Smoking banned on Mount Teide: fines from €100 (and prison if you start a fire)

If you're thinking of visiting Mount Teide, there's something I want to tell you before you go. Since Friday 19 June 2026 smoking has been banned across the whole of Teide National Park. The ban comes with serious fines, so it's worth knowing the rules properly before you go. In this post I explain what has changed, why the decision was taken, and everything you need to know to enjoy the park without going home with a fine.

What the new rule says

The Cabildo de Tenerife has brought in a total, permanent ban on smoking across the whole of Teide National Park. The resolution, signed by Blanca Pérez, the councillor for Natural Environment, Sustainability, Safety and Emergencies, came into force on 19 June 2026 and covers every open space in the park: trails, tracks, viewpoints, picnic areas, car parks, rest areas and public facilities. The only exception is indoor buildings where smoking is expressly permitted under their own rules. And it applies to everyone: visitors, staff and authorised businesses.

The fines

Here is what you need to be clear about, because there are two scenarios with very different consequences:

• Simply for smoking (an administrative penalty): lighting a cigarette anywhere in the open air in the park carries a fine of between €100 and €1,000, whether or not it starts a fire.
• If your cigarette end starts a fire: this is where it gets far more serious. Penalties for starting a forest fire can reach €100,000 and can even carry a prison sentence, under forest-fire legislation.

Why the ban was brought in

Teide National Park has had several recent fires that were reportedly started by cigarette ends. This is a UNESCO World Heritage site with immense ecological and scenic value, so the aim is to remove one of the main causes of fire at the source.

What this means if you are visiting Teide

Visiting Teide is still one of the best things you can do in Tenerife. You just need to keep a couple of things in mind:

• Don't smoke anywhere in the park, however open the spot may look. The ban applies to the whole of the National Park.
• If you smoke, wait until you are outside the park and please never drop cigarette ends on the ground, inside the park or out, because they are one of the main causes of fire.
• Remember that to climb to the summit of Teide you need a permit, and that access changed in 2026.

If you would rather not deal with the planning that visiting Teide involves (permits, cable car, transport), you can book a guided day trip to Teide, Icod, Masca and Garachico, with pick-ups in both the north and the south of the island.

Teide is, for me, one of the most spectacular places in the world. When we travel we are not only visitors, we are also responsible for looking after the places we discover. Respecting the surroundings, following the rules and leaving every corner as we found it is the best way to help keep it that way.