Do not hesitate to contact us. We are an expert team and we are always happy to talk to you.
01694 723600
You matter to us & we promise to provide you with a superb walking & social holiday, tailored specifically to your needs. We provide walking holidays for walkers & as walkers ourselves, we appreciate & understand the requirements of a walking holiday.
Some describe Tenerife as having ‘many worlds in one place’, which is partly due to the ‘micro-climatic’ environment. Year round sun helps out our guided walking. Walking on the Teide plateau close to this iconic mountain is an incredible experience and therefore we have included this opportunity in our holiday.
The price shown here excludes flights but includes a sole occupancy supplement
Our unique speciality is that we provide guided walking holidays for solos and singles – in some of the most stunning areas across the UK and Europe. We also design bespoke holidays for special groups.
What’s not included
Lunch, all your drinks in the evenings, at lunch time and on our walks.
Your hotel
We use the FOUR star Hotel Tigaiga in Puerto de la Cruz. This elegant hotel is located is surrounded by a beautiful botanical garden with subtropical palm trees. The hotel is located within walking distance of a wide range of restaurants, bars, shops and leisure spots in a privileged setting with views of the Atlantic Ocean.
The rooms
Exterior rooms with a balcony overlooking the garden and equipped with air-conditioning and an en-suite bathroom, the Standard Rooms offer everything you need to enjoy a pleasant rest during your stay on the island of Tenerife.
The hotel has an out door swimming pool set within the gardens
The Hotel has the following facilities:
Dinner is taken in the hotel’s dining room.
Lunch is packed and can be sourced close by at local bakeries and supermarket.
Sole Occupancy Supplement
The sole occupancy supplement of £45 per night is already included in the cost of this holiday. – as shown at the top of the page.
Some describe Tenerife as having ‘many worlds in one place’, which is partly due to the ‘micro-climatic’ environment. While the Island is lucky enough to endure year round sun and warmth, the weather can change quite dramatically from region to region. The South is usually doused in warmth and sunlight causing the southern terrain to bear resemblance to the desert, particularly at the hottest times of the year. The north endures the occasional rainfall but stays warm, keeping it green and luscious with impressive forests up on the hills.
The craters of Las Canadas offer walkers a lunar experience at over 2,000 metres above sea level and Mount Teide is a huge, rugged, steep sided volcanic peak and is the highest peak in the whole of Spain at 3,800m. Walking on the Teide plateau close to this iconic mountain is an incredible experience and therefore we have included this opportunity in our holiday Teide’s near neighbour Mount Guajara is on our walking itinerary.
Tenerife offers an amazing variety of landscapes ranging from semi deserts to perpetually, moist laurisilva ‘cloud forests’, from rugged cliff coasts to high mountains, from fertile cultivation terraces to awesome rocky barrancos carved deep into multi coloured layers of volcanic bedrock.
Tenerife is not all about sharp, high ascents, there are some spectacular coastal walks around the Island offering a taste of Canarian culture as you pass coastal cottages, local hidden beaches, gaze at the dramatic cliffs and maybe even come across some of the banana plantations.
The volcanic nature of the Island, shaped by the weather, has created a truly unique landscape unlike anywhere else.
You purchase your own flights for this holiday.
The price you pay to Secret Hills Walking Holidays is a land only price.
When you reserve your flight, our policy is to enable you to fly from your local airport, wherever possible.
This means that clients will arrive at the destination airport at different times and we will arrange the onward transfers to the hotel, and return you to the airport at the end of the holidays.
There are flights from most major airports to Tenerife – south airport, and you will be transferred to your hotel from the airport.
Our main transfers are designed to meet the morning UK flights. If you opt for a later flight. then a transfer supplement will apply.
It is likely that we will accumulate clients from different flights that arrive at broadly similar times to make the transfer from Tenerife South airport to the hotel. You may be asked to wait a short time to ensure that all clients flights on a particular transfer have arrived.
We walk for five full days with one free day.
We daily travel to our walks start and finish by minibus.
We use a Tenerife based guiding company to provide our guiding services – supported by our UK tour guide.
Prevailing weather conditions
Tenerife in January will have a mix of sunny, warm weather- but there could be cloudy conditions and some high level mist- and be prepared for a shower or two- it is not a green paradise for no reason.
Grade of walking
This holiday walking programme is designed for good competent walkers on mixture of terrains….. Walk between 6 to 10 miles a day and potentially 700 metres ascent/ descent. Ascents are taken slowly to allow plenty time to absorb the magnificent vast environment around you.
The walks on this trip vary between moderate and challenging and each day involves a fair amount of ascent and descents. The trip requires a good amount of fitness, ideally with some previous trekking experience in similar conditions.
Underfoot conditions are generally good and we walk on mature paths and tracks.
It’s all about meeting new friends. Each holiday is designed to be a friendly, relaxed and stress-free occasion. Talking is as important as walking on Secret Hills Walking Holidays. We don’t go in for discos, we may use an event that is taking place in the area we are in to boost the weekend’s activities – but it’s good, old fashioned chat that makes our short breaks successful.
“Make new friends that turn into old friends” – that’s our motto.
You might be surprised by what fun you’ll have with people who are older or younger than you during a holiday with us, and that’s exactly the sort of atmosphere we encourage; people find it very rewarding. It doesn’t matter what your reasons for travelling with us are, we’ve had people who are single, divorced or widowed, people who have partners that are unable to travel, and people who can’t holiday with their friends anymore as they’ve all got married themselves. There are people who want to make friends, see sights, and experience something completely new. Whatever your reason, we’ll welcome you with open arms and our friendly hosts will help you to get the most out of your holiday.
Don’t worry if this is the first time you have ventured to join a group holiday – its always a bit daunting – but we will look after you and ensure that you get used to being amongst friends again. Trust us to to get you back into the swing of things.
Oh – by the way – it’s not a dating agency – over the years we have had people meet and fall in love – but that’s just chance. Our aim is that you make like-minded friends – just relax and enjoy.
Just arrive and enjoy.
There are other walking holiday companies that cover Europe but we believe we offer the best value for many reasons….
You may book online.
Payment is in two parts – you pay a deposit of 25%, payable when reserving your holiday place. You will receive an invoice for the holiday showing the deposit paid, and full amount to pay for the holiday. This acts as your confirmation.
The balance is due 8 weeks prior to the holiday start date. You will be sent a reminder.
About three weeks prior to departure, we will send you holiday joining details, and details of the transfer from the airport to the appointed hotel we have arranged for you.
Once you arrive at your holiday destination
Secret Hills Walking Holidays organise all aspects of your holiday– including guiding, transport to walks start and provide you with an experienced tour guide. You make your own arrangements to get to the airport in the UK, we meet you at the airport you are flying to, and help you with your transfer to the appointed hotel.
It is important to read Secret Hills Walking Holidays Terms and Conditions – click on the tab on our web site – before you complete the booking form.
Insurance – you need to be fully covered
It is a condition of joining any of our holidays that you must be fully insured against travel, medical and personal accident risks (to include repatriation costs and air ambulance or helicopter rescue services where appropriate).
We will ask you to provide us with the details of your insurance prior to the holidays start date and it is a condition of reserving a place.
If you are a UK citizen and travelling in Europe you should obtain the UK Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC) which is available only online from the UK Government website. This gives you medical care at a reduced cost, and some cases for free, in many European countries, but should not be considered a substitute for adequate travel insurance.
History
Tenerife has a rich historical background, interesting monuments and museums spread along the island will help you to discover the amazing past of this island, which has been a bridge between continents and civilizations. Let’s have a look at the history of Tenerife.
Tenerife, and the rest of the Canary islands, are considered the sons of Pluton. The oldest mountain ranges in Tenerife rose from the Atlantic Ocean later than the neighbouring eastern islands, the volcanic evolution which gave birth to the island finished around twelve million years ago.
The island that we know today was formed three million years ago by three different islands, with the mountain ranges of Anaga, Teno and Valle de San Lorenzo. The activity from the Teide volcano finally melted together the different islands which became Tenerife. The amazing volcano is still visible from most parts of the island and its crater reaches 17 km long in some points. The last volcanic eruption took place in 1909 near the village Santiago del Teide and the last volcanic activity in Tenerife took place 500,00 years ago.
The island was conquered by the Spanish empire around 500 years ago, Alonso Fernandez de Lugo, the Spanish conqueror arrived at the bay of Santa Cruz, known at the time as Anaza. On the 31st of May 1494, the king ordered him to suppress the last canary natives mainstay, but the Guanches (natives from Tenerife) proved to be very courageous and resisted the attack.
The king of Raoro, Bencomo (today La Orotava) who was the most important of all nine kings of the island, gathered his soldiers and enticed the impostors to the Bay of Acentejo. 2,000 Spaniards fell and Alonso Fernandez de Lugo was seriously injured.
Since then, the town where this terrible events happened is known as la Matanza (the massacre in Spanish). Currently, next to the highway there is a huge stone wall painted with a Guanche sounding the victory signal through a horn in the place where the massacre happened. On December 25th, 1495, one and a half years later, the Spanish crown finally conquered Tenerife, after a plague destabilised the Guanche population. The extinction of the natives and the Guanche culture was kept secret and always denied for a long time after.
The memory of the last nine Kings was kept alive by statues made with lava at the beach in front of the Basílica, in Candelaria. Unfortunately due to the effects of the years and especially to the erosion, these statues were corroded and destroyed.
In 1496, the city of ‘San Cristobal de La Laguna’ was built, next to a lagoon and close to the harbour of Añaza. In 1723 after the victory over the Guanches, the Spanish governor, de Lugo, changed the government’s headquarters to the city of Santa Cruz.
The mysterious Guanches, natives of Tenerife, where known as the more dangerous and most feared from the canary island inhabitants. They were cavern men and buried their dead in caves.
There is little information about the origins of the Guanches, but it seems that they came from the northwest of Africa. A stone with some symbols engraved was found, supposedly of Berber origin. However, there are only theories and speculations about how the Guanches first arrived the islands.
Fantastic walking; wonderful group; unbelievable weather. Exceptional & varied walking – it really pushed me. Jill could see I was struggling mentally on the first day – she took me under her wing & well & truly sorted me out. Jill really made a massive difference to me. Please pass on my personal thanks to her. It is a difficult job to manage a group of people who all have their own opinions – she was forceful when she needed to be but was always approachable & there to help us when we needed it.
I continue to recommend Secret Hills Walking to others. Efficient as ever, thank you. Great hotel. Loved the rooftop terrace. The other guests were good fun & Jill is always great.
Having holidayed with Secret Hills in Gran Canaria in 2018 I was keen to join them again in Tenerife.
Secret Hill’s formula for success is based on excellent client relations and super holiday locations. You are treated as an individual throughout – from their initial contact to final goodbyes. Having 20 years’ knowledge of walking holidays with several organisations I think that Secret Hills/New Experience offer a unique holiday. What is most notable is the friendliness of all the participants and the professionalism of those responsible in leading and organising the whole holiday.
I received excellent, bespoke information regarding my holiday with comprehensive pricing and was able to choose flights from my local airport.
We stayed at the excellent Vallemar Hotel on the sea front at Puerto de la Cruz in the north of the island. The staff are friendly and helpful, the rooms are well appointed, and the quality and variety of the food is very good. The hotel has an excellent roof top bar and swimming pool – the bar is a super place to meet for drinks before dinner. It’s a shame that there is no resident’s bar but there are many convenient, good quality watering holes nearby for that post dinner get together.
Walking on Tenerife is varied, interesting and as challenging as you want it to be. Jilly was our fantastic Group Leader, ably assisted by Anna our local guide. They have a marvellous rapport and were able to organise our walks with imagination and flexibility. If the weather was inclement we were able to alter our programme and walk in a different area.