Winter Sun in Tenerife

Holiday Ratings
Recommended days	7
Budget	£
Difficulty	Easy

Why Tenerife

Winter sun in Tenerife is pretty much guaranteed and although it’s a small island there is a variety of scenery including volcanoes, jungles and beaches. Ideal for travel photography and sightseeing.

Winter sun in Tenerife is a welcome tonic to the grey skies of the UK even if you don’t want to sunbathe. Flights are 4 hours and cheap if you avoid school holidays and there is a huge range of accommodation, whatever your budget.

Our resort

This was a bit more relaxing than our normal holidays as we have been here before but we still managed a few day (and night!) trips. We stayed at a resort hotel in Costa Adeje that was a few minutes walk from the promenade and plenty of shops, cafes etc. There my have been beach too but I don’t remember!

The accommodation was a self catering apartment so we were free to eat when we chose. As we’d come outside the school holidays the resort wasn’t busy and it was actually quite peaceful. We were even able to park our hire car outside the apartment although I can imagine it’d be a problem in summer.

Puerto de la Cruz

The Botanical Gardens at Puerto de la Cruz were superb, a real bargain at €4 and lovely in the shade. There weren’t many other visitors so we were able to wander around at leisure. We tried to find the aquatic gardens but after about half an hour searching around the same roads (luckily I was very calm!) we gave up and carried on to Teide.

Teide National Park

Teide national park is superb and the landscape is a total contrast to the southern beaches and northern jungles. The mountain itself is the highest in Spain and dominates the entire island. It is still an active volcano but hasn’t erupted for over a hundred years.

After driving around and stopping at various viewpoints we took the cable car to the summit which is always a great experience. You can park next to the station but be aware it’s quite a lot chillier at the top of the mountain! There is also the option to climb the final part to the summit but that needs to be booked in advance and we haven’t done it yet.

We had an excellent dinner at the Parador before heading out for night time photos. This was my second attempt at these as we had been on a booked night time tour the evening before that had been a bit of a let down. Sadly I screwed them all up but I have posted a few just to give an idea what an awesome spread of stars there are up there!

Garachico

Garachico is a pretty little port on the western coast of the island. Some of the roads to reach it would certainly be classes as ‘interesting’! The town has a nice prom and lots of natural lava pools used for bathing – 300 years ago that same lava destroyed the port and city that was there!

La Orotava

Orotava is a beautiful old town set on the western hills of the island. It has some lovely colonial houses and the Jardin Victoria, a public park with lots of terraced flower displays. You can also visit La Casa de Los Balcones, one of the authentic Canarian 18th century houses.

Conclusion

Tenerife is a great place to go for a relaxing holiday. You can walk nature trails, climb a mountain, enjoy beaches (if you’re a weirdo), visit gardens and generally enjoy the ambience of old towns. It’s a small island so everything is a day trip or less and the roads are good.

There are plenty of food options from standard British cafe food to authentic Canarian dishes. The winter sun in Tenerife is also a massive selling point!