Got a family holiday in Tenerife coming up in October. We’re there for the week so I’ve scope to do a fair bit of riding. Question is, should I take the mountain bike and hook up with Lavatrax, or get some road miles in for the fitness training??

Take road bike for the week and hire a mtb for a day with Lavatrax

+1 what he said.

Mmm a ride from sea level to 3000m in the sun on the road. The descent will be a blast though.

That sounds like a good plan, Tenerife is bloody great for road biking, however its very hilly and you’d need to be in good shape to actually be able to ride for that length of time.

Hmmm, wife is suggesting Canaries rather than Majorca for Easter hols next year.

Any bits of Tenerife particularly good for road riding? It’s fairly big innit?

I’ve stayed in Los Christianos three times, its ever so slightly less touristy than Playa de las Americas next door and has good, all be it hilly, access to the some excellent riding.

All depends on where you stay – AVOID Los Gigantes unless you are a Masochist….
Los Cristianos is ok – but still “touristy”
Costa Del Silencio is very quiet with good roads leading out to hillier stuff
Either of the East “Golf’s”
The “new” Golf (Adeje) will be noisier and access to good roads not as easy.
If you want quiet and access to roads AND trails then seriously look around San Miguel, Granadilla, El Roque, Valle San Lorenzo – you’ll get a private house, pool, etc for the price of an apartment elsewhere.
Any questions – just ask – lived in that area for 12yrs.

Wife’s found somewhere she likes at La Caleta, north end of Costa Adeje I think.

Looks like some big hills nearby with roads switchbacking up them, or perhaps they’d be dirt roads?

La Caleta is on the west side of Las Americas – a lot more built up now than previously.
They’ll be a mixture but yes there are some big, big hills there that’ll take you all the way to Teidé if you want past Guiá de Isora and on to the Llano de Ucanca – prepare to suffer – A LOT….

I stayed in Los Cristianos last year and did 2 weeks of biking with lavatrax. Was amazing. Cant wait to go back. 30mile long downhill runs starting at well over 2000ft. **** the road bike! Darren picks you up in the morning and you drive uphill for well over an hour. Up through lava fields and forest, past a massive volcano. The scenery up there is fantastic. In the morning you are well above cloud height before you set off. Making me want to book flights just now actually

I just got back after spending last week out there. I briefly toyed with taking the road bike, but I’m so glad I didn’t, the mountain biking out there is amazing! We saw plenty of roadies out there, but tbh the climb up to the top is so long I’d have got bored of the challenge before I was even a quarter way up.

I went unguided but did a bit of research and found a few routes using maps and the strava heatmap. I got dropped off in a layby just north of Las Lajas and rode back down to the villa in Calleo Salvaje by a few different routes; 2300m of descending, just outstanding! Those routes even start with a couple of hundred vertical metres of fireroad but it doesn’t even matter because there’s so much still left…

There’s a lot of variety, there’s a far amount of fairly normal but fun singletrack, loads of slickrock, and some amazingly technical rocky descents that go on for simply ages.

It wasn’t a biking specific holiday, I only took a bike on a whim, but I really want to go back and do more now!