Tiny houses & cabins in Tenerife (Teide & Vilaflor)

Vilaflor sits at roughly 1,400 metres, the highest village in Spain, wedged into the pine forests below Mount Teide. From here the TF-21 climbs on into Teide National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site of black lava fields and one of the clearest night skies in Europe; the Teide Observatory is a short drive further up the mountain, and several tiny houses and fincas around Vilaflor market themselves specifically on stargazing. Days are for hiking through the Canary pine forest — Pinus canariensis handles fire and altitude better than almost any other conifer — or driving up toward the crater rim.

For a different mood, the Anaga massif in the northeast makes a second base: dense laurel forest, a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve, steep ridges and hamlets reachable only by winding roads. It's cooler and wetter than Vilaflor, with its own tiny-house cabins tucked into the cloud forest. Tenerife South Airport (TFS) is about 45 minutes away by road; the altitude means cooler nights than the coast, year-round.