Self-Drive Teide: Sunset, Stars and an Optional Dinner at 7 Cañadas

You drive up yourself to the Restaurante 7 Cañadas at La Orotava, where the guide meets the group. The exact time comes by WhatsApp before the tour. Dinner is the option you add at booking: three Canarian courses with the first drink included, eaten 2,130 metres above the sea with the volcanic plains and the old lava fields out of the window. Without it, there is the panoramic terrace and the restaurant facilities for that part of the evening. Then the light goes. Sunset happens above the sea of clouds, with a glass of chilled cava or orange juice, and Teide standing at 3,718 metres against it. After dark the Starlight-certified guides bring out the four telescopes and the laser pointers and go through planets, constellations and galaxies, with the mythology and the science and a certain amount of humour. The stargazing runs in English, Spanish or French. Warm coats are there if you need them, and the sunset time-lapse and the photographs of the night come with the tour. The operator has taken the Tripadvisor Travellers' Choice award four years running. Transport is not included in this one. Getting up there is on you.