In the early 20th century, Tenerife was a winter sun destination for the elite, where aristocrats and celebrities would sit out the European winter in the grand hotels of Puerto de la Cruz. Then came the jet age and the island’s image changed, with the development of large-scale resorts around the previously barren southwestern corner, which is home to the best weather and beaches. Today, Tenerife is upwardly mobile again, with several five-star hotels and restaurants with no fewer than nine Michelin stars between them.
Its topographical profile remains unchanged, of course, with the whole rippling downwards from volcanic Mount Teide, at 3,718m (12,198ft) the highest peak in Spain. Santa Cruz, its capital and main port, is a surprisingly handsome place that hosts one of Europe’s top carnivals. Behind it, the island’s northeast tip is home to the Anaga mountains, a remote place of goat bells, lingering mists and potato farmers living in cave-houses where time has stood still. Here is our pick of the best things to do on the island.
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1. Seek out fine wines
The Canary Islands were famed for wine long before its banana plantations became established. Shakespeare’s bibulous knight Sir John Falstaff was particularly keen on a “cup of Canary”, and while these days you can also get banana wine in island shops (it is surprisingly OK), there are still dramatically sited vineyards worth seeking out. There are wineries around La Orotava, but one of the standouts is Bodegas Ferrera, at 1,000m (3,280ft), just above the small town of Arafo. Here the vineyards have been landscaped into the hillside — a fine location for a tour and tasting with tapas.
2. Get into the carnival spirit
If you are lucky enough to be on the island in February, don’t miss the carnival in Santa Cruz — one of the most colourful street parties in Europe. The opening parade is held on the Friday before Shrove Tuesday, when the main parade takes place. This is followed on Ash Wednesday by the ceremony of the burial of the sardine, a humorous and slightly grotesque event in which a giant effigy of a fish is escorted by locals dressed as mourners and ultimately set on fire. But the whole carnival fortnight is dotted with spectacular events and glittering costumes, and has long been popular with Europe’s LGBT community.
carnavaldetenerife.com
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3. Climb to the crater
Sooner or later almost every visitor to Tenerife finds their way up the dormant volcano of Mount Teide, the island’s main landmark. The best route up is the least busy, starting from the island’s west flank at Guia de Isora and ascending gradually through belts of cloud-shrouded pines. Eventually you will broach the Cañadas crater and reach the otherworldly Teide National Park, a Unesco world heritage site with a good visitor centre and a parador, for those who want to take advantage of waymarked walks and gaze at the stars.
4. Tackle Teide’s top
Some visitors to the Cañadas crater will want to push further upwards. You can hike it, of course, but the going is tough and altitude sickness and cold can be a factor. Most settle for the cable car up to La Rambleta then tackle the last bit on foot (about 45 minutes). Expect a sharp wind but great views, particularly to other islands. Obligatory permits for the top are issued by the park authority; they are included in excursions with the cable car plus guide via Volcano Teide.
volcanoteide.com
5. Chill in Puerto
Genteel Puerto de la Cruz, the most charming and historical of the island’s resorts, stands midway along the more fertile north coast. Its downtown area is good for shopping and eating, with a nest of pleasing, pedestrianised streets overhung with flower-bedecked, typically Canarian balconies. There is no standout beach here, but the Lago Martianez is a confection of seawater pools and islands created with great flair by César Manrique, the artist who transformed Lanzarote. Its main lake, complete with water volcano, was remodelled in 2024.
6. Save while shopping
Tenerife has Special Canarian Zone status, with usually very low rates of VAT. Accordingly, there can be discounts on designer goods of 10 per cent or more, which is a good reason for a trip to buzzing Calle del Castillo in Santa Cruz for internationally known stores selling fashion, electronic goods and perfume. The more exclusive luxury brands are found around the corner in Calle el Pilar.
7. Enjoy bright lights and beaches
Depending on your viewpoint, Playa de las Americas and its neighbour Los Cristianos, above, are either tacky — each mostly dating from the 1960s — or the main place to be. By day the action focuses on the big sandy curve of a bay at Playa de las Americas, while by night the scene drifts inland to the Veronicas strip, a gathering place of teenage hedonists where the action kicks off after 10pm. Meanwhile, the oceanfront paseo (promenade) lining the twin beaches of Los Cristianos sets a more mature tempo with salsa and cocktails.
8. Tour a bananera
Once it was sugarcane, then it was cochineal (the beetles live on the prickly pear cacti) and now the mainstay of Tenerife agriculture is the banana, grown in dense rectangles that tessellate the landscape in patches of green. The combination of volcanic soil and intense sun makes ideal growing conditions, so the fruit is particularly sweet and tasty, and popular with supermarkets all over Europe. Several plantations offer tours and tastings, and many are conveniently close to the island’s popular southwestern corner. Most also have other exotic fruits on site — ideal for smoothies.
9. Choose your sand colour
The origins of Tenerife mean that many of its beaches are fundamentally made from black volcanic sand, best seen under the towering cliffs of Los Gigantes. For a while this unusual beach material was presented as mineral-rich and therapeutic, but there’s no mistaking the fact that it looks a bit grubby on your legs and in the brochures, so the picture-postcard beaches of the main resorts are now layered with imported blond sands. The pioneer was the beach north of Santa Cruz at Las Teresitas, above, for which 3.5 million cubic feet of golden sand was brought over from the Sahara.
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10. Chase the dragon
An 800-year-old dragon tree is a good reason for seeking out the 16th-century town of Icod de los Vinos, with its handsome, aristocratic, wooden-balconied houses. Set on a hillside surrounded by orchards, vines and banana plantations, this is one of the most unspoilt settlements on Tenerife. The Drago Milenario is the largest and oldest of several such trees in the area and stands in a little park, for which there is a fee to enter. But you can see it while sitting in the back patio of the adjacent Casa del Drago for the price of a dragon’s blood liqueur made from its resin.
11. Hike the Masca trail
The western tip of Tenerife is a land of jagged ravines concealing the tiny bougainvillea-rich village of Masca. Getting here shouldn’t be tried on a full stomach, as the road repeatedly turns itself inside out. The village is the starting point for a three-hour scramble down the Masca gorge, between ever-higher walls that are sometimes threatening and cold, for which a guide is a good idea. This is a natural habitat, with bamboo to plunge through, lizards to avoid treading on and prickly pears to negotiate, and you don’t actually see the sea until virtually the last moment. Be sure to save some energy and water for the return leg.
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12. Celebrate culture in Santa Cruz
Santiago Calatrava’s extraordinary Auditorio in Santa Cruz is Tenerife’s answer to the Sydney Opera House. Calatrava is one of the best known Spanish architects, as well as a structural engineer, sculptor and painter. His speciality is structures such as stadiums, railway stations and museums with sculptural forms that often resemble living organisms. This quayside concert hall looks like a giant anteater pushing a wheelbarrow, and hosts all kinds of music and performing arts.
auditoriodetenerife.com
13. Seek out local food
It’s not easy to find the papas arrugadas (“wrinkly potatoes”), Malvasia wines and gofio (roasted grain flour) that used to be staples of the Canarian diet in pre-tourism days. Today the best place to seek out local ingredients is among the sympathetically converted Canarian mansions in Puerto de la Cruz. Or head to Costa Adeje or La Caleta for fine dining in the likes of Nub and San Ho, two of the island’s Michelin-starred restaurants.
14. Swim in lava
In the 17th century Garachico — the sleepy, cobbled town west of Puerto de la Cruz — was a key port, handling much of the sugarcane and cochineal that once grew along these shores. However, when the Trevejo volcano erupted in 1706, the lava flow came sliding down, hissing and bubbling into the harbour, filling it up. Today those sea-surrounded gobbets of tortured lava shelter a little network of saltwater pools, connected by bridges and walkways — open from June to September.
15. Walk the Anaga
The remote northeast corner of Tenerife is a different world to the rest of the island. Potato farmers and goat herders here live in cave-house villages such as Chinamada, among laurisilva woodlands. The only tourists here are hikers on the trails used by these farmers, who you’ll likely meet along the way. Several operators offer walking packages, but if you want to go it alone, the long descent from the Cruz del Carmen crossroads to Punta del Hidalgo — a four-hour hike that takes in Chinamada — connects with the bus route back to Santa Cruz.
16. See Loro Parque life
The veteran of all the parks in Tenerife is the family favourite Loro Parque, a mile and a half from Puerto de la Cruz. Having started out as a paradise for parrots, it has expanded into a fully fledged zoo, with mammals, birds, fish and reptiles, while retaining the parrot paradise that drew in the first of a stonking 50 million visitors over its 50 years. A daily schedule of shows involves flying demonstrations by trained birds that rearrange the hair partings of audience members.
loroparque.com
17. Watch some whales
Extremely co-operative pods of dolphins and pilot whales sunbathe in the straits between Tenerife and adjacent island of La Gomera. They are best admired on a trip out of Costa Adeje with Ocean Blue or a similar operator, offering the chance to admire the towering cliffs at Los Gigantes and the full height of Teide en route. Whale watching is very reliable here — either the meeting of ocean currents supplies a good source of nutrients or there must be something infectious about the holiday atmosphere.
18. Splash out in Siam
A Thai-themed water park on an island in the Atlantic? It sounds unlikely, but Siam Park is regularly acknowledged as one of the world’s best, and is one of the big success stories of tourism on Tenerife. It’s a family day out that can be taken at a pace that suits, because among those distinctive curved Thai rooflines, shimmering with gold, there is everything from lazy rivers to wave lagoons and the Tower of Power freefall slide. Don’t expect spicy sour soup or green curries among the temples and dragons, though: this is burgers and cocktails country.
siampark.net
19. Hang out amid heritage
La Laguna, Tenerife’s second city, is often overlooked by visitors because of its location on the spine of the island, away from the busier coasts. This means that it has retained much of its essential Spanish character, and its historic cathedral and ancient mansions enclosing flower-bedecked patios have earned it Unesco world heritage status. It is also the home of the island’s university, which means cheap restaurants, street musicians, hipster bars and a youthful, exuberant atmosphere.
20. Do what Agatha did
Tenerife has a long tradition with British society. In Victorian times Puerto de la Cruz was a resort for the elite, who would journey out by steamer. Winston Churchill visited with Aristotle Onassis, and Agatha Christie holidayed here with her daughter. The Gran Hotel Taoro, the top address, reopened in 2025. Meanwhile, the Hotel Botanico, just down the hill, still flies the flag for luxury and stands alongside a favourite destination of those early tourists, the Botanical Garden, an El Dorado for acacias and mimosas.
21. Drink in the night skies
The stars in the night sky above Tenerife are razor sharp, particularly from high up on Teide, away from light pollution. Head to the point where it starts to get really chilly and stand under the glittery stream of the Milky Way. While these days most of the serious astronomical science is taking place over on the neighbouring island of La Palma, there is still a working observatory on Teide that offers tours (volcanoteide.com). But if you want to see nebulas, clusters, meteor showers, the Andromeda galaxy and the rings of Saturn, then join a guided stargazing tour at sunset.
22. Take a day trip to La Gomera
Tenerife’s neighbour looks a stone’s throw away, and with fast ferries departing frequently from Los Cristianos many visitors are tempted to see what life is like on the other side. What they’ll find is a steep, refined island, great for walking and toppged by mist-watered woodlands. Take an early departure and there will be enough time for a complete circuit of La Gomera. But even just nipping across to San Sebastian, its chilled-out port, offers a delightful change of pace. Sip a wine on the terrace of one of the most delightful paradors in Spain as you watch the ferries come and go.
23. Scan the horizon for Transatlanticos
A steep island such as Tenerife will never be short of roadside miradors, viewpoints from which to look across the water for tall ships voyaging in the wake of Christopher Columbus. Reliable trade winds mean that the Canaries are still a popular starting point for Atlantic crossings, including rowing and sailing races. The Mirador La Garañona — in its own gardens near El Sauzal, on the northeast coast — is an ideal place to linger over an ice cream while scanning the horizon for doughty navigators and mystery islands.
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