MUST SEE TOWNS

My parents never went back, having had their initial impression of a ‘Brits Abroad’ Blackpool-on-Sea well and truly confirmed. To this day, my dad still can’t listen to Queen without shuddering.

It would’ve been easy for me to have followed their lead, and spent the rest of my life assuming that Tenerife was the kind of place you’d only go to if you were so desperate for some cheap winter sun that you didn’t really care where you ended up, as long as it was less than a 5 hour flight from Edinburgh. 

Over a decade later, we took a trip to Maspalomas and loved it so much we decided to give Tenerife another go. It was a bad winter, that year, and my husband, Terry, had managed to find a cheap deal online: what did we have to lose? Other than two weeks of our lives, obviously, and apparently the respect of our peers, all of whom seemed mildly amused that we were going to the Canaries, instead of taking a more “worthy” trip to somewhere cultured. “At least it’s not Lanzagrotty!” was the most positive comment we got, and so we set off that December armed with sunscreen and low expectations, fully expecting to spend the next two weeks surrounded by British pubs and drunken tourists.

Instead, we found a totally different island from the one I’d visited in the 90s. By which I mean, “It was exactly the same island, obviously,” it was just that this time, with the help of a hire car and a willingness to explore, we saw a totally different side to Tenerife – and we saw it without having to venture too far out of our comfort zone, either. I mean, let’s face it: if you’ve booked a cheap break to the Canary Islands, you’re probably looking for sunshine and convenience, aren’t you? You want to eat in nice restaurants and see some of the sights, but you don’t necessarily want to have to hike 15 miles through the mountains, just to be able to say you ate an “authentic” meal in an obscure restaurant which no tourist had previously ever set foot in. And, if you do, I’m going to respectfully pre-warn you that this is probably not the website for you.

NATURAL SIGHTS

Instead, this website is a quick guide to some of the places we most enjoy seeing when we visit Tenerife – which we now aim to do at least once per year. That first holiday as a couple, you see, turned out to be the first of many : we discovered, not only that Tenerife is, indeed, one of the few places you can reliably expect to find some winter sunshine after a short-haul flight from the UK, but that it’s also a very much under-rated holiday destination.

That last statement probably sounds a bit odd to you: Tenerife – and the Canary Islands in general – is, after all, one of the most popular holiday destinations in Europe. (Tenerife is part of the European Union, despite being located just off the coast of Africa) Thousands of British tourists visit the island every year, so it’s hardly an undiscovered gem, is it?

Well, no: it isn’t. Not in the slightest.

Despite its popularity, though, we’ve found that Tenerife is still somewhat looked down upon by some travellers. Most people we know, for instance, still don’t really understand what makes us keep going back there so often, or what there is to do there, other than lie by the pool for a few hours, before heading out to an Irish bar or British pub for the evening. This book, then, is an attempt to explain it: to tell you why we love Tenerife, and what we’d recommend you see while you’re there. It’s written from the point of view of ordinary holiday-makers, rather than seasoned travel writers, and is aimed at people just like us: young families or couples looking to make the most of their time in Tenerife, without having to go too far out of their way to do it.

And with all of that said, here are just some of the things we love to do and see in Tenerife…

MUSEUMS

FOOD DRINK AND GARDENS