TENERIFE
16-19 March 2025
It was with heavy hearts (and heads, after our party the night before) that we had to bid farewell to the ship that had been our home for the preceding week and toured us around the Canary Islands. We savoured our last breakfast onboard and then wheeled our cases to the car rental agency on the Santa Cruz de Tenerife port to pick up the keys for our new adventure.
With plenty of time before check-in at our Airbnb rental to the south of the port, we took a drive up north to the historic town of La Orotava. Arriving in the old town, it took several circles to find a parkade so we could explore on foot.
Knowing precious little about our new location, it was a relief and a delight to find that there were info boards outside of the places of interest. And there were many! The well-preserved neighbourhood had buildings that dated back more than 500 years and shared examples of architecture spanning across the millennia, where some of the structures had succumbed to some sort of accidental destruction and been rebuilt.
Built on a slope, some of the hills were not for the faint-hearted… but did allow for some creative use of space with terraced gardens, and breath-taking views both up and down the few roads that made up the old town.
Time still in hand, we headed towards our base camp, Tabaiba, just south of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Wanting to get our sight-seeing done before check in, we explored the seaside first with a drive to the next big town, Candelaria for a wander around.
MONDAY
Our itinerary had us travelling south for the day. The good people of Tenerife had thoughtfully created a ring-road freeway around the circumference of the island, which made it very quick and easy to execute our mission. Our trusty rental car soon deposited us at the very busy coastal resort-town of Los Cristianos.
The struggle for finding a parking spot made sense once we walked down from the road to the promenade. Even for a fresh spring morning, the beach was already full of sunbathers and people playing volleyball or bat-and-ball. The restaurants were busy and the pubs long-since open. Being St Patrick’s Day, there were holiday-makers donning bright green shirts and hats, and posters in several establishment promised that the day would be exceptionally festive. Quite different from anything we’d yet experienced in the Canary Islands.
The visual overload was addictive and before we even realised it, we had covered a couple of kilometres on the promenade, window-shopping and people-watching. We had worked up quite an appetite! It was most certainly time for lunch.
Spoilt for choice, a set menu caught our attention and we settled in at Las Castanuelos for a collection of options from the menu so that we would have stories to tell about the local dishes. Washing it all down with Sangria and soaking in the seaside atmosphere.
Keen to get feet up after our great trek, we eased our way back to homebase for a couple of hours of R&R. Our apartment had a spacious covered front terrace, with lounge furniture arranged to appreciate the spectacular sunset.
After a light supper, we introduced the mothers to the wonder that is Ted Lasso and we all had a good laugh until bedtime beckoned.
TUESDAY
We would be remiss in spending time in Tenerife without an explore of the capital, Santa Cruz, so up the coast we went. With rain forecast for the afternoon, we front-ended the outdoor excursions such that we could have a leisurely lunch to weather any storms, so to speak, when and if the time came.
This meant starting with a visit to the historical town of La Laguna. Similar to La Orotava, it was an enclave of beautifully preserved old town. With cobblestone streets and elegant facades, we could only imagine that this would have been the top-end of the town back then. It also had a very pleasant aroma lingering from the generous selection of coffee shops and bakeries nested into the ground level floor of some of the buildings that had been subtly converted for retail.
A pop into the tourist office revealed which buildings allowed access (and which were free), helping to guide our wandering so that we could poke a nose into the lavish gentry homes where you could access the central courtyard to see their impressive domains. With dark, heavy wood balconies and floorboards, it was incredible to see what great shape these buildings were still in. They promise to be standing long after some of our modern structures have caved!
Long past lunch o’clock, we hit the highway to get to the capital for a bite and an explore. Chris expertly navigated us to a central parkade so we were soon enjoying a pizza Compostelana near the Plaza de España.
Another tourist office produced another valuable map. Santa Cruz de Tenerife had a compact centre of town jam-packed with wonderment. Squares, monuments, artwork, gardens and architecture… all within an easily walkable collection of blocks. Real good bang for sight-seeing buck!
A highlight was concluding with an underground visit to the San Cristóbal castle’s foundations. Constructed in 1575 and having secured the city through several momentous battles, the castle was unfathomably demolished in 1928. The remains were only rediscovered in 2006 during a remodel of Plaza Espana, whereafter the city created a free exhibit accessible from just off the seaward side of the square. Along with a section of the excavated heavy stone wall, you could see the infamous El Tigre canon that legend contends is responsible for taking Lord Nelson’s arm in battle in 1797!