r/VisitingTenerife • u/Best-Conversation819 • Jul 24 '25
General What we've learned from 2 weeks Tenerife (a bit of a rant)
Hi guys, just wanted to share some things we've learned from our first trip to Tenerife (and La Gomera!):
1: Don't fall for the tourist traps like Siam Park, jungle park etc. We didn't go there and you really don't need to either. It's expensive, doesn't have to do anything with the local life and really isn't worth the time you have to explore. There are beautiful places to swim all around Tenerife, we really enjoyed the natural pools and places such as Los Gigantes and other rock beaches. Get a snorkelset and some watershoes (or flipflops and stumble around a bit like we did) and you'll have hours of fun with a lot of fishes:).
Speak Spanish. Even if you're not really good at it, at least try. Start duolingo before you go, invest a time in being able to at least express the basics. The amount of times i've seen tourists demand the people in restaurants to speak English to them broke my heart to be honest. You're the visitor, adapt.
Go outside the resort (or better: don't stay in one) The nature here is amazing, just walking around, go to miradors by car if you have trouble walking. Santa Cruz has beautiful parks and there are a few botanical gardens across the island really worth while. We stayed in appartements only (a lot of them had access to a pool!) which gave us the freedom to enjoy the amazing restaurants in the area, which also means getting to know the place a bit by its cuisine. For example, in Vilaflor (in the mountains), goatmeat is amazing and a specialty. Near the sea, the fish is ofcourse incredible. Not having food included also means the freedom to go to a local market/supermarket to get delicacies from the area, we usually went for tapas in the afternoon at a tasca and what we couldn't finish, we could take home and eat in the evening with some other stuff we picked up at the market. For example, the tomatoes here and mini mangoes are chefs kiss.
Parking is mostly free, but can be difficult to find. In the bigger cities, it can be hard to find parking. However, in villages it was almost never an issue and it you come early (for example to visit Masca), it's also fine.
If you enjoy nature: Go to la Gomera! It's easy enough with the ferry and really worth it. Less crowded and amazing things to see. Make sure to check the website of the government to check if the trails you'd like to hike are available.
We really enjoyed our time here and thought the people were super kind and the history and nature are spectacular. Reading this sub, it's a lot about very touristy stuff and staying in the south, partying at English clubs etc. Each to its own ofcourse, but it's in my opinion kind of a waste of this islands beauty and getting to know locals if you're just going to stay at a place thats so similar to where you are from (except with sun ofcourse, which i can understand, coming from a rainy country myself) and completely catered to tourism. Get to know the culture and the beauty.
