Two questions come up before nearly every stay: where do we put the car, and do we need one at all. The short answers are behind the church and yes.
Where to park
San Marcos is a village on a slope, and its streets were laid out long before anyone parked a hire car on them. Park outside on the street; the area behind the church is where we and most residents leave a car, and it is a short walk from the apartment.
If the village is busy — a fiesta, a hot Sunday, the beach full — there is a larger car park about five minutes’ walk away. Nothing here is paid parking.
Elsewhere on this coast the same approach works, with one caveat: Garachico and Puerto de la Cruz get genuinely busy, and the sensible move is to take the first reasonable space you see on the way in rather than circling the centre.
Do you actually need a car?
On the north coast, for most stays, yes.
Buses run along the coast and up to Icod, and if you intend to stay in the village, swim, eat at the two restaurants at the bottom of the hill and read on the balcony, you can manage without one. Several of our guests have.
But nearly everything else in this guide assumes a car. The walks are spread along the coast and up into the mountains, the markets are in La Guancha and Los Silos, the good restaurants are in Garachico and further east, and Teide is a drive. The north is rural in a way the resort south is not, and public transport reflects that.
Driving here
The roads are good and the motorway along the north coast is fast. What takes adjusting to is everything off it: narrow, steep, frequently single-track with passing places, and often with a drop on one side.
Drive the mountain roads in daylight where you can, especially the routes into Teno and Anaga. And if you are walking back from dinner in Garachico rather than driving — as you can — do it before dark.
Electric cars
There is no charging at the apartment. The nearest chargers are at the Lidl and the Mercadona about eight minutes away, which is convenient enough if you combine it with the weekly shop.