Tenerife, Spain 2007

Because it is so cold in Germany (where my wife and I work), we decided to go as far south as Ryan Air traveled. This meant that we would be going to Tenerife, Spain, which is a part of the Canary Islands.

Getting There

Getting to Tenerife was easy enough. We made our way to Frankfurt Hahn, checked in, and took off. The greatest part about the day that we took off was that it was starting to snow, something we wouldn’t be seeing for about 6 days!

After about 4.5 hours we landed at Tenerife. The southern Tenerife airport is actually bigger than I was expecting. But we quickly found a taxi stand and were off to our hotel.

The Hotel

We did a lot of research online about a good hotel. We wanted a 4-star hotel that had a nice sized pool, located in an interesting area near the beach, and wasn’t dirty. The only hotel (that was reviewed online) that had a mostly positive rating, as well as being within our price range, was the Hotel Conquistador. When we booked this hotel, it was 30 days in advance, so we were stunned to find that they had over-booked. But the hotel’s staff was quick to arrange for us to stay at another 4-star hotel down the road called Best Tenerife at no cost to us. They even paid to have a taxi shuttle us the very short distance to this other hotel (we could have walked).

The Best Tenerife is an okay hotel, with very friendly staff and a good restaurant, but the pool area was MUCH smaller than the Conquistador. The rooms were small, but the bathroom was a pretty good size. Just as we were starting to feel okay about the new hotel we sat on our bed, which was as hard as granite. So sleeping was a bit painful.

I do want to mention that free breakfast that was offered to us was well stocked with a great variety of some very good food. They even had a cook that would prepare omelets or eggs any way you wanted. It was a very pleasant surprise.

The Area (Playa de las Americas)

Because Tenerife is such a huge British holiday destination, we decided to stay in the more touristy section of Playa de las Americas. Located in the south-west of Tenerife, Playa de las Americas is probably only second to Las Vegas in its use of façade. It’s everywhere! There were coliseum-like resorts, dense community resorts (with cool-looking stacked apartments, all facing large central pools), and a huge middle-eastern themed hotel that was probably way out of our price range.

The big attraction for this area, besides the abundant nightlife, is a nice downtown, with plenty of shopping. There is also a lot of beach area to enjoy. The only drawback (for my wife and me) was that the majority of the vacationers were much, much older. This wasn’t unpleasant in any way, but you do kind of stand out, and partying with this kind of older crowed isn’t what you would call heart-stopping (I couldn’t help that one).

Eating Out

There are a lot of restaurants, all charging different sums of money, and most of them good. You can spend a lot of money if you only eat in the main shopping area in Playa de las Americas, or you can walk a couple of blocks in any direction and find fantastic deals. We ate twice at Rong Cheng (a Chinese buffet restaurant) and managed to stuff ourselves for about 9 Euros per person. Presumably because we were American (there aren’t a lot of Americans who travel to Tenerife ), the second time we ate there we were given complementary shots of some sort of hard liquor that had dead lizards in it. You read that right, lizards. The waiter said, with a completely straight face, “It’s good for sex.” Who were we to argue? So we took our shots. It tasted like really, really strong alcohol.

If you are trying to save a buck, you can shop at the local grocery stores. They have a large selection of water, soda, candy, and other foods that you can eat throughout the day. They also have alcohol, if you want to stock up on that. The prices are good and can help you save your money for the more expensive island excersions.

I have to warn you: be prepared for some of the most aggressive restaurant hosts in the world. They will get in your way, talk to you about anything, and try very hard to get you to eat at their restaurant. They won’t physically force you, but they come close. On the up side, you will usually get free stuff to sit down. Every where we went, we kept getting free drinks or shots, so we weren’t complaining.

Night Life

Unfortunately, we didn’t go to any clubs while we were at Tenerife , but there were plenty of them in the area. We did go to a couple of bars, and again, price depends on your proximity to the main shopping area in Playa de las Americas. We did find an excellent British pub called Central Station. Well, I should say that the guy responsible for driving people into the pub offered us free shots to simply sit at his establishment. While we were drinking our shots (and some other drinks), we were invited to play a 25-question trivia game. While we weren’t last, we didn’t do very well. But the other Brit customers were all very good sports, especially since we got a couple of American-oriented questions wrong, and made us feel very welcome.

Things to Do/See

There is one place that you have to go and see at Tenerife: Teide National Park. It is home to the really tall mountain that you will see no matter where you are on the island. It is actually a volcano (inactive, I believe) that has some really great views and interesting terrain. The south side is all black and full of volcanic rock. The middle is kind of like New Mexico and Navada. And the north is like Colorado. The drive is fantastic, but don’t do it in a bus. Rent a car, you’ll love the drive.

There is also a small zoo called Loro Parque, which has some very entertaining shows. The seal and dolphin shows are the best.

If you go to one of the many excursion businesses on the island (you can’t miss them), you will find a near limitless selection of excursions to go on. We saw a cool jeep safari (where you drive a jeep through some mountains for a day), submarine tours, medieval castle dinners, and even Segway tours (we tried hard to do this one, but couldn’t manage it). You can also rent bikes to tour the island with. You shouldn’t ever find a lack of things to do.

Finally, if you see a caricature artist in the Playa de las Americas area, have your picture drawn. He’s very good and the 10 Euro per person fee he charges is a steal.

Going Home

The last day of our trip wasn’t as enjoyable as the first. At about 7AM we were woken up by the hotel’s emergency generator, which was right outside our hotel room. For the next 3 hours the entire area had no power. Then the weather was really hot and muggy (this wouldn’t have been a problem, but we were dressed to go back to Germany, which was experiencing 32 degree weather). We did manage to get some cool gifts. The taxi ride to the airport was also very hot. But the worst part was the flight home, where we were forced to stay in the airplane, on the ground, for almost 2 hours because of some kind of air traffic controller strike (I know this wasn’t the airline’s fault, but it still sucked). We eventually left and, with the help of a 150 MPH tailwind, got home any hour early.

All in all, Tenerife was a great trip. If you stay away from the very upscale sections, you can actually make your money last a lot longer (but be prepared to spend close to an average of $120 per day for two people). I would personally stay in the Playa de las Americas area again because there is so much to do just outside the hotel. My only advice to you is that you make sure that your hotel has your room, even if you book it online.