The whales are twenty minutes offshore. Teide is an hour uphill.
Which whale boat actually cuts its engines. What the Teide cable car costs once the transfer is added. Whether Siam Park eats a whole day in August. Reviews of every tour you can book on Tenerife.
A boat, the cable car, the water park and the turtles.
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 whale boatEco-Yacht Whale and Dolphin Watching and SwimmingA small eco-yacht out of Puerto Colón that cuts the engines when the pilot whales surface, then anchors for a swim.
02The volcano dayMount Teide Tour with Cable Car Ticket & TransferCable car ticket and transfer together, so nobody has to drive the hairpins back down in the dark.
03The water parkSiam Park Entry TicketsSiam Park fills a whole day and the slide queues build from mid-morning. Go at opening or not at all.
04The turtle morningKayak and Snorkel with Turtles, Wetsuits IncludedKayaks off the south coast to the turtle grounds, wetsuits and snorkels handed out on the beach.
The strait between Tenerife and La Gomera is where the whales stay.
Deep, sheltered water and enough squid to keep a resident pod fed. What separates the boats is deck space, whether the skipper cuts the engines, and how long you get in the sea.
★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · Eco-Yacht Whale and Dolphin Watching and Swimming
Whale and dolphin boatsTwo or three hours out of Puerto Colón and Los Cristianos.
Catamaran daysShade, a swim ladder, lunch cooked on board.
Small yachtsTwelve people or fewer, no loudspeaker, longer swim stops.
Under Los GigantesSailing out beneath six hundred metres of cliff on the west coast.
All 63 boat days on the site →
South for the sun, north for everything else.
The trade winds park a grey lid on the north coast most mornings and leave the south burning. Where you sleep decides which half of the island you actually see, and how far you are from the boats.
Siam Park and Loro Parque own the island’s wet afternoons.
One is a Thai-themed water park on the hill above Costa Adeje, with the queues to match. The other is a zoo and aquarium down in Puerto de la Cruz on the north coast. A combined ticket covers both and usually includes the transfer between them.
Costa Adeje is the launch pad, not the destination.
Everything in Costa Adeje →
Nearly every whale boat leaves from Puerto Colón at the end of the promenade, the paragliders land on the beach behind it, and Siam Park is ten minutes uphill by taxi. You can fill a week here without moving the hire car once.
Whale watching out of Puerto Colón
The pods sit a couple of miles off the marina, so the short trips reach them and still have time to drift. The boats that keep their distance and cut the motor see more than the ones that chase.
Catamarans with a swim stop
Half a day under sail down the coast towards Los Gigantes, anchored somewhere flat for a swim, with lunch and the drinks included on most of them. The afternoon sailings get the wind.
Tandem flights off Ifonche
You are driven up to a launch above the resort and come down over the whole south coast, landing on the sand at Playa de las Américas. Morning flights are calmer; the thermals build after noon.
The days out more people book than anything else on Tenerife.
Every Tenerife review →Two parks, one volcano and a great many boats. What earns each of them the slot, and what it costs to get on board.
1
Siam Park Entry Tickets
Spend a full day at Siam Park Tenerife, a Thai-themed water park with the 91-foot Tower of Power, a 10-foot wave pool, lazy river, beach, floating market, and family rides. Choose entry only or upgrade with food, towels, lockers, and other extras.
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
The north kept the Tenerife that existed before the resorts.
Cloud sits over the Orotava valley most mornings and usually burns off by lunch. Underneath it: banana terraces, a black-sand town with a Victorian habit, laurel forest older than any road on the island, and a university city that still shuts for lunch.
Every day out in the north →
What a day out on Tenerife actually costs.
Every priced tour on the site, sorted into three brackets. Plenty of the island’s best mornings come in under the price of dinner for two.
Entry tickets, town museums, the short whale boats and a morning on a kayak.
The full-day standards: Teide with a transfer, catamaran days, diving courses, the parks.
- 1Siam Park Entry Ticketsfrom $52
- 2Loro Parque Entry Ticketfrom $52
- 3Loro Parque and Siam Park Combined Admission Ticketsfrom $92
Private boats, tandem flights and the once-a-trip days somebody else planned for you.
Three things Tenerife has that the other Canaries do not.
Sun and a black beach are on offer all over this archipelago. A resident whale population twenty minutes offshore, a volcano with a cable car up it, and a laurel forest that outlived the Ice Age are not.
Pilot whales that never leave
The channel between Tenerife and La Gomera is deep, sheltered and full of squid, so a population of short-finned pilot whales lives in it permanently instead of passing through. Bottlenose dolphins work the same water. Boats reach them in about twenty minutes, which is why the trips here are shorter and cheaper than whale watching almost anywhere else.
- 1Eco-Yacht Whale and Dolphin Watching and Swimming★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 15,619 reviews
- 2Los Cristianos Respectful No-Chase Whale and Dolphin Safari★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 12,782 reviews
- 3Whale & Dolphin Eco-Cruise with Snacks & Drinks★★★★★★★★★★ 4.6 · 5,096 reviews
The sky above the crater
Above the cloud layer and away from the resort lights, the Teide caldera has some of the clearest air in Europe, and the law protects it: flight paths are routed around the island and the lighting below is shielded. Guided nights run with telescopes from the crater floor, and most of them are called in two languages at once.
- 1Sunset and Stargazing at Teide National Park★★★★★★★★★★ 4.7 · 2,826 reviews
- 2Teide National Park Sunset & Stargazing with Dinner (Star Safari)★★★★★★★★★★ 5.0 · 2,601 reviews
- 3Sunset & Stargazing Experience From Teide★★★★★★★★★★ 4.5 · 1,129 reviews
The ferry across to La Gomera
Los Cristianos to San Sebastián takes under an hour, and the island on the far side has no resort strip at all. The day trips climb into Garajonay, the laurel forest that survived on the summit, and come back on the evening boat. It is the one day out that needs the whole day.
- 1La Gomera Day Trip from Tenerife★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 320 reviews
- 2Full Day Guided Tour to La Gomera from Tenerife★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 229 reviews
- 3La Gomera Day Trip from Tenerife★★★★★★★★★★ 4.0 · 125 reviews
Four Tenerife bookings that will not wait until you land.
Most of this island can be arranged over breakfast. These four run on permits, ferry timetables and a cable car that shuts whenever the wind at the top gets up.
- 01Mount Teide Tour with Cable Car Ticket & TransferMorning slots go first and the car stops running whenever it is too windy at the top. The path above it, onto the crater rim itself, needs a separate free permit applied for weeks ahead.
- 02Siam Park Entry TicketsThe park caps its daily numbers and the slide queues build from mid-morning. An entry booked for opening time is the whole difference between two rides and ten.
- 03La Gomera Day Trip from TenerifeThe ferry runs to a timetable and the last one back leaves early enough to catch out anybody who lingers over lunch in San Sebastián.
- 04Mt. Teide and Masca Valley Tour in TenerifeThe road down to Masca is single-track hairpins with almost no parking at the village, which is why nearly everyone arrives with a driver and why the seats go early. The walk on down the ravine is capped and reserved separately.
The north is under cloud and the south is not. Plan for both.
The trade winds push a grey lid over the north coast on a good many mornings, and once or twice a year the calima carries Saharan dust across the whole island and grounds the boats. Both have the same answer: climb above the cloud, or go inside and eat.
Teide is 3,715 metres, and the road up changes the island twice.
The cable car climbs to 3,555 metres and the last stretch onto the crater rim needs its own permit, applied for well ahead. Come back after dark and the same park has some of the cleanest air in Europe over it.
By place — Costa Adeje to the Anaga hills
By kind of day — the strait, the crater, a board or a table
Costa Adeje, Los Gigantes, Teide, Anaga: the week most people end up doing.
Mount Teide
The crater at night
Anaga
La GomeraThe newest Tenerife tour reviews.
The rest of the new ones →
Tenerife Exclusive Snorkeling Trip with Marine Biologist
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Diving course for beginners in turtle area Tenerife
Read our review →
Costa Adeje, Paragliding with pick up service and 5 free photos!
Read our review →
COAST: Fly over the coasts of Tenerife by Paratrike! (20min)
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