Astronomic tour to Teide including a visit to the Observatory

1. Excellent and well organised tour, must do in Tenerife 2. Value for money 3. Ample opportunities for sunset photos 4. Adequate time for break/snacks/toilet 5. Highly qualified and knowledgeable guide to explain star gazing and constellations

It is well worth doing this trip and a most interesting activity. The instructions to wrap up warm are essential.

I thought it was a great tour lots of information and a few surprises which we have to keep secret…However, just make sure you bring very warm clothes, it’s a must. And gloves. We had a great guide and I wish to thank her, she was really lovely!

Excellent team!

Not applicable.

The tour was amazing and the guides were very professional

The website info is adequate, mostly. What it lacks is the information about the cantina being closed after 17:00. There's no way to find this info online. I did not order a picnic because i was sure a canteen would offer something. I was very disappointed with a chocolates vending machine that only accepts coins (which nobody had enough). Information is key. Please make the food availability times easily found in the tours descriptions. The tour is very good, the English guide was highly motivated, it was a pleasure all the way. There were only minor inconveniences: The bus was too hot, the conditioner was not cooling the air at all. On the way back, though, the bus was too cold.

Wonderful Learnt lots Saw amazing stars very, very Cold! You need hats, scarves, gloves, really thick jackets, extra socks!

Already did

very good, the website details could be a bit clearer on what to expect. the guides were very good indeed. My son does astrophotography so has more than a working knowledge of the subject and it was described very well and accessible to all. the kit used was excellent quality. (celestron 11 inch SCT) but obviously all targets visual.

All in all, it was a fun experience for our family of five -- especially the stargazing. We had a couple family members who weren't as excited about the technical/scientific side of the observatory information, but they enjoyed seeing how much the others in our family loved it! We did hope to see the sunset, since that was a big part of our Haleakala experience on a previous trip, so it was disappointing to be only able to catch a small glimpse. Maybe Volcano Teide can create a grid on its website that shows all of the trips it offers, and the various differences, for example: 1) if viewing sunset was possible, 2) if cable car ride to top of Teide was included (we could not tell, and a couple family members were disappointed to miss it), 3) if regional information would be provided on the long drive to the observatory (our guide never said anything during that hour after our pick up -- he was totally quiet until we got close to the site, making the ride on a packed bus especially boring even though we were passing through what seemed to be an interesting area we knew nothing about), 4) percentage of time spent indoors and outdoors (the indoor observatory segment was great, and the cable car base building was a terrific place for a meal -- we had assumed all time would be spent outside, so these were positive surprises), and 5) amount of time spent on star gazing (it was the right amount of time -- some of us were dreading a much longer period outdoors). It's also helpful for others to know that if you're traveling from the south where the weather is warm during the day, Volcano Teide was okay with boarding the bus in shorts, for example, as long as they could verify pants were brought along to change into upon arrival. Walking for 10 minutes to the bus stop and riding the vehicle in polar fleece pants in 23-degree Celsius weather was not something anyone would want to do!

I was very much looking forward to the astronomical tour, after spending one evening doing stargazing with my family in a previous visit to Tenerife. However, it was a huge disappointment, in particularly considering the amount of money spent (three adults and one child) and the quality of the experience received. To start off, pick up location could have been more explicit, which was addressed promptly by emailing the tour organiser. We, alongside another 15 tourists, were taken to the observatory - was a smooth journey, no issue at all. The guide subsequently presented us a scientific telescope, of which the duration was no more than ten mins - and that was it.... There was no hands on experience, no understanding of the technical details until we were taken to two amateur telescopes that are located in the public path, and were advised to the sun's corona. Unsurprisingly, all we could see was an orange sphere in the eyepiece, nothing more. We were then taken to another studio to watch a video, which last probably 15 mins, and waited in the open area for nearly an hour, doing nothing, because the guide needed to wait another group to watch the video etc. The temperature there, at December, was nearly 0 degree celsius. It makes no sense to keep the visitors out there and do nothing! After the long wait, we finally started the 'highlight' of the tour - we were taken back to the Teide, and watched four items, moon, Jupiter, Saturn, and the Orion belt, using again four telescopes (not the scientific telescopes I was hoping). The last activity of the tour, at nearly zero degree celsius, was star gazing. The tour guide was passionate and knowledgeable. However, it was absolutely too cold to actually participate. In conclusion, please consider using your own transportation and go up the Teide rather than taking the tour.

A very interesting and engaging tour. Quite long: 8+ hours includind driving, but you see a lot of interesting things along the way - beautiful nature, observatory, devices, video presentation, observation through solar and night telescopes, and get acquainted with constellations. Just bear in mind, that in winter there could be very cold - There were -5C on the mountain there in December, while at the seashore of Tenerife there were +20C. So get really worm clothes if you don't want to freeze.

The tour was very well organised, the bus was on time at the pick up point and they dropped us back at the scheduled time. Our guide (from the south) was very knowledgeable and able to explain everything in English and Spanish. We would like to give him a special thank you as he made the tour very enjoyable and interesting showing his love for science and astronomy. Also the guide from the north who did the stargazing experience in Spanish was very passionate and knowledgeable. The experience was worth the price and we can definitely recommend it.

Booking the trip was very easy

Micaela was an amazing guide, she was so knowledgeable about the observatory and the sky, and she explained everything super well. Her switch from English to Spanish to explain things or answer questions was impressive, it made the tour feel like it was 15 minutes long! I’d also like to compliment the driver Ramón; the road to the observatory made me dizzy just to stare at on a map, and yet the journey there was smooth and easy all the way, same for the journey back. The stargazing part in particular was amazing, I only wish it had lasted longer. Unforgettable experience

As mentioned within previous question…

The Volcano Teide experience is a must if you are in Tenerife. We were staying in Puerto de la Cruz and were picked up at a selected hotel and it took about an hour to get up to Mount Teide. Interesting, informative scientific tour followed by a easily followed lecture inside. Then back outside for the extraordinary sunset and lots more facts and points of interest. We were transported down to the cable car visitors centre to eat our picnics. This was followed by star gazing which was also instructive and memorable. Very cold in February. We were back in Puerto by 23.00. The coach driver was also excellent.

I loved this activity but the groups were quite large for the number of telescopes so we didn’t get much time to observe. My wishlist would be to have this activity with 1 bus instead of 2 and to go earlier and have a sunset cable car ride between the observatory and the sky watching. I would gladly pay the extra 70€ for that add on!

Wonderful tour, well delivered! Thank you.

Part 2 to my feedback

An experience not to be missed!

Well planned evening out. Informative guides with good knowledge and understanding of their subjects.

The guide was very knowledgeable and his lecture was very useful

The tour was excellent! The guide (Adrien is his name I think) was absolutely amazing, contagiously enthusiastic, and adapted to levels of questions ranging from amateur to PhD level with ease. The only downside was a bad estimation of time of return (it was supposed to be 22:30, was instead 23h), which for us might have been an issue since we almost didn't catch the last intercity bus.

Rude staff

Amazing a definite must do!

Lukas did a great job leading the tour in English.

This is a wonderful experience and would highly recommend anyone visiting *** to go on this tour. *** our guide was excellent and is very knowledgeable and very enthusiastic on the subject. Top tour and worth every Euro

Amazing tour. Our guide was incredible, he had so much information, answered loads of questions, and gave really good explanations. Funny guy too :) I would absolutely recommend this tour.

I would recommend this to friends

Complete experience, friendly and knowledgeable host

The experience was brilliant. Very cold, but we were prepared for that (as per advice!) so we were ok. And the experience was amazing. I knocked off one star because although we selected our hotel in La Laguna from the list, the “north pickup” was in another town (Puerte de la Cruz) 30min drive away, which was not clear at the time of booking. So since we had a car, we changed the day before to drive closer ourselves.

Excellent tour of the observatory followed by dark sky viewing from the cable car station

The Tour was all in total really awesome. The Guide was an astrophysics himself, thus ge explained in a very competent and interesting way a lot amof amazing Details in both tours, the visit of the observatory, as well as later the stargasing part. To see the observatory, to Look through the telescopes into the sun, seeing how the telescopes opening for the night Shift, or later seeing through telescopes into the starsky, watching galaxies, that was simply amazing. Only thing I did not like was the very not good snacks and also the group was just too big, we had to stand and wait for everything a lot, and while it got super cold that didn't make it more pleasant.

cold experience! mind warm clothing!!!! otherways superb

Die Observatorium Tour war wirklich empfehlenswert. Wir wurden in einem kleinen Bus abgeholt, was sehr komfortabel war und nach einer Stunde waren wir am Observatorium. Unser Guide Oris sprach gutes verständliches Englisch und war transparent sowie lustig. An beiden Locations gab es Toilette und man sollte definitiv warm angezogen sein. Ich fand den Ausflug generell sehr beeindruckend und definitiv das Geld wert, denn es war ein einmaliges Erlebnis den Himmel so zu sehen sowie bestimmte Himmelskörper welche wir durch die Teleskope anschauen konnten. Man muss nicht unbedingt einen snack dazu buchen, es hätten auch selbst mitgebrachte sandwiches gereicht, jedoch war es praktischer. Die einzig negativen Punkte waren zum einem, dass ich ehrlich gesagt die Location zum Sterne schauen an der Seilbahnstation etwas unpassend fand, da dadurch eine Seite des Himmels komplett durch den El Teide verdeckt war.. es war natürlich praktisch, da man dort Toiletten und einen großen Raum zum essen hatte. Der letzte Punkt wäre die Länge. Ich hätte gerne noch länger die Sterne beobachtet! Jedoch wäre es wahrscheinlich irgendwann sehr kalt geworden. Also alles relativ verständliche Punkte, vielleicht kann man dennoch überlegen diese Tour noch perfekter zu machen. Ich werde immer an diese tolle Tour und an dieses wunderschöne Erlebnis zurück denken und vielleicht nochmal kommen um den Sommerhimmel zu sehen.

Great trip, highlight of our stay.

Lucas was an excellent guide, very knowledgeable and informative and a nice guy. The tour was well balanced with plenty of technical information and access to telescopes. Would definitely recommend this tour

See previous comments.

The guides were friendly and very knowledgeable. The bus was clean and well-driven. The timing of the events was perfect to capture the sunset and then stargazing.

Looks like I provided feedback in the wrong place- confusing surveys! So please refer to my other feedback . In summary, good tour but lots of opportunities to make it a much more educational and inspirational few hours. Invest in some cool videos and give us some personal stories- why did you become an astronomer, what’s it like etc. Thanks

Brilliant tour to a very magical place. If you have any interest in the stars & space, I would thoroughly recommend this experience. Our guides were brilliant and actual astrophysicists (meaning they really knew their subject and could bring the whole experience to life). Star gazing at the base of the volcano, in one of the top 3 sites in the world to star gaze, was incredible

Amazing trip, beautiful scenery. The observatory tour was amazing, *** are guide was so knowledgeable and engaging, really enjoyed it and was finished with a view of the stars and telescopes. It's better to time closer to a new moon as we have half moon and it was still quite light. We added the picnic option which was nice, gluten free and vegetarian accommodated for. Really recommend

I enjoyed the astronomy tour very much. I want to add that I liked our driver, ***. He is awesome. We talked all the way to the observatory and the way back home. He knows a lot about astronomy and sciences. And he's a very pleasant person. I enjoyed our conversation a lot! And he speaks Español, English, and Russian. It was very interesting and engaging - to talk with Abel because he helped to translate anything I wanted to express but didn't know how to say in Español or English and know only in my native language (Russian). Thanks to ***, I learned some Español during our drive to the observatory and back, which is cool! Please give a bonus to ***! :)

The tour was well organized. Our tour guide was exceptionally knowledgeable, answering all my questions with such depth and enthusiasm that it greatly enriched my stargazing experience. Additional thanks for the automated hassle-free refund

Our english group guide - *** - is not only a guide, but also the scientist working at the observatory. All our questions were answered. The atmosphere was great!

Slight issue at first with the coach but the guide went out of his way to get us there on time. The experience was professional and informative, with amazing guides whose knowledge was second to none. Highly recommend doing this as it was a magical experience

It was an amazing well organized and informative experience, especially the night sky observation. I highly recommend this trip.

Excellent evening all round

Very interesting and memorable trip, great guides. Wrap up warmly.

Too long and not really interesting

We have been much looking forward to our experience, but our guide was unfortunately completely unprofessional. The transfer was fine and the observatory area was fascinating, but we were hugely disappointed that the observation via the long range telescope was only 20 minutes for the English speaking group and then we spent over 1 hour looking at the sky with our eyes. The parallel Spanish group could enjoyed the telescope for an hour. 20 minutes is really not much especially as we booked an 8h tour. The guide was not using a filter for the bright moon, so it was an unenjoyable experience. What was worst however is that our guide was not properly using the green laser. He crossed the people all the time, even the head area. When we advised that he should be more careful, he just laughed and stated that the laser is not dangerous. This is completely unprofessional. We were extremely disappointed.

My son likes this experience

Wonderful tour with an incredible setting. Was really impressed with the depth of science and astronomy presented during this activity. The stargazing element was superb, and to finish it off the explanation around constellation map and navigating by stars was awesome.