Teide Star Safari: Dinner at 7 Cañadas, 2,130 m, Starlight Guides

The dinner is at 2,130 metres. Restaurante 7 Cañadas sits inside Teide National Park, in La Orotava, and the three Canarian courses come with drinks and with the volcanic plain outside the window. The coach is air-conditioned and collects across South Tenerife. The drive is the first part of the tour rather than dead time: the guide covers the volcanic history of the park, the plants and animals that manage to live in it, and the legends that came before either. Pick-up times move through the year, and yours is confirmed the day before, or on the morning of the tour for Tuesday departures. Sunset comes after the meal, above the sea of clouds, with a glass of cava or orange juice included and Teide's shadow taking the sun. Spain's highest peak, 3,718 metres. Then the sky. The guides are Starlight-certified and multilingual, and they work with powerful telescopes and laser pointers: planets, constellations, distant galaxies, with the mythology and the science in the same sentence. Astrophotography is part of the night, and there is a photograph of you under the stars to take home. After that the coach goes straight back to the hotels.