Our Week in Tenerife

April 30th, 2018

Path in Puerto de la Cruz

As you saw from my previous posts, we have just arrived back in Paris from a week-long trip in Tenerife, the largest of the Canary Islands.  As you may know, the French school calendar affords the students four generous breaks over the course of the year, two weeks each, and we have taken advantage of those, plus the flexibility that Glenn and I have being on sabbatical, to travel to some pretty interesting places.  In the fall we went to Morocco.  At Christmas we stayed put to welcome many visitors.  In the winter we went to Sweden.  For the fourth vacation, Glenn expressed a desire for sun.  I suggested Israel, but Kate demurred, afraid of too much culture and history and not enough sun and sand.  She suggested the Canary Islands.  

The shore in Puerto de la Cruz

We chose Tenerife, mostly because it was the easiest of the Islands to access, with two airports served by lots of airlines.  It really was not what I expected.  I think I was anticipating a sanitized, modernized, big-resorts-on-the-beach kind of experience.  I tried to avoid that sort of thing when booking the hotels, and we experienced something very different as a result. 

View from our hotel in Puerto de la Cruz

We started our week in Puerto de la Cruz, a rather large city.  It was touristy, but not dominated with big resorts, perhaps because the weather tends to be cloudy and the beaches are rocky.  As a result, I felt like we got a bit of the taste of a more authentic Tenerife there. We were, however, staying at a fancy spa hotel, so the authenticity only extended so far.  We had three spectacular dinners there, all at different restaurants on the same street, Calle San Felipe, a few blocks away from the main tourist area.  Even the best restaurants in Tenerife were very reasonably priced---the three of us could eat and drink like royalty for 100 euros total!  Highlights included squid ink pasta with shrimp and herbs, the freshest, sweetest melon with shaved Serrano ham, and a cod confit with Canary-style fried potatoes, all accompanied by the local Canary wines. 

On our wet hike---we were freezing so Kate and I bought fleeces

On the first full day, we hiked in a very damp rain-foresty area a short drive away.  The hike was lovely, but we got pretty wet during a downpour at the end.   Part of a day was also spent in La Laguna, where we saw an interesting museum housing the works of Cristino de Vera, one of Tenerife's most well-respected artists.  I liked his work, and I feel it's always instructive to see a body of work by the same artist at the same time.  I took several photos, so I will devote the next post to that.  

On our descent to the black sand beach

Glenn and Kate on the path

Kate on the beach

The next afternoon we spent at an isolated black sand beach nearby that could only be accessed by a treacherous drive followed by a half-hour hike down steep cliffs ringing the beach.  The waves were too strong for swimming (and the temperature was too cold, anyway), but the beach was beautiful.  

We then moved to the beautiful, historic Garachico for one night.  It is a small town right on the water that has maintained its scale and charm from centuries ago.  Just walking the streets was great (driving them, less so).  We stayed in a beautiful hotel called La Quinta Roja that was on the main town square and had been the residence of local aristocrats.  It was lavish without being the slightest bit garish, beautifully restored and decorated with local antiques. 

Garachico's town square---view from our hotel

Our hotel courtyard

I loved this table in our hotel

Garachico street scene

On top of El Tiede

Our final destination was a rustic spa hotel in the mountains near El Tiede, the huge volcano that serves as the center and highest point of Tenerife.  (It is, in fact, the highest point in all of Spain, topping 12,000 feet above sea level.)  On our way there, we drove to the base camp of El Tiede and then took a cable car to a spot a couple hundred feet below the summit.  We were too late to obtain the necessary permits to actually hike to the summit, but we did a short hike going about 90 degrees around the mountain.  The views were spectacular, and the volcanic terrain was otherworldly.  And look how blue the sky is. 

Our stay at the mountain spa was relaxing and therapeutic.  We all took advantage of the multiple saunas, Turkish bath, hot tub, swimming pool, and cold dipping pool. 

Harbour in Puerto Colon

Whale we saw from our boat

On our final full day there, we drove from the mountain down to Puerto Colon.  There we experienced the huge-resorts-on-the-beach and lots-of-sunburned-British-tourists vibe.  I am glad we managed to mostly avoid it, but we did end up doing something very fun there:  we took a cruise in a glass-bottomed catamaran out into the Atlantic in search of dolphins and whales.  We saw many of each.    

Our main impression of Tenerife was the remarkable diversity---in terms of climate, geography, terrain, culture, and other dimensions as well.  I feel like we experienced so much in one week.  Finally, we were all impressed with the quality of the food, compared with Paris, and were surprised by that.  I don't want to complain about Parisian food, really, but we just seem to have an easier time finding a really spectacular meal as soon as we leave.