago del Teide; Guía de Isora is about 12 km away. Tenerife South Airport (TFS) is about 40 km in a straight line and roughly 45 km by road along the island's west coast. The island capital, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, is about 125 km away by road.

Acantilados de Los Gigantes

Interesting facts

Why it is worth it

Getting there

Plan your visit

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