Hi,

I’m off to Tenerife next week with the family (8 & 10 years).

We always hire a car now to avoid having to wait around for public transport.

We are staying near Los Cristianos, looking for recommendations of places that are worth a visit, any quiet beaches worth a drive to, villages / places worth a visit, places to snorkel?

Trying to make the most of having the car really.

(I’ve got a bike booked for the day to ride up Teide, might drive the family up their too if they are interested!)

The medieval night is worth an evening out https://medievaladventure.com

I’ve been out to Tenerife more times than I can remember so…..

If its open, the cable car up to the top of Teide is a good experience. Equally if you’re feeling more adventurous (and I thoroughly recommend the effort) you can walk up and cable car it back down. Just make sure the cable car IS running as I can speak from experience its a bloody long way up and back. Not a massively steep walk, but it kicks u towards the end, and you definitely notice the lack of oxygen if coming from sea level.
Its a fairly bizarre landscape up there so even if you don’t go all the way to the top make sure you pull over and have a walk on the surface of the moon. Also look out for the pine trees which deposits bigger-than-fist sized pine cones.

The road to Masca (brilliant drive), and the walk down the gorge is always well worth it. Logistics take a bit of care; drive to Los Gigantes, find tour operator or local bus to take you to Masca village, walk down the gorge and paddle in the sea before getting a boat back to Gigantes. When we’re taken friends out this is often billed as the ‘highlight’ of the trip.

If in Gigantes and you fancy a cheese-fest nautical experience, the boat trips out to see dolphins and whales are a good enough laugh, if slightly over touristy. Again, I’ve not been out to the island for years, but the Flipper Uno us a large mock pirate ship which (whilst playing Pirates of the Caribbean music) does some basic food and a chance to swim in the sea over lunch, its effectively a 2/3 day trip though. There are also more rapid boats (think speedboat) which do the run in a lot less time. Chance of seeing dolphins, good. Chance of being intensely annoyed by hoards of other tourists, also good!

Another walk, which I haven’t done in years due to the Spanish authorities making it virtually impossible, is Barranco Del Inferno. Its a nature reserve and they limit tickets per day, also the path has a habit of just being closed for no reason so don’t guarantee anything. But you walk along a vibrant, lush gorge up to an impressively high waterfall.

The main water park is a great day out, but try and get in early and avoid the height of the queues and sun.
Loro Parque (up near Santa Cruz) is a pretty good zoo-cum-seaworld place, but I’d not prioritise it personally.

Snorkelling, if you want to try and find turtles then El Purtito (on costa adeje) is the place to go. Sandy bottom bay, so visibility can be very variable/poor in the surf zone but once out over it normally clears well. They used to/may still release turtles caught in fishing nets in the bay so there always used to be a very good chance of seeing them.
Ive not snorkelled in Tenerife (apart from as a means to get out to a scuba dive site) but the whole coast is littered with little (normally stony) bays with an abundance of sea life. Multitudes of little fish (Bream, Trumpet Fish, Moray eels (evil looking buggers!) Wrasse, Damselfish etc are all common. Atlantic Rays are a common, but not inevitable, sight, as are Barracuda (but they tend to be a depth so more of a scuba sighting.

Garachico is another funny place, used to be a major sea port in the 16thC until the harbour and half the town were wiped out as lava rain down from an eruption, filling them both in. There is a natural swimming poor in the lava flow which the kids may like.

If you’ve not been out to Tenerife before, and get a bit bored of sunshine in the south, you can drive over the spine of the island and enter a considerably greener country.

If your self catering pop into the Mercadona supermarket just off the motorway at the Golf Del Sur junction (which will be between you and the junction for Christianos). Its SOOOOO much cheaper and better stocked than anything in Christianos itself.

Hope that helps, and have a good time.

My wife and I, and our 1yr old daughter are going out there too in November.

We were there last year, we went to Tiede and it was well worth the trip but you should book it in advance online. We arrived at a packed car park and there were loads of people walking back to their cars when they found out it was fully booked. It might not be so bad late season but worth bearing in mind.

We were there in February & stayed in Costa Adeji. The road up to Tiede was closed due to snow! Also, annoyingly, a Calima came in & stayed for all the 2nd week, giving a visibility of about a mile.
So we couldn’t get up the mountain which means we’ll have to go back.

They also close the cable car if there’s even one speck of snow on the mountain top, really annoying on our November visit as it was lovely, sunny & warm at the base station!

The big water park is awesome fun. If you can wangle a 2nd day on the bike, Lavatrax will pick you up & you can ride down Teide.

Next to our hotel in LC was the Passarela Oasis Shopping Center, on the roof there were loads of street-food stalls & the only bar we found selling decent (craft) beer with the occasional band on. Don’t normally do “beach” holidays but really enjoyed Tenerife as there’s other stuff to do too, would definitely go back. (In the off-season, would be way too hot in the summer!)

Siam Park. It would be madness to go to tenerife with the kids and not do Siam Park!

Yes the trip up Teide is well worth it, but I also found all the volcanic area up on the top that Teide pokes up out of equally fascinating. Wish we had spent more time walking the various trails through it.

Siam park is bonkers. Fun and terrifying in equal measures!

Thanks for the replies, and sorry for my late gratitude.

Had a great week.

Did Siam (twice) as had inclusive tickets with our hotel.

Did a boat trip (Mustcat) which was great, saw dolphins and pilot whales.

Snorkelled at yellow mountain at low tide on recommendation from one of the boat trip crew, going in by the nudist beach, twice, saw most of the fish you mentioned (no barracuda or turtles) and found lots of sea urchin shells which my daughters loved.

I cycled up Teide (again) but only got to the highest road point this year before turning and rolling 22 miles back. Asked the family if they wanted to go and see it but they chose extra pool time instead.

Had a go on a banana boat at Fanabe, lesson is to tell the driver not to go easy on your kids, because he did and it was fairly boring.

It’s getting into the breezy season now in Tenerife so nip down to El Medano to marvel at the windsurfers. We went a few years back in November and there were days when the hire centres were refusing people like me “Solo locales y professionales!”. It was good to watch and frankly I was relieved they wouldn’t let me out.

We are going thé week after next. We are staying in Granadilla de abona.
Could you recommend bike hire places ? Is road or mtb better ?

I have used these guys twice now:

Home

Easy drop off and collection from my hotel. Was e35 for one day, dropped off the night before so can get out early. I’m more of a roadie and wanted to ride up Teide, so have done that twice, which is great, 3 hours of constant gradient from Los Cristianos. There is MTB on the island, but I know nothing about it tbh.

Thanks, Will check it out.