Car hire Tenerife
Car hire in Tenerife is easy to pick up and drop off and Tenerife Airport car rentals can be pre-booked before you fly to save you money and hassle when you arrive at the airport.
At 793 square miles, the largest of the Canary Islands is only 20 minutes by air west of Las Palmas on Grand Canary and just a little more than a two-hour flight from Madrid. Local legend has it that God put so much effort into creating the beaches of Grand Canary that night fell before he could finish the mountains.
When he came to Tenerife, he began with the mountains, and this time darkness fell before he could get around to the beaches. Thus Tenerife has fewer beaches than its neighbor and the sand is black. Still, there is enough to attract the visitor. Towering above Tenerife's mixture of lush vegetation and arid desert is the massive dormant volcano, Pica del Teide, Spain's highest peak at 12,200 feet, the island's name is believed to have evolved from a Guanche word meaning snow-capped mountain.
Because it receives more rain than its neighbors, Tenerife is the archipelago's main agricultural center, producing most of its vegetables (vineyards, along with sugar cane and banana plantations, have long been a mainstay of its economy). The northern and northwestern corners receive the most rainfall, which encourages forests and colorful vegetation, while the south is arid and desolate. Also in the north are the settlements of long standing: Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the provincial capital; La Laguna, site of one of Spain's oldest seats of learning; and Puerto de la Cruz, once important as a fruit and wine-exporting port and now a tourism resort.
Around southern beaches at Los Cristianos and Playa de las Americas, the year-round sunshine has fostered a development boom, covering tracts of desert with apartments and hotels. These resorts, and the nearby Aeropuerto Reina Sofia, are linked with Santa Cruz by a fast four-lane autopista (highway), while another autopista speeds traffic up to Puerto de la Cruz. Interior roads, in contrast, are narrow, winding, and tiring to drive.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the North
Backed by saw tooth mountains, this provincial capital is an important port, with more than 200,000 inhabitants and many modern buildings. More Spanish in character and aesthetically more pleasing than Las Palmas, it has no beaches to speak of, and is primarily a city of shops, with boutique-lined Calle del Castillo closed to traffic but filled with hordes of shoppers.
Plaza de Espana, where this pedestrian area begins, is next to the port and is noteworthy for its memorial to the men of Tenerife who died in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Visible from quite a distance, the towering monument also serves as a directional marker for tourists making their way back to the center of town. Just off the Plaza de Espana, on the third floor of the Cabildo Insular (island seat of government) is the Museo Arqueologico y Antropologico, which has a collection of 100 Guanche mummies, more than 1,000 skulls and 300,000 bones, and other artifacts of the Canary Islands' original inhabitants.
The museum is closed Sundays and holidays; summer hours 9 AM to 2 PM; admission charge. North of the port, along Avenida de Anaga, where flame trees and palms provide a pleasant tropical air, is the Castillo de Paso Alto, a 17th-century fortress that now houses a regional military museum; open Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 AM to 2 PM.
Five miles (8 km) north of town lies Playa de las Teresitas, which claims to be the world's largest artificial beach; the golden sand covering this mile-long stretch a pleasant place for swimming, sunbathing, or a quick snack at one of its many inexpensive restaurants was imported from the Sahara in the 1960s. From here, the road turns inland and corkscrews steeply upward to the Anaga headland, a dramatic area of knifeedge ridges, ravines, and dense evergreen woods.
At El Bailadero pass, the picturesquely situated village of Taganana can be seen down below, but the road continues west along the crest of the range to the Pico del Ingles Belvedere, a lookout point 3,300 feet above sea level, from which there is a spectacular view of the Pico del Teide rising in the distance. Soon after the road descends to La Laguna, the university town and former island capital, which has an interesting old section highlighted by the Plaza del Adelantado, the 16th century Iglesia de la Concepcion (Church of the Conception, now a national monument), and a 20th-century cathedral with a neoclassical facade.
Loro Parque Tenerife
Loro Parque, a tropical park and zoo with an orchid garden, a dolphin show, and 1,300 parrots - some of which ride bicycles and do other tricks in a parrot show. The park is open daily; admission charge. On Sundays at 11 AM, typical Canaries folk dancing and singing, plus an exhibition of local wrestling, la lucha canada, take place on the grounds of the Tigaiga hotel. The Parque de Taoro also houses the Taoro Casino (see Nightclubs and Nightlife).
La Orotava
In a valley of the same name, overlooking Puerto de la Cruz, which is 6 miles (10 km) away and 1,000 feet below, La Orotava occupies a site that was once a Guanche capital and is among the most compelling settings on the island. One of the oldest towns on Tenerife, it has steep cobbled streets and handsome homes with exquisite balconies, red roofs, and interior patios.
The 18th-century rococo Iglesia de la Concepcion, now a museum, is a highlight with its impressive 17th-century Baroque altarpiece, as is Artesania La Casa de los Salcones, an arts and crafts center in an old balconied house with a flower-filled patio. Here visitors will find the delicate calado, or drawn-thread embroidery, used for everything from handkerchiefs to tablecloths and manufactured by women working at wooden looms.
The annual Fiesta de Corpus Christi during the week surrounding June 15 is a celebration of the religious fervor, energy, and artistry of the town's residents.Although the event is celebrated throughout the Canaries, the festivities are at their most colorful here. Before the procession, the town's squares and streets are covered with carpets made of hundreds of thousands of flower petalsbougainvillea, dahlias, geraniums, carnations as well as crushed leaves, pine needles, and colorful designs in sand. The largest and most intricate carpet is laid on the Plaza del Ayuntamiento (Town Hall Square).
Pico del Teide Tenerife
This is one excursion not to be missed on any visit to the Canaries. Mt. Teide, which towers 12,200 feet above sea level and overlooks a sea of clouds, is situated in the Parque Nacional de las Caiiadas del Teide, a beautiful forest of heather, evergreens, eucalyptus, and Canarian pine at an altitude of some 6,500 feet. The park is reached via the town and the valley of La Orotava, where corn, chestnuts, and bananas are raised in abundance. It's open daily during daylight hours; no admission charge. Beyond La Orotava, the road cuts through the Mar de Nubes (a sea, or canopy, of clouds that usually hugs the mountain about halfway up) to a desolate, treeless amphitheater.
This is Las Cafladas, an ancient volcanic crater some 47 miles in diameter, from the center of which surges the great bulk of EI Teide, a newer volcano and the tallest mountain in Spain. Las Cafladas is scarred and strewn with boulders; the last eruption in 1798 destroyed a peak that was even larger than El Teide.
A cable car takes 35 passengers on a 10-minute journey to the base of the cone. From there it is a 25 minute hike to the edge, from which most of the Canaries and even the coast of Africa is visible on a clear day. Those short of breath should take care, as the air is quite rarefied at this altitude. Dedicated climbers can spend the night near the peak at the Cueva de Hielo (Ice Cave), a mountain shelter; for less adventurous sorts, there is a rustic parador near the cable car.
Icod de los Vinos
West of Puerto de la Cruz a road winds above seawhipped rocks and black sand coves to this small town, the center of the island's wine and malmsey grape-producing area. The 16th-century Renaissance Iglesia de San Marcos is worth a look, but the town's proudest possession is the drago, Tenerife's oldest dragon tree, said to be more than 1,000 years old, and whose sap was used by the Guanche for curing ailments (both are located in the center of town, on Plaza de la Iglesia). From Icod, a drive through banana plantations leads to the nearby beach resort of San Marcos, amid black cliffs, then south to the whitewashed town of Garachico, the island's original capital.
The main point of interest here is the Castillo de San Miguel, an old fortress which these days houses a natural history museum of island fossils, shells, and minerals. There are several other museums in town as well, including the Casa de la Cultura (House of Culture), with exhibits of Canarian life in the 16th and 17th centuries; a Museo de Ciencias Naturales (Natural Sciences Museum); and a Museo de Arte Contemporeneo (Contemporary Art Museum). For information on these museums contact the Ayuntamiento de Garachico.
At 793 square miles, the largest of the Canary Islands is only 20 minutes by air west of Las Palmas on Grand Canary and just a little more than a two-hour flight from Madrid. Local legend has it that God put so much effort into creating the beaches of Grand Canary that night fell before he could finish the mountains.
When he came to Tenerife, he began with the mountains, and this time darkness fell before he could get around to the beaches. Thus Tenerife has fewer beaches than its neighbor and the sand is black. Still, there is enough to attract the visitor. Towering above Tenerife's mixture of lush vegetation and arid desert is the massive dormant volcano, Pica del Teide, Spain's highest peak at 12,200 feet, the island's name is believed to have evolved from a Guanche word meaning snow-capped mountain.
Because it receives more rain than its neighbors, Tenerife is the archipelago's main agricultural center, producing most of its vegetables (vineyards, along with sugar cane and banana plantations, have long been a mainstay of its economy). The northern and northwestern corners receive the most rainfall, which encourages forests and colorful vegetation, while the south is arid and desolate. Also in the north are the settlements of long standing: Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the provincial capital; La Laguna, site of one of Spain's oldest seats of learning; and Puerto de la Cruz, once important as a fruit and wine-exporting port and now a tourism resort.
Around southern beaches at Los Cristianos and Playa de las Americas, the year-round sunshine has fostered a development boom, covering tracts of desert with apartments and hotels. These resorts, and the nearby Aeropuerto Reina Sofia, are linked with Santa Cruz by a fast four-lane autopista (highway), while another autopista speeds traffic up to Puerto de la Cruz. Interior roads, in contrast, are narrow, winding, and tiring to drive.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife and the North
Backed by saw tooth mountains, this provincial capital is an important port, with more than 200,000 inhabitants and many modern buildings. More Spanish in character and aesthetically more pleasing than Las Palmas, it has no beaches to speak of, and is primarily a city of shops, with boutique-lined Calle del Castillo closed to traffic but filled with hordes of shoppers.
Plaza de Espana, where this pedestrian area begins, is next to the port and is noteworthy for its memorial to the men of Tenerife who died in the Spanish Civil War (1936-1939). Visible from quite a distance, the towering monument also serves as a directional marker for tourists making their way back to the center of town. Just off the Plaza de Espana, on the third floor of the Cabildo Insular (island seat of government) is the Museo Arqueologico y Antropologico, which has a collection of 100 Guanche mummies, more than 1,000 skulls and 300,000 bones, and other artifacts of the Canary Islands' original inhabitants.
The museum is closed Sundays and holidays; summer hours 9 AM to 2 PM; admission charge. North of the port, along Avenida de Anaga, where flame trees and palms provide a pleasant tropical air, is the Castillo de Paso Alto, a 17th-century fortress that now houses a regional military museum; open Tuesdays through Sundays from 10 AM to 2 PM.
Five miles (8 km) north of town lies Playa de las Teresitas, which claims to be the world's largest artificial beach; the golden sand covering this mile-long stretch a pleasant place for swimming, sunbathing, or a quick snack at one of its many inexpensive restaurants was imported from the Sahara in the 1960s. From here, the road turns inland and corkscrews steeply upward to the Anaga headland, a dramatic area of knifeedge ridges, ravines, and dense evergreen woods.
At El Bailadero pass, the picturesquely situated village of Taganana can be seen down below, but the road continues west along the crest of the range to the Pico del Ingles Belvedere, a lookout point 3,300 feet above sea level, from which there is a spectacular view of the Pico del Teide rising in the distance. Soon after the road descends to La Laguna, the university town and former island capital, which has an interesting old section highlighted by the Plaza del Adelantado, the 16th century Iglesia de la Concepcion (Church of the Conception, now a national monument), and a 20th-century cathedral with a neoclassical facade.
Loro Parque Tenerife
Loro Parque, a tropical park and zoo with an orchid garden, a dolphin show, and 1,300 parrots - some of which ride bicycles and do other tricks in a parrot show. The park is open daily; admission charge. On Sundays at 11 AM, typical Canaries folk dancing and singing, plus an exhibition of local wrestling, la lucha canada, take place on the grounds of the Tigaiga hotel. The Parque de Taoro also houses the Taoro Casino (see Nightclubs and Nightlife).
La Orotava
In a valley of the same name, overlooking Puerto de la Cruz, which is 6 miles (10 km) away and 1,000 feet below, La Orotava occupies a site that was once a Guanche capital and is among the most compelling settings on the island. One of the oldest towns on Tenerife, it has steep cobbled streets and handsome homes with exquisite balconies, red roofs, and interior patios.
The 18th-century rococo Iglesia de la Concepcion, now a museum, is a highlight with its impressive 17th-century Baroque altarpiece, as is Artesania La Casa de los Salcones, an arts and crafts center in an old balconied house with a flower-filled patio. Here visitors will find the delicate calado, or drawn-thread embroidery, used for everything from handkerchiefs to tablecloths and manufactured by women working at wooden looms.
The annual Fiesta de Corpus Christi during the week surrounding June 15 is a celebration of the religious fervor, energy, and artistry of the town's residents.Although the event is celebrated throughout the Canaries, the festivities are at their most colorful here. Before the procession, the town's squares and streets are covered with carpets made of hundreds of thousands of flower petalsbougainvillea, dahlias, geraniums, carnations as well as crushed leaves, pine needles, and colorful designs in sand. The largest and most intricate carpet is laid on the Plaza del Ayuntamiento (Town Hall Square).
Pico del Teide Tenerife
This is one excursion not to be missed on any visit to the Canaries. Mt. Teide, which towers 12,200 feet above sea level and overlooks a sea of clouds, is situated in the Parque Nacional de las Caiiadas del Teide, a beautiful forest of heather, evergreens, eucalyptus, and Canarian pine at an altitude of some 6,500 feet. The park is reached via the town and the valley of La Orotava, where corn, chestnuts, and bananas are raised in abundance. It's open daily during daylight hours; no admission charge. Beyond La Orotava, the road cuts through the Mar de Nubes (a sea, or canopy, of clouds that usually hugs the mountain about halfway up) to a desolate, treeless amphitheater.
This is Las Cafladas, an ancient volcanic crater some 47 miles in diameter, from the center of which surges the great bulk of EI Teide, a newer volcano and the tallest mountain in Spain. Las Cafladas is scarred and strewn with boulders; the last eruption in 1798 destroyed a peak that was even larger than El Teide.
A cable car takes 35 passengers on a 10-minute journey to the base of the cone. From there it is a 25 minute hike to the edge, from which most of the Canaries and even the coast of Africa is visible on a clear day. Those short of breath should take care, as the air is quite rarefied at this altitude. Dedicated climbers can spend the night near the peak at the Cueva de Hielo (Ice Cave), a mountain shelter; for less adventurous sorts, there is a rustic parador near the cable car.
Icod de los Vinos
West of Puerto de la Cruz a road winds above seawhipped rocks and black sand coves to this small town, the center of the island's wine and malmsey grape-producing area. The 16th-century Renaissance Iglesia de San Marcos is worth a look, but the town's proudest possession is the drago, Tenerife's oldest dragon tree, said to be more than 1,000 years old, and whose sap was used by the Guanche for curing ailments (both are located in the center of town, on Plaza de la Iglesia). From Icod, a drive through banana plantations leads to the nearby beach resort of San Marcos, amid black cliffs, then south to the whitewashed town of Garachico, the island's original capital.
The main point of interest here is the Castillo de San Miguel, an old fortress which these days houses a natural history museum of island fossils, shells, and minerals. There are several other museums in town as well, including the Casa de la Cultura (House of Culture), with exhibits of Canarian life in the 16th and 17th centuries; a Museo de Ciencias Naturales (Natural Sciences Museum); and a Museo de Arte Contemporeneo (Contemporary Art Museum). For information on these museums contact the Ayuntamiento de Garachico.
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