Attractions
Top attractions in Tenerife
Can’t decide how to spend your time in Tenerife? Start with this list of the most popular attractions to get started planning your trip.
Tourism is more prevalent in the south of the island, which is hotter and drier and has many well developed resorts such as Playa de las Americas and Los Cristianos. More recently coastal development has spread northwards from Playa de las Americas and now encompasses the former small enclave of La Caleta. After the Moratoria act passed by the Canarian Parliament in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, no more hotels should be built on the island unless they are classified as 5 star-quality and comprise different services such as Golf Courses or Congress facilities. This act was passed with the goal of improving the standard of tourism service and promoting environmentally conscious development.
Playa De Las Americas. Photo by Michel S
The area known as Costa Adeje (Las Américas-Los Cristianos) comprises many world-class facilities and leisure opportunities besides sea and sand, such as quality shopping centres, golf courses (9 in the island), restaurants, waterparks, animal parks, and a theatre suitable for musicals or a Congress Hall, all in a very characteristic Las Vegas-like aesthetic. In the more lush and green north of the island the main development for tourism has been in the town of Puerto de la Cruz. The town itself has kept some of its old-harbour town charm mixed with northern European influences. Still, the tourist boom in the 60’s changed the outlook of the town, making it cosy and cosmopolitan at the same time, and a favourite for the more mature traveller (notably the German and Spanish tourist).
Photo by Michel S
Playa De La Arena is a resort town located just south of the resorts of Los Gigantes and Puerto Santiago in the Santiago del Teide municipality on the West Coast of Tenerife. Close to Los Gigantes, the giant cliffs of the resort can be seen from across Playa De La Arena. The resort has many restaurants, bars and shops aimed mainly at tourists. Playa De La Arena’s main business is tourism. The playa, meaning beach in English is entirely of black, natural, volcanic sand. The beach is one of the cleanest on the island, and even won the European Blue Flag for cleanliness
Playa De La Arena receives thousands of tourists a year, mainly from Spain and the United Kingdom, but also from Germany and The Netherlands.
The Pyramids of Guimar refer to six rectangular pyramid-shaped, terraced structures, built from lava stone without the use of mortar. They are located in the district of Chacona, part of the town of Güímar on the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. While the structures have been dated to the 19th century, their original function has not, as yet, been fully explained.
Los Gigantes. Photo by Michel S
Mount Teide or, in Spanish, El Teide, is an active though dormant volcano which last erupted in 1909 from the El Chinyero vent on the Santiago (northwestern) rift and is located on Tenerife, Canary Islands. The volcano and its surrounds comprise the Teide National Park (Parque Nacional del Teide in Spanish). The park has an area of 18900 ha and was named a World Heritage Site by UNESCO on June 29, 2007.
Loro Parque (Spanish for “parrot park”) is a zoo located on the outskirts of Puerto de la Cruz on Tenerife. Since 1972 when it opened at the size of 13,000m2 with a mere 150 parrots it has grown to 300 species and sub-species, making 3,000 in total, (700 of which are located in the park) and a vast 135,000m2. This collection is claimed to be the largest in the world. Also, on the subject of records, the park has: Europe’s largest Dolphin show pool, the world’s largest indoor Penguin exhibition, the longest Shark Tunnel in Europe, the largest Thai village outside Thailand, and is the only place in Europe to feature an Orca Ocean.
