Quick Guide: Tenerife, Spain (Canary Is.)

Tenerife is a true treasure. No matter where you are on the island, the surrounding nature is absolutely stunning, yet so different each place.

Table of Contents

What we think you NEED to know

Rent a car, so you can drive around the island. For some reason, there is no more than 1 hour anywhere you go. We’d say it is a must to give yourself the chance to discover the island fully.
Teide National Park is a must visit. With the big volcano Teide as the center of the park and being a UNESCO World Heritage Site, it offers really interesting and different landscape.
There is of course no guarantees with the temperatures. We met a couple, who had over 25°C/77°F around Christmas and New Year the year before. But “only” 18°C/64,4°F that year.
Weather can be very different depending on whether you are on the Southern or Northern part of the island. With the mountains in particular, the weather can also change quite a lot and quickly.

Our key moments

Climbing Mt. Teide at 3,718 m//12,188 ft in elevation. We hiked the entire climb (you can use a gondola), and we only met three other people. Such a special experience.
Hiking some of the coast-trails. Taking our time to appreciate the landscape and sea views being nothing but astounding.
Enjoying a glass of wine at a local restaurant, meeting some fellow travelers who bought and enjoyed the next with us.
Giving ourselves the chance, by renting a car, to explore both North, East, South, and West of the island. We wished we had more than just one week.

High season: June-August and December-March

Currency: Euro (EUR)
1 EUR = 1,8 USD

Population: 968.000 people living on 2,034 km²

Location: is the largest of Spain’s Canary Islands, next to West Africa

Weather: mild, sunny, subtropical climate with pleasant temperatures year-round

Driving on Tenerife:

We have truthfully never visited a country where the infrastructure is so good overall.

The roads all seem totally new, in near perfect shape and wide even in mountains.

Worth noticing when driving around the island: there is literally no trash anywhere – neither on the roadsides or streets. The entire island is really clean. A pleasure to experience.

This will be NICE to know

Tenerife is a volcanic island (Teide is an active, though sleeping vulcano). It therefore offers both white and black sand beaches. There is likely many really cool and nice places to swim during the Summer.
Even though January and February reamins in the “high season”, there actually isn’t that many tourists compared to the others months.
Spanish cuisine is nice. But if you, like us, are there for hiking and not eating, many hotels offers half boards pretty cheap in e.g. January. Then you can save money by eating breakfast and dinner at the hotel, and still have the entire day to have fun.

Driving on Tenerife:
We have truthfully never visited a country where the infrastructure is so good overall.

The roads all seem totally new, in near perfect shape and wide even in mountains.

Worth noticing when driving around the island: there is literally no trash anywhere – neither on the roadsides or streets. The entire island is really clean. A pleasure to experience.

Our favorite locations

The top of Mt. Teide at 3,718 m/12,188 ft in elevation. The view from up there including the peace and quite is some else.
The hiking trails in the area around Playa de Tamadite is purely amazing. We could easily have spend more time there.
The same goes for Punta del Hidalgo. If we have had time to hike nearby the very popular village Masca, it would probably be on this list.

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Quick Guide: Tenerife, Spain (Canary Is.)

This Quick Guide is just a glimpse of Tenerife and Spain’s Canary Islands. There is eight Canary Islands in total – which means that there is a lot more to do and see, also in the Summer season.