The clouds were thickening and starting to spit rain as we made our slow way back, from a solid four-hour hike to and from the trail head of the Barranco del Infierno (Hell's Canyon) at the top of the town of Adeje in Tenerife after visiting the waterfall (a trickle really). The prize at the end was the very good Restaurant 'Otelo', fantastically situated on the edge of a cliff, offering great views of the entrance to the Barranco from its terrace and serving good food and drinks at amazingly cheap prices for this Canadian - a €1 for a British pint of beer; €5.50 for their garlic chicken dish.
Surprise, surprise, Tenerife won't break the bank!
The prices were the first surprise. The second was discovering that the island is home to spectacular landscapes: deep gorges, picturesque towns clinging to steep slopes, an arid south side, and a verdant north side; thick pine forests at higher elevations, and rare laurel forests in the rugged north-east corner - narrow, twisty roads not for the faint-hearted wind their way into this region for amazing viewpoints and Level 5 hikes.
Did I mention the weather? How could you not like a year-round sub-tropical temperature of 72-78°F, sunshine every single day (3000 hours of sunlight/year) and only eighteen days of rain a year. Every day is beach day, or hiking day, or discovery day, or sit-out-on-a-terrace day.
Best restaurants:
El Rincon de Juan Carlos in Los Gigantes, chef Juan Carlos was voted runner-up in the Best Chef in Spain competition of 2012; Restaurante Los Roques in Los Abrigos, overlooking the harbor, for seafood, try the palta!! In La Oratava, Restaurante Lucas Maes offers creative upper-end cuisine in a Canarian mansion with a leafy cocktail garden for pre-dinner drinks. In Icod de Los Vinos we had lunch at Tierra de Campos on the Plaza La Constitution, a scrumptious Rancho Canario soup starter, with Sardina a la Canaria, beer or soft drinks, bread (but no butter), and a postres, which translates roughly as 'dessert', which turned out to be either coffee or a Canarian banana (no joke) all for €9. However, the Canarian bananas are delicious, smaller than the Central American variety, with thicker skin, yellower flesh and really sweet. I guess they could pass for dessert.
Ahh, but for REAL local Canarian food seek out a 'guachinche'. You'll have to ask a local where to find a good one; these impermanent eateries open and close without notice as they are usually in someone's back yard, with maybe a cardboard sign pointing the way, but you can usually hear the salsa music from afar. The patrons are locals with a sprinkle of tourists, the menu is limited, by regulation, to three main courses and the wine is from the proprietor's vineyard. You can usually have all you can eat and drink for under €10. This is Tenerife dining for real travellers.
What is good Canarian food without Canarian wine? The Tenerife Wine Trail pamphlet, available at Information kiosks is a good start - a car is needed. Forget the well-known varietals of mainland Spain, here they grow Listán Negro, Negramoll, Tintilla and Prieto, the whites are Malvasia, Albillo, Sabro and Moscatel. The Malvasia creates a sweet dessert wine of great character. A nice easy-to-reach bodega (some are not) is Bodegas Insulares, in the La Orotava Valley, one of the larger ones on the island and has an inviting tasting room and a wide variety of mid-priced (and higher end) reds and whites. Or if you want to get an overview of various wineries, go for a tasting at Casa de los Reyes in Icod, right next to the Dragon (see below), or check out the Casa del Vino la Baranda in El Sauzal.
We stayed at the Santa Barbara Golf and Ocean Club in Golf del Sur close to the southern airport, and very pleased we were with our choice. They offer several excursions by bus around the island, all excellent, but the one we chose was a trip up to a high plateau of the volcano, El Teide, in the evening. El Teide is the second most visited park in the world, after Yellowstone, receiving 4 million visits a year. A four-course supper was included at the Reveron Bodega, a winery on the way, set in Vilaflor at 5200 ft up on the slopes of the volcano.
After the sun had set, we continued up to our stop for the most incredible views of the Milky Way. At 8000 feet altitude and absolutely no lights, the night sky was...add your over-the-top adjective.
Our resort was more on the arid south side of the island, but a short drive or bus would take you to the stretch of western coastline – 36 kilometers of beachfront stuffed with resorts, condos, shops galore, high-end chic and low-rent junk, beach-front bars, good restaurants and McDonalds, (you could get some ‘perritos calientes’ in several tiny places), boardwalks with callers enticing you to come into their shops, some in rather aggressive ways. The town of Los Cristianos was a nice blend of old-town/new-town – a pleasure to walk and take in the ambience. The port with catamaran ferries to other Canaries island was located here.
You figured out the perritos calientes, right? Hot Dogs made with local sausage and hot sauce, if you want it.
Then, there is the sightseeing:
Los Gigantes, a series of vertical cliffs, 1500 feet high, along the west coast are best viewed from the postcard picture Archipenque viewpoint high on the coast road from Las Americas. The small restaurant (with terrace) serves traditional Canarian food. Wind your way down to the black sand beach for another perspective. Have Irish Stew at an Irish pub in this very British town.
Visiting the Millenary Dragon and the Cave of the Winds in Icod de los Vinos on the north-west slopes of El Teide is a must. The Dragon tree is 800 years old, believed to be near the end of its tenure, and is a magnificent 60-foot tall specimen with a 70 foot crown, a 40 foot base and is the largest and oldest in the world. It can be seen from the plaza, or the Park can be entered (€3) to get close up and to also visit a garden with, young dragons, other native plants and a cave system that was a burial site for the Guanches, the aboriginal inhabitants of the Canaries. The Dragon Tree got its name from the thick red resin called ‘dragon’s blood’ that oozes from its bark, when cut.
The Cave of the Wind is a lava tube, one of only a few in the world, created during previous eruptions; a labyrinthine complex of passages covering over 10 miles. Parking is at the visitor's centre (€15 entrance fee) - a car is needed to get there - then we were taken on a mini-bus to the cave entrance. Tours are led at 10:00, 11:00, 13:00 and 14:00 and about 500 feet of the tunnels are explorable with the help of a guide. Warm clothing is a must - helmets and head-lamps are provided. Icod itself is very much worth a visit containing museums, several churches, ex-convents and hermitages - two days could easily be spent exploring the town and vicinity.
El Teide National Park, World Heritage Site - If you have a car, you must drive to the plateau of the El Teide volcano via the TF-24 road. You'll get to the Chipeque viewpoint, one of the most spectacular views to be seen on the island. Located at 5400 feet of altitude, it offers views of the Orotava valley to the north, and standing tall in the background, ringed by its clouds, El Teide dominates the picture. Can you say 'selfie'?
Masca – OK, just a little town high in the northwestern mountains, but set on the side of the Masca Gorge, spectacular eerie scenery with scattered clouds above and below you. Just one little problem – the road to get there is – ummm – interesting – not for the vertically challenged driver, narrow, twisty switch-backs with just some stone blocks at the side of the road. At least, it’s well paved.
There is no lack of things to do in Tenerife: take in a fiesta.
Every month one or more of the island's town holds a romeria (fiesta). Spanish traditions are alive and well and the calendar is full of celebrations of this or that saint's life. It's also an occasion to party. In the larger towns like Garachico , there is traditional music and dancing á la bailes de magos or peasant dances... and, of course, Tenerifans insist that their Carnaval in February is the very best. Every night during the festival, tens of thousands are out on the streets in Santa Cruz in all types of extravagant costumes. If you happen to be at the right place on the right day (usually the last day of Carnaval), you can see the ritual Burning of the Sardine, an early spring celebration held all over Spain with roots in pagan traditions: burying the winter and celebrating the coming of spring.
We visited the week-long Pinolere Craft Fair in Orotava, held every September. Set on the slopes of Teide, a car is needed to get there up steep, narrow streets to the flat parking/fairground area, and after a couple of missed turning we finally got there. Like most such fairs, you can sample local handicrafts, wines, cheeses, watch a hand-cranked wood lathe or a smithy in action, and try the local fast food, which we did.
Major family attractions:
Loro Parque (Parrot Park) in Puerto de la Cruz.
This is really a zoo by any other name, but the main attractions are the parrots, over 4000 of them, the largest collection in the world and makes the park a natural for the study and conservation of these animals. However, Loro Parque has lots more to offer kids and adults: aquaria with sharks, piranhas, and more, pelicans, flamingos, giant tortoises jaguars, tigers, and on and on. The attraction is rated #1 on Tenerife by TripAdvisor.
Siam Park in Costa Adeje is right in the middle of the tourist jungle and lives up to its reputation as the most spectacular water park in Europe. Built around a Thai motif, it offers adrenaline-rush water slides, a lazy tubing river that passes under a huge shark-filled aquarium, an immense wave pool suitable for surfing, a floating market, restaurants and other attractions. Great fun!
Beaches? You want beaches? There over three dozen of them scattered around the island, from black rocky basalt, to fine brown sandy ones in the Las Americas region to our favourite, the golden sand beach of Las Teresitas just north of Santa Cruz. Palm and grape trees abound, so you don't have to rent loungers and umbrellas like at Las Americas at €10 a day.
Memorable towns:
Playa Roque de las Bodegas: stunningly set beach, hard to reach; Garachico: natural swimming pools; Masca: by car or a strenuous trek, Los Realejos: last stand of the Guanches; Chinamada: aboriginal caves, hikes; La Laguna - large university town with a nice old section and a lively night scene - a World Heritage site. The old cobble-stoned section has a number of small squares, full of outdoor cafés and eateries and tony boutiques. You can buy yourself a delish baguette at a panaderia for €1 that puts the French to shame. Worth a visit.
Worth a visit all right! Surprising Tenerife - hardly scratched the surface.
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