Llanadas: Hiking, Cheese and Papa Bonita
Accommodation in Llanadas
Las Llanadas is an agricultural hamlet in the mid-altitudes of Los Realejos. Heritage potato varieties, hiking trails starting from Chanajiga and local produce give the place its character. This offers different focal points for planning your trip: the cultural landscape and its products, or trails leading to the heights of Tenerife.
Agriculture and Papa Bonita
Heritage potato varieties are part of traditional farming in Las Llanadas. Farmers help preserve various Papa Bonita varieties, including coloradas, blancas, llagadas, ojo de perdiz, negras, and azucenas blancas and azucenas negras. The Papa Bonita grown in Las Llanadas is among the varieties cultivated in Los Realejos under the protected designation of origin Papa Antigua de Canarias. Since 2010, this designation has covered a total of 29 varieties.
Potatoes also hold a firm place in the wider municipality: Los Realejos hosts the Muestra GastronĂłmica de la Papa Bonita every July. The event is connected to the cultivation maintained by farmers in Las Llanadas and other local areas. If you want to plan your trip around the event, check the dates in advance.
Hiking from Chanajiga
The Chanajiga recreational area is located in Las Llanadas and is one of Tenerife’s most important recreational areas in terms of capacity and services. Numerous hiking trails start there. They allow walkers to descend to the coast or climb to the island’s highest mountains. Chanajiga therefore offers a starting point for different routes, which do not all head in the same direction.
The PR-TF 40 can be started from Chanajiga via Las Llanadas. The complete route is listed as 15 kilometers, with 900 meters of elevation gain and an estimated duration of eight hours. These figures refer to the entire route and help you gauge its time and elevation requirements. The left-hand turnoff from the Camino de la Traviesa also leads to Las Llanadas and onward to El Madroño and Palo Blanco, where it meets the PR-TF 40.
A section of the PR-TF 40 runs through protected natural areas in the BICA network and is open to bicycles, horses and motorized vehicles, or shared with them. Before setting out, check access and shared-use conditions, as well as trail conditions.
Cheese from Las Llanadas
QueserĂa Las Llanadas offers almogrote and a range of cheeses: naturally aged cheese, paprika-rubbed aged cheese, naturally aged semi-cured cheese seasoned with gofio, smoked cheese and requesĂłn. The artisan-made selection also includes fresh goat’s cheese and raw milk. The products show another side of this rural place, alongside its potato farming.
The cheesemaker’s products are available on Saturdays at the Los Realejos farmers’ market. There, you can talk to the owner, Montse, about cheese-making and learn about the process firsthand. Confirm the cheesemaker’s current participation in the market before your visit.
Festivals and history
A festival is held in the heights of Las Llanadas each year during the first week of September in honor of Saint Anthony. The history of the traditional pajares is also part of the hamlet’s cultural background: groups of these pajares existed there until the middle to late 20th century.
Fregel’s Cross has a small chapel and has been the setting for lively festivals since the late 19th century. They were organized by residents of Icod el Alto, Las Llanadas, Palo Blanco and Tigaiga. These historic celebrations ended in the 1990s.
Discover more destinations: Icod El Alto, Palo Blanco, Tigaiga, Brezal, Cruz Santa.
Go to the main travel overview: Los Realejos.
