The Tenerife Experience – What You Need To Know

Going to the Canary Island was a total last second holiday. We were casually searching for stuff online, when, all of the sudden, G asks me: “Hey, why don’t we go somewhere nice?”
With massive grins, we both picked up the laptops and started racing who finds the cheapest, most last second holiday. After 15 minutes of searching around, we found a seven day trip to the Canary Islands. The flight was due in like 12 hours, so we thought that’s plenty of time to get ready and go. Unfortunately, the operator didn’t allow us to book it as the flights were due in less than 24 hours, so we had to book something else instead. We found a bargain for a week in Tenerife with departure time in just over 24 hours. It was May, still a little bit chilly in the northern side of the island, but warm enough to drop the long sleeve and take a nice hike in your shorts. Even without lots of beach time, we found plenty of things to do in Tenerife.

Accommodation in Tenerife

View Mt Teide

We booked tickets with EasyJet from Bristol and a cheap 3-star hotel called Pez Azul. This was our view from the hotel room.

We stayed in the Northern part of the island, in the area called Puerto de la Cruz. If you want to make the most out of the sun and sandy beaches Tenerife has to offer, I strongly suggest you pay a little extra and locate yourself in the Southern part of the Island. We found the Northern part quite cloudy most of the time, thus a little chillier than we would have liked.

The Canary Islands have a fair share of tourists every year, which means they aren’t cheap. It’s still a holiday destination, although you don’t have to dine out every night. You can get yourself an apart-hotel and cook breakfast and lunch every day. This will save you a lot of money.

Wave Tenerife

Transportation in Tenerife

Their transportation is called Titsa. They are pretty punctual, reliable and cheap. If for whatever reason you can’t rent a car, then this is your choice to travel around the island. We used Titsa to get to La Caldera where we hiked, and also to visit Tenerife’s capital: Santa Cruz. You can ask almost any local for directions to the bus stop and they can even help you understand the timetable.

Bugs in Tenerife

Although I loved Tenerife, I did have some mini panic attacks when walking in the dark.

I found myself staring at the ground more than looking up when walking around the cities. If you are just as worries about the bugs as I am, I recommend you ditch your sandals for a nice pair of trainers. This kept me at ease a bit.

Puerto De La Cruz Tenerife

Tenerife hiking

Moving on to a nicer topic: There are plenty of hiking opportunities around the island, you don’t necessarily have to hike to the very top of Mt. Teide. You will find fantastic flora around and some very nice, secluded paths through the forest.
If you intend to hike to the top of Teide, please bear in mind that you need to apply for a permit in advance. I recommend you apply about a month or more before your visit to avoid disappointment. The permit itself is free and you can apply via this link. Don’t try and turn up without a permit as you won’t be allowed to the top. Also, remember to carry your passport with you too for identification.

Forest Trail Tenerife

Food in Tenerife

Tambo Tenerife

If you love seafood, then Tenerife is most certainly the place for you. We found this brilliant restaurant called Tambo. It’s just by the Playa Maria Jiménez, in Puerto de la Cruz. These guys have the best seafood platters on the planet. Really, I cannot stress enough how amazing their food is. We ended up going there almost every evening. They are not the cheapest, but their fresh food is worth every penny.

When in Tenerife, don’t rush to get an all-inclusive accommodation. Part of the beauty is the exploration part. We found a couple of supermarkets full of exotic fruits, freshly baked bread, wonderful sweets and ready-made kind prawns for you to just eat. That’s how we ate breakfast and lunch every day. Our hotel was basically made out of lots of apartments, so we had facilities to store and even cook food.

Tenerife beaches

On the Northern part of the island, the beaches are made of volcanic sand. This means you will be sunbathing on black sand, which is pretty unusual and super cool. You will find plenty of touristy shops which sell silver jewellery with bits of volcanic rock in them. You can also find rocky bracelets and pendants which look really beautiful. Who needs magnets when you can buy something quite unique?
If you are interested in partying, I think Costa Adeje or Los Cristianos is a better bet than the North side of the island. You will also enjoy much warmer weather and normal, desert-like sands.

Tenerife Cactus

This is of course not an exhaustive list of what you need to know when planning a trip to Tenerife, but I believe it contains some very important information to help you make the wisest decisions. I had a great time and I would love to go back and explore more of Tenerife’s terrain.

Next time, I will get some super high top boots though (or a space suit…), so I won’t have to worry about creepy crawlies. I will also do less beaching and more hiking for sure.

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Cory from You Could Travel entering Senso-ji in Tokyo, Japan

Cory Varga – Cory is a published travel writer and award-winning photographer. She travels full time with her husband and is passionate about creating in-depth travel guides. Cory published her first book on Japanese customs and manners because she’s obsessed with everything Japan. She has visited hundreds of destinations and has lived in 7 different countries. Cory is multilingual and an alumna from The University of Manchester.

Comments

8 responses to “The Tenerife Experience – What You Need To Know”

  1. Rebecca Emin Avatar
    Rebecca Emin

    You're definitely right that it's warmer in the south, due to the mountains etc. Los Cristianos is a nice port town but if any of your readers are after clubs and bars they would like Playa de las Americas, which is where the main night life is. Love the photos you have in this article.

    1. Danielle - geekgirlgoes Avatar
      Danielle – geekgirlgoes

      I second this!! I live in Los Cristianos and work in Las Americas – that is THE place to go for a good night out! So nice to see travel bloggers writing about this lovely island!

      1. Oh wow! You live in Los Cristianos? That’s amazing. I was thinking about going back to Tenerife next summer. Such awesome place.

  2. The south is a concrete jungle. Puerto is a tourisy trap, for predominantly older folk, though there are a few disco-pubs. For those who want to get away from tourists I recommend Santa Cruz. It is a modern city, relatively free of tourists. Accommodation a bit on the expensive side.

    1. Aww, we really enjoyed Purto de la Cruz. But yes, Santa Cruz was more authentic. However, Puerto de la Cruz was better for outdoor excursions in my opinion. We didn’t see the South so we can’t say anything about it.

  3. Sandra Doncaster Avatar
    Sandra Doncaster

    Off to Tenerife in 2 weeks time thanks for the informative information

  4. Same Wojnicz Avatar
    Same Wojnicz

    Yikes, roaches everywhere…are they also in the restaurants, and should I worry about finding them in my food?

    1. Hey, thank you for your message. No, no! Not in the food or anything like that 🙂 They are just creatures of the night, in the city. But we didn’t find any hygiene issues with the food, to be honest. Enjoy your holiday! I’m sure it will be great x

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