Tenerife is a beautiful, sunny and diverse island. That’s a place you can relax, but also spend time actively! We prepared Tenerife travel guide, which contains practical information about the island and everything you need to know before you go!
Location – Tenerife Travel Guide
Tenerife is a part of Canary Islands archipelago and geographically belongs to Africa, but it’s actually a part of a Spain. If you are citizen of European Union countries you are not going to need passport to get in, ID is enough, because it is a part of EU. Tenerife is a volcanic island with very varied landscape. Southern part looks like a desert, but North is lush green and differential.
How to get in? – Tenerife Travel Guide
Plane is easiest and most comfortable way to travel to Tenerife. On the island there are two airports- Tenerife Sur (close to the resorts like Las Americas) and Tenerife Norte in surroundings of capitol city Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Majority of planes landing on Tenerife South, airport serves such airlines as: Ryanair, WizzAir, Norwegian, Aer Lingus, Lufthansa, Easy Jet and much, much more! If you have a lot of time and want to get in with your own car you can think about ferry (we found two lines from Spain – Huelva and Kadyks), it’s also possible to travel between Canary Islands by ferries.
Means of transport – Tenerife Travel Guide
In our opinion the cheapest and best way to travel around Tenerife is a rental car. Roads are in a good condition, gasoline is cheap and car rental is cheap- so why not? We paid 100 for 6 days, we have chosen Autorisen car rental and we were satisfied. In Masca we met Swedish guy who were travelling by bus- he had to ask us for a lift to the next town, so you can guess how public means of transport works there. Ticket prices for short routes are around 1,5 euro, but longer are more expensive, so it’s probably all together it is not worth it. We saw buses in Masca and one going very close to the cable car for El Teide, so you probably go anywhere by bus if you want.
Weather – Tenerife Travel Guide
You can get a good weather all year round! Temperatures are on a similar level during a year, average temperatures in January are between 14-20 degrees, in August between 21-29 degrees. We visited island on the beginning of the March (Dawid was there also in May and December) and it was warm enough to wear shorts and short sleeve shirts. Few times we checked forecast and it was 20 degrees, but on thermometer was 25 degrees.
In the “winter” months evenings are chilly, but still nice. Wind on the island could be very strong and something called “calima” happens. Calima is a hot air with dust and sand blowing from Sahara, it could destroy whole holidays. Generally warmer and drier is a south part of the Island and North is cooler and more often wet this was the scenario we were expecting, but in fact we have had more sunshine in the North, so can’t take it for granted.
Accomodation – Tenerife Travel Guide
In our opinion it’s worth to stay in Nothern part of island, where is less touristy and you can feel like a local. We regret we didn’t book a night in La Laguna, town seems to be filled with locals only. If you like resorts and you don’t mind crowds, tourists and you are planning mainly sun bathing on the beach you should consider Los Cristianos and Las Americas. Some luxury hotels you can also find in La Caleta. Chilly, relaxing atmosphere with cheaper accommodation (especially in hostels) you can find in El Medano.
We stayed in Panoramico hotel in Adeje with a beautiful view, but we weren’t fully satisfied. They demanded payment for pool towels and iron rentals (of course we survived without it). Second part of our stay we spent in Casa Bioclimatica near El Medano and it was stunning and very different! At the beginning we were a bit disappointed- surrounding of wind mills, airport and rope platforms wasn’t a dream one, but after few days we felt in love with this place! Ultra Modern houses and feeling like on a post apocalyptic movie plan – it was something that we experienced first time and we could stay there forever.
For who? – Tenerife Travel Guide
You’re wrong if you thing Tenerife is only for british and german pensioners. Older people feels great due to climate which is mild and it is not so hot, but we’re recommending Tenerife for everyone! Families with kids, adventure lovers and people who are looking for fun and party- everyone can find something good!
Worth to visit – Tenerife Travel Guide
– El Teide volcano
– Sanatorio de Abona, El Medano, Candelaria
– Anaga Mountains, Benijo and La Laguna
– Garachico, Icod de los Vines, Puerto de La Cruz and La Orotava
– Los Gigantes and Masca
Untypical activities – Tenerife Travel Guide
If you’re not interesting in beaches you can find wide range of activities like:
– bike rental – road or MTB (Bike point in Las Americas is highly recommended by us! Dawid even bought there his bike and they support us with transport )
– ski jets
– dolphins and whale watching
– trekking – there’s numbers of trekking trails
– diving
– surfing, kitesurfing and windsurfing – El Medano is a perfect place for kite and windsurfing, surfers we saw also in Puerto de la Cruz
– heli tours- if you have thick wallet, because we’re sure that island from above have to look incredible!
Where to eat – Tenerife Travel Guide
There you can find information about what you have to try, and there we wrote about places worth to visit.
Where to shop – Tenerife Travel Guide
If you’re on a budget we are recommending markets like Mercadona and SuperDino.
Interesting facts – Tenerife Travel Guide
– Locals are super friendly and well adapted to tourist as it is their main income flow and you cannot communicate without any Spanish which was our case
– Carnival in Tenerife is happening with a big bang and it is one of the most popular globally but we are not quite sure why is is happening when in other countries you already have Great Lent
– Loro Park where you can watch dolphin shows is not really animal friendly so we are not recommending it. We haven’t gone there but we wouldn’t go anywhere else either. Check out this movie.
– If you are planning renting a car we recommend smaller types due to windy and narrow roads and parking (our car got scratched while parked)
– On the Island you can find natural beaches with Black sand as well as artificial ones with Sand from Sahara (Playa de las Teresitas)