North Tenerife Wonders TourGarachico, Los Silos & Banana Plantation

The quiet north of Tenerife: Garachico, Los Silos and a banana plantation

This is an excursion built around the quieter north of Tenerife, away from the busiest routes. It runs on Wednesdays, travelling by air-conditioned coach with an official guide for the whole excursion. There are four stops: the Garachico viewpoint, the town itself on foot, Los Silos and its whale skeleton, and a working banana plantation at Buenavista del Norte.

The Mirador de Garachico

The first stop is the viewpoint over Garachico, looking down on a town that was buried by lava in 1706 and rebuilt on top of it. From up there you can see the natural sea pools the eruption left behind and the whole shape of the coast.

Then you come down into the town itself for a walk through its streets, with free time for the toilets, for the shops and to get something to eat.

The whale skeleton at Los Silos

Los Silos is a town with a lot of history and tradition behind it, and the stop takes in part of its heritage as well as the whale skeleton, one of the most curious and most photographed things in the area.

A working banana plantation

This is the part that is hard to find elsewhere. In Buenavista del Norte, at the north-western tip of the island, you walk through a traditional banana plantation and see the complete growing cycle of the Plátano de Canarias: the techniques the farmers still use, and what the crop has meant to the island's economy and its history. There is free time to take photographs among the plants.

The road between

Between the stops comes the panoramic route: traditional villages, rural country and viewpoints, with the guide covering the history and the traditions as you go. The stops are the reason to come, but the north is worth seeing from the window too.

How it differs from the other north tours

Three excursions on this site head north and they are not the same trip. This one is Garachico, Los Silos and the banana plantation. The north Tenerife bus tour goes the other way, to Santa Cruz, La Laguna and Taganana. The Teide, Icod, Garachico and Masca tour climbs the volcano first. If you want the banana plantation and the whale skeleton, this is the only one that has them.