Tours in Tenerife

Tenerife behaves like two islands stitched together. The trade winds hit the north, so Puerto de la Cruz, the Orotava valley and the Anaga ridge are green, wet and often under cloud, while the southern strip — Los Cristianos, Costa Adeje, Los Abrigos, El Medano — sits in the rain shadow, dry and bright almost every day of the year. Santa Cruz is the working capital on the east coast; La Laguna behind it is a UNESCO-listed grid of colonial streets most beach visitors never see. In the west, the cliffs of Los Gigantes drop 500 metres straight into the sea and the village of Masca hides in a gorge above them. In the middle stands Teide, 3,715 metres, inside a caldera sixteen kilometres wide that the road crosses at around two thousand.

The volcano and the sea account for most of what there is to do. Whale watching is the island's quiet speciality: the channel between Tenerife and La Gomera holds a resident population of short-finned pilot whales that does not migrate, so it is a year-round trip. Teide works twice — by day for the crater road and the cable car, after dark for stargazing dinners, because the island is a Starlight reserve and the observatory sits on the same massif. Wine is the underrated part: vines in volcanic ash on the northern slopes, tastings that rarely feel touristy. El Medano is a windsurfing town, the big animal and water parks in the south are the family default, and boat days run out of Los Cristianos and Puerto Colon most mornings.

Practical. The two coasts have different weather on the same day, so the north is worth the drive even from a southern hotel — an hour across, and the cloud over Puerto de la Cruz rarely reaches Los Cristianos. Anything on Teide means altitude: the summit cone needs a permit booked ahead, it can be below freezing at the top while the coast sits at 22C, and the road up closes for snow a few days most winters. Boats leave in the morning, before the afternoon swell. Getting around is easy and cheap: the Titsa bus network reaches most of the island, and hire cars cost less than almost anywhere in Europe. Prices are mainland Spanish or a little under — a coffee for a euro and a half, a set lunch around ten — and tipping is loose change rather than a percentage. The island runs on winter: January and February are peak, with the Santa Cruz carnival the busiest week of the year and rooms gone months ahead.