Tenerife: Canary Island Paradise (4 Day Itinerary)
Written By Halley Sherwood
I’ve been in Spain working remotely for a little over a month as of right now, and have truly been loving it.
As a travel destination and as a semi-permanent living location, Spain has been perfect. The cost of living is so much lower than where I’m from in Seattle, and even low as far as European standards are concerned. Going out for a DELICIOUS cup of cafe con leche (latte) will run you around €1.50 ($1.56 USD), and you get a free tapa (small appetizer) with every alcoholic beverage.
When I first got here, I was scoping out cheap mini-trip flights from Spain since it’s so much cheaper to fly anywhere in Europe. I stumbled upon a €40 round trip flight to Tenerife, an island in the Canaries. I’d vaguely heard of the Canary Islands, but never knew much about them, and didn’t even necessarily have them high on my ‘to-visit’ list.
Boy did I stumble on a gold mine!
I spent 4 full days in Tenerife, and I think it’s my new favorite place I’ve ever visited. If you’re in the market for a hot new travel destination to set your sights on, let it be Tenerife.
Getting to Tenerife
The cheap flight I found was out of the Malaga (MGP) airport, and flew into Tenerife Sur Airport (TFS). It was an easy 2 hour flight that arrived at 8am.
I chose to rent a car for the first 3 days that I was there so that I could drive up and stay for 1 night in the North of Tenerife, near Santa Cruz. Now that I’ve been there, I can say that their public transportation system is super accessible and reliable, and I could’ve easily gotten away with taking the bus.
Things to do in Tenerife
On my first day in Tenerife, I arrived at the South airport (TFS). I picked up my rental car (Cicar), and headed straight for Santa Cruz.
My first stop in Santa Cruz was the Mercado Nuestra Señora De África, a big, open-air market with everything from fresh produce and piping hot empanadas to handmade jewelry and international spices.
After stuffing my face with empanadas and coffee and loading up on fresh fruit for the week, I headed to my next destination: Playa de las Teresitas. This beach is about 15 minutes North of Santa Cruz, and totally worth visiting. The weather might be a little warmer in the South, but no beach compared to this one.
Playa de Las Teresitas had the softest sand and perfect temperature water. I could’ve easily stayed at this beach for my entire trip. Parking was also easy to find, and there is a bus that drops you off right at the entrance to the beach.
After that, I drove up to check in to my first hostel (Patio Hostel) in San Cristobal de la Laguna. This location was perfect for the night, and I met so many other fun solo travelers. The hostel is right in front of the town’s market center, so you only have to walk right out the front door to find loads of fresh produce, meats, spices, and other goodies.
Before the day ended, I drove up to the Mirador Cruz del Carmen, a popular lookout. From there you can see a spectacular overhead view of the whole North of the island. It was a little overcast when I went, but the pictures do NOT do it justice.
On my second day, I headed back down South to Playa las Americas for surf lessons with Shaka Surf company. This was the absolute highlight of my trip. I’d never gone surfing before, but had always felt the urge to try. By some miracle, I was able to stand up on my first wave, and I’ve been in love with surfing since that moment! If you’ve ever wanted to try surfing, Playa las Americas is the place to do it, and there’s SO many surf schools along the beach.
Despite having absolutely no strength left in my body after 2 hours of getting pummeled by waves, I then headed to my last activity of the day: a Flamenco show with Ole Flamenco!
If you’ve never been to a Flamenco show before, let me be the first to tell you how incredible they are. I’m not typically someone who’s interested in watching any kind of dance, but Flamenco is so captivating, with the different costumes of the dancers, the odd facial expressions, and the use of stomping, clapping, and guitar to create the music.
While the performance at Ole Flamenco felt like more of a combination of a few different styles of dance (you’ve gotta go to Sevilla for the best flamenco shows), the show itself was great, and was in such a pretty venue.
After the show, I headed back to my hostel, the Duque Nest Hostel. This place was AMAZING, with beautiful views of the island and of the ocean.
On my third day in Tenerife, I headed out to Playa Duque, which was only a 15 minute walk from the hostel. This beach was pretty, but it was super crowded. There’s a whole shopping center around it, so you can also wander around and get lost in various shops and restaurants.
I didn’t do much other than relax on the beach this day, since I was EXHAUSTED from surfing the night before, and wanted to still have energy for my second lesson later that day.
After my lesson that night, I wandered around Playa las Americas for a while, since there was a surf competition after-party happening on the beach, and there’s plenty of fun bars all over. This part of town is also interesting due to the existence of distinct little corners of people from other countries. There’s a Welsh bar, an Italian strip, and other areas/bars representing England, Holland, Scotland, and plenty of others.
I had to start my last full day in Tenerife with one of the islands signature beverages: a barraquito.
Un barraquito is a layered coffee liquor, complete with sweetened-condensed milk and a foamy layer of cream. An absolute MUST try while in the Canaries.
This was the perfect fuel for the long journey I had ahead of me that day (not really, definitely could’ve used a tortilla de patata), because after that I was headed out on a BOAT EXCURSION!
For my last full day in Tenerife, I booked a special 5 hour boat tour with Freebird Catamaran that included whale watching, a trip to Los Gigantes, and an open bar! This tour was great for a relaxing day on the water.
We saw a few different groups of pilot whales, and then headed over to Los Gigantes for a swim in the water. While I enjoyed the whole thing (especially the bottomless wine), I wish we had been able to swim with the whales. I’m definitely spoiled after getting to swim with whales in Tahiti, but I understand the safety & environmental reasons for why we couldn’t this time.
Let’s just say, by the time I stepped off the boat, ya girl was stumbling.
Although 4 days felt like a solid-enough amount of time to see a good chunk of the island, I easily could’ve stayed there for another 2 weeks (sike, I could MOVE there and never come back).
There were a few things I would have loved to see if I had more time, including Mount Tiede, Costa Acentejo, las Piscinas naturales de el Casetón, and the city of Vilaflor.
Tips for traveling to Tenerife
Avoid eating at touristy restaurants, especially the ones along the beach. Those places can be way more expensive, and it’s easy to find delicious, cheap food further into town. From my experience, Los Cristianos was full of cheap restaurants, and that tended to be where more of the locals ate.
If you rent an electric car, be strategic about when and where to re-charge it. My rental car was electric, and used up the battery way quicker than I thought I would. There are a lot of charging stations around the island, but not as many as you would think, and lots of them were either always full, or broken.
Keep in mind that the Southern tip of the island is warmer than the Northern end. Both ends of the island were beautiful, but the North tends to be a bit more foggy and overcast, especially if you go in the winter like I did. Regardless, the whole island stays way warmer than anywhere else in Europe during this time of the year.
If you’re traveling alone, don’t worry about being lonely. I was traveling solo in Tenerife, but I made friends with other solo travelers everywhere I went. Apparently, the Canaries are an up and coming hotspot for digital nomads, so there is no shortage of like-minded people to connect with.
You shouldn’t have a problem finding free public wifi. I’ve refused to get an international cell phone plan the whole time I’ve been in Europe so far, partly because I’m trying to disconnect and partly because I wanted to challenge myself to get along from place to place without relying on my phone. I didn’t have cell service the entire time I was in Tenerife, but managed to get from place to place using only wifi from restaurants, malls, or hostels.
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