By: Serenity Pearlman
Food, Hiking, , , , ,

Los Tilos de Moya

Vol.16

Quick Facts

Fun meter: Super duper fun
Location: Moya, Gran Canaria
Adventure: Hiking & Food
Type: Loop & Restaurant
Time: 1 hour hike + 1-2 hours meals
Level of difficulty: Eazy peazy lemon squeezy.
Good for what ages: All Ages.
Cost: Free to hike and park. Restaurant is not too expensive.
Access: Parking on weekends is a competitive sport.
Hint: Don’t eat the mushrooms on the trail unless you know what you are doing but the sour grass is delicious. Reserve the restaurant.

Overview

When locals go hiking with littles, they always recommend los Tilos de Moya. It’s a pretty 2km loop in the mountains with a really delicious restaurant at the trailhead. We saw dozens of families with babies, little kids and even big kids. The trail is deep green because of all the rain in the last month.

How to Get There

Your turn Dad. We took a thirty minute drive from Las Palmas. Map your GPS to “Restaurante Grill Los Tilos”. There isn’t much cell reception once you get past Moya, but the road signs are clear. It’s a pretty windy road up the mountainside from the coast, so leave some time and warn the kids in back if they get car sick. On Sundays, Moya has their mercadillo (farmer’s market) from 8am – 2pm and the traffic really builds up. If you have a bit of extra time, that is a fun experience. 

Once you pass Moya, drive another 5 minutes and you will see the Restaurant on your right. From here, parking will either be easy, or impossible. We went on a Sunday with nice weather after a couple weeks of rain. People were parked anywhere you could squeeze a vehicle. We ultimately ended up driving up the road which follows the trail to the top of the loop. It’s darn narrow, so watch those corners. We finally found an open turnout to park and started the hike where the trail crossed the road.

Hiking The Loop

Most people start from the bottom of the loop at the restaurant. The first half hugs the road, which is kinda lame honestly, but we did find some really cool mushrooms. Even there we are deep in the trees. The best part was the second half of the loop. It goes up into the mountains and it is sooooo green. When we were there I found my favorite nature snack. Dad calls it sourgrass but i don’t know what it is really called. It is a small yellow flower that you only eat the green stem but it is VERY SOUR and tastes like sourpatchkids. There were a bunch of flowers, and we even found a cave that looks like it was used in Guanche times. The trail is really easy to follow and even little kids will be fine with an adult.

The Restaurant

This restaurant is absolutely amazing. We were super lucky getting a table without a restaurant. You should make a reservation to be safe. We ordered traditional canary dishes: a local cheese plate, chicken soup, garbanzada, country garlic bread, fried cheese in tomato curry, avocado and tomato salad, and ice cream and chocolate moose. It was absolutely delicious and dad wants to recreate the garbanzada, and tried two days later. Total fail. Try again dad. Dad says the restaurant is well priced and we were really happy with it.