The Complete Tenerife Travel Guide for 2026: Volcano, Beaches, and the Two Tenerifes
Tenerife is two islands wearing one passport. There's the sunny southwest — Costa Adeje, golden sand, poolside cocktails, 26°C in February. And there's the green, misty north — laurel cloud-forests, black volcanic beaches, colonial towns where students drink €2 wine. Above it all sits , Spain's highest peak at 3,718 m and the volcanic crown of the , a UNESCO World Heritage Site since 2007 and a crater landscape so otherworldly that film crews use it to fake Mars.
Most visitors see one of these Tenerifes and call it the island. Don't be most visitors. This guide walks you through the whole thing — the practical machinery of getting there, basing yourself, eating well, and not freezing on a volcano in your flip-flops.
Best time to visit
They call this the island of eternal spring, and the marketing is, for once, accurate. The climate sits subtropical and stable year-round. The sunny south runs 20-28°C; the cloud-catching north stays cooler and greener.
Spring (March-May) and autumn (October-November) are the sweet spots — warm, quieter, and the laurel forests are at their lushest.
Winter (December-February) is the island's secret. While northern Europe shivers, the south sits at a swimmable 20-22°C. Teide can wear snow, which makes the summit photos absurd in the best way.
Summer (June-August) is hottest and busiest, especially with charter crowds. Book accommodation early.
One quirk worth knowing: the north and south can have completely different weather on the same day. A grey, drizzly Puerto de la Cruz morning can be a cloudless Costa Adeje afternoon a 90-minute drive away.
Getting there
Tenerife has two airports, and picking the wrong one costs you an hour.
Tenerife South (TFS) handles most international and charter flights. It sits about 20 km from the southern resort belt — a taxi to Costa Adeje runs €35-45 (about $38-49), or take TITSA bus line 111 or 343 if you're travelling light.
Tenerife North (TFN) handles inter-island hops and mainland Spain routes. It's near La Laguna and Santa Cruz, so it's the smarter arrival point if you're basing in the north.
Flying in from the US usually means a connection through Madrid (TFN) or a direct charter to TFS in season. From the UK and Germany, direct flights to TFS are plentiful and cheap.
Hire-car desks sit right at TFS arrivals. Rent a car. This is the single best piece of advice in the guide. Teide, Masca, and the Anaga forest are all inland, and the island's best scenery hides where the buses don't go. Rates are cheap by European standards. If you'd rather not drive, the green TITSA guagua (the local word for bus, pronounced "wah-wah") network is reliable, and a Ten+ travel card discounts every fare. Load Google Maps for routes — it reads the TITSA timetable accurately.
Where to stay
Your base shapes your whole trip. Four broad choices:
Costa Adeje (southwest). The upmarket resort heart. Golden-sand beaches like Playa del Duque, smart hotels, Siam Park up the hill, and the easiest launchpad for Teide, Los Gigantes, and whale-watching. Best for first-timers, families, and sun-seekers.
Puerto de la Cruz (north). Atmospheric, historic, and unmistakably Spanish. Black volcanic sand at Playa Jardín, the César Manrique-designed Lago Martiánez seawater lido (~€5.50 / $6), and a real town that exists beyond tourism. Base here if you want the green north and the Anaga forest on your doorstep.
Santa Cruz / La Laguna (northeast). The capital and the UNESCO old town. City energy, tapas, culture, and zero resort gloss. Good for travellers who'd rather feel like they're in Spain than in a holiday brochure.
El Médano (south). Windsurf and kitesurf central, a long natural beach, a bohemian seafront, and TFS barely 10-15 minutes away. Perfect for active travellers and convenient last nights.
Pro move: split your stay. A week in Costa Adeje plus a few nights in Puerto de la Cruz cuts out the daily 1.5-hour drives between the two Tenerifes and lets you slow down.
What to do
The headline is Teide National Park — the first of our ten unmissable things to do in Tenerife. Drive the TF-21 up through pine forest into the crater (leave by 8 AM to beat the cloud sea), ride the Teleférico cable car to 3,555 m in eight minutes — around €40 (about $43) return, booked online — and walk the easy 3.6 km Roques de García loop past the iconic Roque Cinchado. Park entry is free.
Beyond the volcano: the Masca village and gorge in the Teno mountains, the 600 m basalt sea cliffs at Los Gigantes, whale-watching among resident pilot whales and dolphins (€25-40 / $27-43), the laurisilva cloud-forest of Anaga Rural Park, the UNESCO streets of La Laguna, the lava rock pools of Garachico, and the palm-fringed golden crescent of Playa de las Teresitas near Santa Cruz. Families: Siam Park (€42 / $45) is regularly voted the world's best water park, and Loro Parque (~€42) draws the animal-park crowd — though the wild volcanic interior, which we map out in our Tenerife volcano and stargazing guide, is where the island gets truly memorable.
Food and drink
Canarian cooking is simple, salty, and built around what the volcanic soil and Atlantic give it. Order these:
Papas arrugadas con mojo — small potatoes boiled in heavily salted water until the skins wrinkle, served with two sauces: green mojo verde (coriander, garlic) and red mojo rojo (paprika, chilli). The island on a plate.
Gofio — toasted milled grain, woven into everything from soups to desserts. Ancient, distinctive, and worth trying once.
Fresh fish — grilled vieja (parrotfish) or sama, ideally on a harbour terrace in Los Gigantes or La Caleta.
Local wine — Listán Blanco and volcanic-soil reds from the Tacoronte-Acentejo and Valle de la Orotava regions. A glass runs €2-3 in a La Laguna tapas bar.
Barraquito — the local layered coffee with condensed milk and Licor 43. Order one on your last morning.
Skip the all-inclusive buffet for at least a few dinners and walk to a guachinche — a tiny, family-run rural eatery serving homemade stew and barrel wine at rock-bottom prices. They're concentrated in the north around the wine valleys.
Budget
Tenerife flexes to your wallet. The Canaries sit outside the EU VAT zone (a lower local IGIC tax applies), so wine, sunscreen, and electronics are cheaper than on the Spanish mainland.
Budget: €60-90 ($65-97) a day — guesthouse, supermarket breakfasts, buses, free hikes.
Mid-range: €120-180 ($130-195) a day — a comfortable hotel, hire car, a couple of paid attractions.
Tenerife rates Generally Safe (Level 1). Crime is low. Watch for pickpockets in busy resort areas and keep an eye on valuables on the beach. Two real hazards catch tourists out: the volcano is cold — the summit area runs 15-20°C colder than the coast, windy, sometimes snowy, so pack a proper jacket even in August. And the Atlantic sun is fierce — use high-SPF sunscreen year-round, and respect the strong currents and undertow on exposed northern beaches.
Book the Teide summit permit weeks ahead at reservasparquesnacionales.es. Daily numbers are capped, and crowds of tourists reach the cable-car top only to find they can't legally walk the final stretch to the 3,718 m crater. It's free. Plan ahead.
Useful Spanish phrases
English and German are common in resorts, but a little Spanish earns you warmer service:
Hola / Buenos días — Hello / Good morning
Por favor / Gracias — Please / Thank you
Una caña, por favor — A small beer, please
La cuenta, por favor — The bill, please
¿Dónde está…? — Where is…?
Una guagua — A bus (you'll need this one)
Fly into the right airport. Rent the car. Book the permit. Eat the papas. Tenerife rewards the traveller who plans just enough — and then lets the island do the rest.
