A mountain above the clouds, and whales in the channel below it.
Which whale boat actually cuts its engines. What the cable car costs once you add the transfer. Whether the north is worth the drive when the south is in shorts. Reviews of every tour you can book on Tenerife.
A morning with the pilot whales, an afternoon at 3,555 metres.
The four bookings a first week on Tenerife tends to hang off, what each one costs and what the people who took it say.
01The cheap morningEco-Yacht Whale and Dolphin Watching and SwimmingPilot whales live in the Rasca channel all year, so the boat does not chase anything. The cheapest way onto the water by a distance.
02The mountain dayMount Teide Tour with Cable Car Ticket & TransferCoach up through the pine belt, cable car to 3,555 metres, back down by dusk. The cable car ticket alone will not get you there.
03The turtle morningKayak and Snorkel with Turtles, Wetsuits IncludedKayaks out of the south coast to the bay where the green turtles feed, wetsuit and snorkel handed over on the beach.
04The day with kidsSiam Park Entry TicketsWater park in Costa Adeje with a wave pool the size of a football pitch. Tickets are dated, and the summer dates go.
Pilot whales, green turtles, or the cliffs at Los Gigantes. Pick your morning.
The channel between Tenerife and La Gomera holds resident pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins all year, which is why nothing here has to chase anything. Four kinds of day on the water, what it costs to board each one, and which harbour it leaves from.
The bookings Tenerife runs on.
Every Tenerife tour we have reviewed →More travellers take these than anything else on the island, and what earns each one its slot.
1
Siam Park Entry Tickets
Review of Siam Park Tenerife, with thrilling slides, a 10-foot wave, Thai-style theming, practical queue tips, and value advice.
From · $52
Read our review →
2
Eco-Yacht Whale and Dolphin Watching and Swimming
from $13
3
Los Cristianos Respectful No-Chase Whale and Dolphin Safari
from $29
4
Loro Parque Entry Ticket
from $52
5
Loro Parque and Siam Park Combined Admission Tickets
from $92
6
Kayak and Snorkel with Turtles, Wetsuits Included
from $35
7
Whale & Dolphin Eco-Cruise with Snacks & Drinks
from $52
8
Mount Teide Tour with Cable Car Ticket & Transfer
from $102
Six parts of Tenerife that behave like six different islands.
A crater at the top, resort beaches in the dry south, a Victorian spa town on the wet north coast, a gorge cut through the Teno massif, laurel forest on the Anaga ridge. Pick a base, and the best day out from it.
Teide is a national park, a cable car and a permit, in that order.
The crater floor sits at 2,000 metres and the summit at 3,555, an hour and a half from the beach. Most days out combine the road up through the pines, a stop at the Roques de García, and the cable car if the wind lets it run.
Above the cloud layer the sky does something the coast never sees.
Teide National Park sits over the trade-wind cloud at 2,000 metres, which is why the observatory is up here and why the whole island is a starlight reserve. Trips run to a sunset viewpoint first, then set up telescopes once the crater goes dark. Bring a coat; it is fifteen degrees colder than the beach.
What a day on Tenerife actually costs.
Every tour on the site, grouped by what it costs. The island is cheaper than the Canaries’ reputation suggests, right up until you charter something.
Garden and museum entries, the eco-yacht whale mornings, kayak-and-snorkel trips and the short runs out of Los Cristianos.
The full-day standards: Teide with the cable car, Masca and the north loop, stargazing with dinner, the big catamarans.
- 1Siam Park Entry Ticketsfrom $52
- 2Loro Parque Entry Ticketfrom $52
- 3Loro Parque and Siam Park Combined Admission Ticketsfrom $92
Paragliding off Ifonche, private drivers for the day, dive courses and the boat you have all to yourselves.
The dry coast is where the boats leave from — and where most people sleep.
Everything in Costa Adeje →
Costa Adeje, Los Cristianos and Playa de las Américas run into one another along fifteen kilometres of sheltered coast. The wind drops, the cloud stops at the ridge behind, and every marina between them sends boats into the whale channel.
Big catamaran, or a small no-chase yacht
The pilot whales are resident, so nobody needs to hunt for them. Big catamarans give you shade, a swim stop and a buffet; the small eco-yachts cut the engine and drift. Same animals, very different morning.
Kayaks out to the turtle bay
Green turtles feed on the seagrass off the south coast and are used to being looked at. Most trips paddle out from a launch beach, tie up and snorkel; the photographs come back with the guide.
Quads and buggies on the volcano roads
The tracks climb out of the resorts through banana terraces and pine into the lava fields. Drivers need a full licence; passengers do not, which is how most couples end up doing it.
Three things that only happen on this island.
Volcanoes and warm water are all over the Atlantic. A cable car to 3,555 metres, a sky protected by law, and turtles grazing a hundred metres off a town beach are not.
The roof of Spain
Teide is the highest point in Spain and the third-largest volcano on earth measured from its base on the sea floor. The road climbs out of the cloud layer at about two thousand metres, so the crater is usually in hard sun while the coast sits under grey. The cable car stops short of the summit: the last two hundred metres need a free permit applied for in advance, and the queue for it is longer than the queue for the car.
- 1Mount Teide Tour with Cable Car Ticket & Transfer★★★★★★★★★★ 4.3 · 5,094 reviews
- 2Teide National Park Sunset & Stargazing Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 3,812 reviews
- 3Sunset and Stargazing at Teide National Park★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,826 reviews
The Teide starlight reserve
A Spanish law protects the sky over the Canaries from light, radio noise and flight paths, which is why the observatory sits on the crater rim. Above the cloud layer and away from the resorts the Milky Way reads with the naked eye. Trips time themselves to the moon: a full moon washes the sky out, so the good nights are the dark ones and they book first.
- 1Teide National Park Sunset & Stargazing Tour★★★★★★★★★★ 4.2 · 3,812 reviews
- 2Sunset and Stargazing at Teide National Park★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,826 reviews
- 3Teide National Park Sunset & Stargazing with Dinner (Star Safari)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,601 reviews
The green turtles of the south coast
A colony of green turtles grazes the seagrass off the south-west coast, close enough that kayak trips reach them in twenty minutes. They are protected and habituated rather than fed, so guides keep a distance and nobody touches anything. Morning is calmer water and better light; by afternoon the wind gets up and the paddle back is work.
- 1Kayak and Snorkel with Turtles, Wetsuits Included★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 7,215 reviews
- 2Kayak Safari and Sea Turtle Snorkeling with Photos★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 2,028 reviews
- 3Turtle & Dolphin Kayak Tour with Snorkel & Wetsuit★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,411 reviews
Four Tenerife bookings that will not wait.
Most of the island can be sorted the night before over a beer. These four run on permits, dated tickets and a cable car that shuts whenever the wind gets up.
- 01Mount Teide Tour with Cable Car Ticket & TransferThe cable car closes whenever the wind is too strong at the top station, and it does that often. Going with a tour puts a second option on the day.
- 02Siam Park Entry TicketsTickets are for a named date, and the summer dates sell through. There is no turning up and paying at the gate in August.
- 03Teide National Park Sunset & Stargazing TourThe good nights are the dark ones, so the small-telescope trips fill first around a new moon and the dinner slots go before those.
- 04Mount Teide, Masca, Icod and Garachico Day TripThe gorge walk runs on booked, capped tickets and shuts in bad weather. The road down to the hamlet is single-track and the buses have their own timetable.
Cross the ridge and Tenerife turns wet, green and Victorian.
The trade winds pile cloud against the north slope, which is why the banana terraces and the laurel forest are up there and the sunbeds are not. Puerto de la Cruz has been taking visitors since the eighteen-hundreds and still feels like it.
Every day out in the north →
Sand off the Sahara, and the days it takes the mountain away.
A calima drags Saharan dust over the islands a few times a year. The air goes yellow, the temperature jumps, the summit road can close and there is nothing to see from the cable car anyway. The north does the opposite trick, sitting under trade-wind cloud while the south is in shorts. Both have the same answer: go indoors, go underground, or go to the other coast.
- 1Siam Park Entry Ticketsfrom $52
- 2Loro Parque Entry Ticketfrom $52
- 3Loro Parque and Siam Park Combined Admission Ticketsfrom $92
By place — coast, crater and ridge
By kind of day — water, summit, road or table
South coast, whale channel, crater, gorge, green north: the week most people end up doing.
The newest Tenerife tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Teide National Park: Moonlight Tour & Stargazing Experience
Read our review →
private charter 3 Hours Whale Encounter puerto colon adeje
Read our review →
Forest & Off Road National Park Quad Biking Tour
Read our review →
Tenerife Under The Sea – dive into 1-1 personalised experience
Read our review →
Volcano Teide National Park And North Of The Island VIP TOUR
Read our review →
SEA SAFARI, Dolphins, Whales, snorkeling, snack and drink, 2 h speedboat
Read our review →
Single Jet Ski Safari 1-Hour Guided Your of Tenerife
Read our review →
