The Mini Rough Guide to Tenerife (Travel Guide eBook)

Rough Guides

• Publisher: Rough Guides
• Year: 2022
• Print ISBN: 9781839057649
• eBook ISBN: 9781839052439
• Edition: 1
• Topic: Personal Development
• Subtopic: Travel

This pocket-sized guide is a convenient, quick-reference companion to discovering what to do, what to see and how to get around Tenerife. It covers top attractions like Spain's tallest mountain El Teide, the majestic Castillo San Miguel and the Unesco-listed San Cristóbal de la Laguna, as well as hidden gems, including whale-watching trips from Puerto Colón and the steep hike down the dramatically located village of Masca. This will save you time, and enhance your exploration of this fascinating island. This title has been fully updated post-COVID-19.

This Mini Rough Guide to Tenerife covers: The northeast, the north coast, El Teide, the northwest, and the south.

In this travel guide you will find:

RECOMMENDATIONS FOR EVERY TYPE OF TRAVELLER
Experiences selected for every kind of trip to Tenerife, from cultural explorations to family activities in child-friendly places.

TOP TEN ATTRACTIONS
Covers the destination's top ten attractions not to miss and a Perfect Day/Tour itinerary suggestions.

COMPACT FORMAT
Compact, concise, and packed with essential information, with a sharp design and colour-coded sections, this is the perfect on-the-move companion when you're exploring  Tenerife.

HISTORICAL AND CULTURAL INSIGHTS
Includes an insightful overview of landscape, history and culture.

WHAT TO DO
Detailed description of entertainment, shopping, nightlife, festivals and events, and children's activities.

PRACTICAL MAPS
Handy colour maps on the inside cover flaps will help you find your way around.

PRACTICAL TRAVEL INFORMATION
Practical information on eating out, including a handy glossary and detailed restaurant listings, as well as a comprehensive A-Z of travel tips on everything from getting around to health and tourist information.

STRIKING PICTURES
Inspirational colour photography throughout.

Out and About

Tenerife is not large and as a result, it is easy to make forays from any base. Nowhere is far away, as cruise-ship passengers discover when, docking in Santa Cruz with just four hours ashore, they find they have enough time for a coach to take them to the top of El Teide and back, stopping off at La Orotava for some souvenirs, or even to hire a car and make their own way to the cable car to reach the summit.

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Playa de las Teresitas, with Santa Cruz in the distance

For much of the island, however, you don’t need a car. Buses are regular and inexpensive. From the capital, Santa Cruz, you can have a day out on the opposite coast in Puerto de la Cruz, the north coast resort, stopping off at the unesco World Heritage Site of San Cristóbal de La Laguna, with enough time to enjoy both places at leisure and return later in the day. You can also make day trips to these places from Los Cristianos and Playa de las Américas in the south. A hire car of course adds convenience and allows you to stop to photograph a view, inspect the flowers, or take advantage of signs of honey or wine for sale.

The descriptions that follow start in Santa Cruz and continue anti-clockwise around the island.

The northeast

Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Tenerife’s capital, principal port and most vibrant town is on the northeastern arm of the island, facing southwest and looking towards Gran Canaria, its rival, an hour’s jet-foil ferry trip away. Santa Cruz de Tenerife 1 [map] doesn’t have a real heart, a municipal or cathedral square; instead the main action takes place on the pedestrianised streets and squares leading up from the port, and on the Rambla that sweeps round the top of the town. Good for shops, restaurants and nightlife, Santa Cruz is also the cultural hub of Tenerife.

The extensive waterfront area reaches its apex at Plaza de España A [map] ; to the southwest are the container ports and the industrial zone, to the northeast the jacaranda-lined Avenida de Anaga passes beside the ferry port and yachting harbour. The square has undergone a complete transformation by the innovative Swiss architects Herzog and de Meuron. The new focal point is a huge circular wading pool with a geyser-like fountain in the centre, accompanied by trees. The former heart of the square, the Monumento a los Caídos, dedicated to the fallen Nationalists in the Civil War, has been integrated into the new design.

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The Cabildo Insular and post office on Plaza de España

The Art Deco buildings at the southern end of the square are the post office headquarters, the Cabildo Insular, containing government offices and the main tourist office.

Record carnival

Santa Cruz entered the Guinness World Records when a record crowd of a quarter of a million filled the Plaza de España for the 1987 carnival. The Tenerife carnival is one of the biggest in Europe.

Shopping area

Running up from the Plaza de España is Plaza Candelaria, where a statue of the island’s patron dates from 1772. This is the start of the main pedestrianised area and the pavement cafés are a popular meeting place. Calle del Castillo B [map] , the principal shopping street, heads inland past the Parlamento de Canarias (guided tours usually take place every Sat 10am–2pm, but are suspended at the time of writing), on the right. The 1898 neoclassical building, designed by Antonio Pintor, has been augmented to include the buildings fronting Castillo, with a green metal construction on its upper floors. Calle del Castillo ends at Plaza del General Weyler, where the white marble La Fuente (The Fountain) by Achille Canessa is overlooked by the Capitanía General, the islands’ military headquarters. This is where Franco was stationed when he started the Civil War.

On the north side of Calle del Castillo is the Plaza del Principe, one of the town’s most pleasant squares. On the square’s southeast side, near the Circulo de Amistad, is the Museo Municipal de Bellas Artes C [map] (Tue–Fri 10am–8pm, Oct–Jun Sat–Sun 10am–3pm; free). The front of the building has busts of poets, philosophers and musicians. Inside is a library and, on the first and second floors, a gallery of 16th- to 20th-century paintings. These include a panoramic picture of the foundation of Santa Cruz by Alonso de Lugo in 1494, two years after he had taken the island, and among portraits of local aristocracy is one of the French consul and botanist Sabin Berthelot, who did so much for the island’s plant life.

Behind the museum is the Iglesia de San Francisco, founded in 1680 and part of a former convent where concerts sometimes take place.

The oldest church

Eight years after Santa Cruz was founded, the town’s first chapel was built where the city’s main church, Nuestra Señora de la Concepción D [map] , stands today, just to the southwest of the Cabildo Insular. The cross that de Lugo brought ashore is among its treasures. In 1652 the church was rebuilt after a fire, its octagonal tower acting as a look-out point. The lovely balcony on its exterior, a feature of church architecture throughout the island, gives its southwest front a domestic appearance. Inside, the space is cool and impressive, and the beautiful coffered mudéjar-style ceiling is also typical of the island.

In the streets around the church are some of the oldest buildings in Santa Cruz and they have been attractively maintained in warm earth colours. Stop for a drink in Bámbola (Mon–Thu 6pm–midnight, Fri–Sun until 1am). This area comes alive at night, with busy cafés and bars open until the early hours. Where Calle Dominguez Alfonso meets Puente General Serrador there is a small square where evening concerts are held.

If you are strolling here in the evening, you may be lucky to chance on street theatre where the actors use the doors and balconies of the houses in their performances. Nearby is the Teatro Guimerá (www.teatroguimera.es), named after the playwright Ángel Guimerá, who was born in Santa Cruz in 1849, and made his name in Barcelona with Terra Baixa in 1896. It also features concerts and dance performances. Not far, on Calle Clavel 10, is yet another cultural centre – Equipo Para (www.equipopara.org) – a meeting place for artists and intellectuals as well as a concert, workshop and exhibition venue with the benefit of a small bar.

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The façade of the Teatro Guimerá

Across the Barranco

From Nuestra Señora de la Concepción a bridge crosses a barranco (dry river bed) to the former town hospital, now the Museo de la Naturaleza y el Hombre E [map] (Mon–Sat 9am–7pm, Sun 10am–5pm; www.museosdetenerife.org). As the name implies, all island life is here, and this is a good starting point for understanding Tenerife’s geographical and historical aspects. Set out on three floors around two courtyards, it swarms with schoolchildren in term-time, but is large enough to allow you to browse in peace. The island’s flora and fauna are fully explained, as is its geology, with descriptions of winds, currents and volcanoes. Man features early on, with mummified Guanches, and displays show how the indigenous population lived. At the end is a café and an excellent bookshop.

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The Auditorio, home of the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra

Just west of the museum is the Tenerife Espacio de las Artes (tea; www.teatenerife.es) designed by Swiss architects duo Herzog and de Meuron. This huge new multi-functional exhibition centre, along with the auditorium has given the ...

Table of contents

• 10 Things Not To Miss
• A Perfect Day in Tenerife
• Overview
• History and Culture
• Out and About
• Things To Do
• Food and Drink
• Where To Eat
• A–Z Travel Tips
• Where To Stay