"Tenerife, An island of lava, blossom and animals" Top 5 Page for this destination Isla de Tenerife by easyoar

Isla de Tenerife Travel Guide: 1,401 reviews and 2,929 photos

Tenerife is part of the Canary Islands, which are Spanish territory, but are down alongside Africa. They are about 2 hours by plane from Madrid, and are one hour behind (they are in the same time zone as Britain - making it a good destination for British people at New Year wanting a bit of winter sun).

Being much further south than Spain (the weather is almost tropical), they don't tend to have much in the way of seasons, and if you visit in December, there is every chance that you will have nice bright sunny days where you can lie on the beach every day should you wish to. The down side of this of course is that you can gt caught up in a busy tourist merry go round, which won't be to everyones taste. In this case I would recommend renting a car and doing your own thing. It isn't to difficult to escape the melee.

One thing to note is that the native sand in Tenerife is black as it is made from volcanic rock. Some resorts however have imported sand from the Sahara Desert, making their beaches yellow.

Another reason to go to Tenerife is the huge amount of wildlife, both in captivity and in the wild. Please see my Tenerife General Tips for these. For me Loro Parque in Puerto de la Cruz was the highlight of the animal part of the island, and is well worth a visit, especially for people with young children. This park has amongst other things, Dolphins, Sealions, Parrots, Chimpazees, Gorillas, Tigers, Jaguars, Crocodiles and Penguins. All of them live in well designed habitats in a very beautiful park.

Pros and Cons
  • Pros:Beautiful scenery, great animal parks - summer all year!
  • Cons:Hordes of tourists and some dodgy roads
  • In a nutshell:Great place to escape the European winter
  • Last visit to Isla de Tenerife: Jan 2005
  • Intro Updated Jan 16, 2005
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Reviews (64)

Comments (39)

  • King_Golo's Profile Photo
    May 25, 2011 at 3:20 AM

    Very good tips! I enjoyed a visit to Tenerife earlier this year, and it definitely is a fascinating island.

  • aaaarrgh's Profile Photo
    Sep 4, 2009 at 3:16 PM

    Really fascinating tips, I doubt I'll be able to surpass them!! BTW my guidebook said that the pyramids had been rebuilt - when they were first (re)discovered they were a crumbling pile of stones!

  • Nov 13, 2007 at 3:02 PM

    dolphins (or sea lions) don't belong inc captivity. performing tricks, jumping thru hoops, is unnatural. Especially several times a day! Let them rest, at least. I hope the water is salt water; really they should be let in the sea.

  • alza's Profile Photo
    Aug 31, 2007 at 10:05 AM

    beautiful photo of San Marco!

  • zizkov's Profile Photo
    Aug 25, 2006 at 10:57 AM

    Enjoyed your Tenerife pages. Cycling above the clouds, wow. Ok if the bike goes up in a car first ;-)

  • RafaelTheSecond's Profile Photo
    May 7, 2006 at 7:48 AM

    Tenerife and all of the Canarias Islands are jewels in the spanish scene. Tenerife with the Teide, the space landscape of Lanzarote, the wilderness of Gran Canaria, everything is spectacular in the Spain's backyard.

  • VeronicaG's Profile Photo
    Apr 25, 2006 at 1:03 PM

    Great pages and superb photograph on these pages!! The octopus, though, ugh...

  • Carmela71's Profile Photo
    Mar 15, 2006 at 11:16 AM

    >>>>>Sir Francis Drake was NOT a pirate ;-) ). >>>>> Ok I am sure Carmen, like me, does not agree on that!! hehehehe We are heading to Tenerife in a week time!

  • russian_yaz's Profile Photo
    Feb 23, 2006 at 7:42 AM

    Wonderfull pages! I'll be in Tenerife for 5 days in next april. I'll do 5 days of mountain biking...yes, I'm one of those crazy who try to climb the Teide peak on bike. But I will go through trails not through the road...I'll be carefull :)

  • iandsmith's Profile Photo
    Jun 22, 2005 at 11:37 PM

    Excellent pages, especially the pyramid. I think you were right to leave the dragon page as it was and we have strelitzia growing wild in the backyard but we've always called it bird of paradise, as in New Guinea.

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