Tenerife South Airport to La Laguna
About 68 km north; ride the 111 or 343 to Santa Cruz for roughly €9–10 and change to the tram, or take the 343 to Tenerife Norte and connect.
San Cristóbal de La Laguna, the island's UNESCO-listed old capital — a grid of pastel colonial streets, a university crowd filling the tapas bars, and a climate several degrees cooler and greener than the south.
Every way to get there
Our verdict: for La Laguna, a private transfer is the easiest door-to-door option (from €80). Travelling light on a budget? The bus is cheapest (from €10.5) but slower, with a change in the city.
What it costs for your group
The bus is charged per person, while a taxi or private transfer is one price for the whole car — so the more of you there are, the better door-to-door value looks.
| Group | Bus (per person) | Private transfer | Best value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo · 1 traveller | €11 | €80 | Bus |
| Couple · 2 travellers | €21 | €80 | Bus |
| Family of 4 · 4 travellers | €42 | €80 | Bus |
Which option should you choose?
| If your priority is… | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest price | Bus | From €10.5, though slower with a change in the city. |
| Speed & comfort | Private transfer | Door-to-door, fixed price, a driver waiting for you. |
| A group of 3–4 | Transfer or taxi | One flat fare splits cheaper than several bus tickets. |
| A late-night arrival | Transfer or taxi | Both run 24/7 when buses and the tram have stopped. |
By transport mode
Bus / shuttle
The tram is the pleasant part of this journey and the tenmás card covers both legs. Total cost lands around €11 and total time close to an hour and a half, so it's a trip to make in daylight.
Where to catch it: Take the 111 or 343 to Santa Cruz's Intercambiador, then walk down to the tram platform — Line 1 climbs to La Laguna in about forty minutes.
Best for solo & budget travellersBus / shuttle
Faster than routing via Santa Cruz when the 343's timetable happens to suit, and it drops you much closer. When it doesn't suit, the tram route is the reliable fallback.
Where to catch it: The 343 express calls at Tenerife Norte airport, which sits just outside La Laguna — local buses and taxis cover the last few kilometres.
Best for solo & budget travellersTaxi
Costs eight or nine times the bus-and-tram combination. Defensible only for a group, a very late landing, or if you're carrying something the tram can't take.
Where to catch it: The longest metered run most TFS drivers will take, right across the island on the TF-1 and TF-5.
Best for small groups in a hurryPrivate transfer
La Laguna's historic core is largely pedestrianised, so agree the drop-off point when booking — the nearest vehicle access can be a few streets from the door.
Where to catch it: One agreed price for the crossing, and no juggling of a bus timetable against a tram timetable with luggage in between.
Best for families, groups & late arrivalsLa Laguna & Tenerife in photos
Buying tickets in Tenerife
Tenerife has no rail at all, so everything runs on TITSA's green guaguas. Buy a tenmás card for €2 from the machines or the TITSA desk and top it up with any amount: it takes roughly 20% off short hops and up to 30% off long intercity runs such as the airport to Santa Cruz or Puerto de la Cruz, and one card can be tapped for several passengers. Without a card you pay the driver in cash. Airport lines are 111 (Los Cristianos, Playa de las Américas, Costa Adeje), 343 (the express linking both island airports with Puerto de la Cruz), 450, 40, 415 and the 711 night service. The 343 runs to a sparse timetable, so check departures against your landing time rather than assuming a bus will be waiting.
Taxi scams & safety in Tenerife
Spain regulates taxis tightly and Tenerife is a low-risk airport: fares are metered, the rank outside arrivals is marshalled, and drivers are licensed. Take the next car in the queue rather than accepting an approach inside the terminal. Two legitimate charges surprise visitors and are not scams — the supplement after 22:00, and per-item luggage charges — so check the tariff card displayed in the vehicle rather than assuming you are being overcharged. The genuine risk here is car hire: always photograph the vehicle from every angle before leaving the lot, and be wary of counters offering a heavily discounted rate with a large fuel or excess deposit attached. Local firms such as Cicar and Autoreisen quote insurance-inclusive rates and are the safer default.
Getting from TFS to La Laguna
San Cristóbal de La Laguna is sixty-eight kilometres from Tenerife South and about six hundred metres above it, and both numbers matter. The distance means an hour or more of travel; the altitude means a climate several degrees cooler, greener and wetter than the coast you land on. It is also a UNESCO world heritage site, the island's old capital and its university town, which makes it the one inland destination on Tenerife that people travel to for its own sake rather than as a base.
Two routes in, and which one works depends on the clock
The obvious way is bus to Santa Cruz, then tram. Take the 111 or the 343 to the Intercambiador — around €9 to €10.50, roughly an hour — then walk down to the tram platform and ride Line 1 up the hill, which takes about forty minutes and runs every ten. Total cost lands near €11, total time near an hour and a half, and a tenmás card covers both legs. The less obvious way is the 343 to Tenerife Norte airport, which sits just outside La Laguna, then a local bus or short taxi for the last few kilometres — faster and closer when the express's sparse timetable happens to suit your landing, useless when it doesn't. Check the 343 first; fall back to the tram route, which always works.
The tram is the good part of the journey
It's worth saying that the Santa Cruz–La Laguna tram isn't a grudging connection. It's a modern light rail line that climbs steadily out of the capital through the suburbs and into the old town, and after an hour on a motorway coach it's a pleasant forty minutes with a view. It runs every ten minutes or so, which means no timetable anxiety at the interchange, and it puts you at the edge of the historic grid rather than at a ring-road bus station. For anyone who intends to use La Laguna as a base and visit Santa Cruz, having the tram is the whole argument for staying up here.
What the historic grid does to a car
La Laguna's old centre was laid out in the fifteenth century on a plan that got exported across Spanish America, and its narrow, straight streets are now largely pedestrianised. That's marvellous on foot and a problem in a vehicle. A metered taxi from TFS costs €80 to €100 — eight or nine times the bus-and-tram combination — and will still have to stop wherever the pedestrian zone begins, which can be several streets from your door. Booked ahead, €80 to €105 buys the same constraint has the same constraint, though at least you can agree the drop-off point in advance rather than negotiating it at midnight with a driver who wants to get home. If you book one, ask specifically where the car can legally reach.
When the expensive option is still right
Two cases, both about time rather than comfort. If you land after the buses have thinned — and the 343 in particular runs to a limited timetable — the choice isn't between €11 and €90, it's between €90 and waiting until morning. And if there are four of you, the per-head cost drops to about twenty-two euros each, which against four bus fares plus four tram fares is a smaller gap than it looks, for an hour saved and no luggage juggling at the Intercambiador. Outside those, the tram route wins clearly.
Why people choose to stay up here at all
Worth understanding before you commit to the journey. La Laguna is cooler and often cloudier than the south — genuinely a different climate, not just a few degrees — and it's a working university city with tapas bars full of students rather than a resort. Anaga's laurel forests start behind it, Santa Cruz is forty minutes down the tram, and Tenerife Norte airport is on the doorstep for inter-island flights. People who've done the southern resorts and want the island rather than the coast tend to end up here. If that's you, budget ninety minutes and eleven euros for getting in, and don't hire a car until the day you want to drive into Anaga.
In short: the 343 if it lines up, the 111-plus-tram if it doesn't, and a booked car only for very late landings or groups of four. The tram makes this an easy journey; the car makes it an awkward one.
