Things to Do
Volcanic adventure, ocean encounters and slow island days — twenty-five editor-picked experiences with everything you need to book.
Nature
Mount Teide Summit by Cable Car
Spain's highest peak rises 3,718 metres above sea level, and the Teleférico whisks you to 3,555 metres in eight minutes — the rest of the climb to the crater requires a free permit booked weeks in advance.
Stargazing at Teide National Park
Teide National Park is a UNESCO Starlight Reserve and home to one of the world's largest astronomical observatories.
Private Teide Sunset Tour
Private guided tours by 4WD reach Teide's most spectacular sunset viewpoints — Boca Tauce, Roques de García and Minas de San José — without the coach crowds.
Sea
Whale & Dolphin Catamaran Cruise
The waters off the south-west coast of Tenerife are home to a resident population of pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins — one of only two such permanent populations in Europe.
Scuba Diving in Radazul
Tenerife's Atlantic waters are warm year-round (18–24°C), and the volcanic underwater landscape — caves, lava arches, drop-offs — is among the most varied in Europe.
Beginner Surf Lesson
Playa de las Américas and Playa de Troya offer some of Europe's most consistent beginner-friendly surf, with reliable year-round waves of 1–1.
Sea Kayak with Turtles
Sit-on-top kayaking from Playa Paraíso along the Costa Adeje coastline brings you face-to-face with green sea turtles, schools of needlefish and the occasional dolphin pod — all without an engine.
Deep-Sea Big-Game Fishing
The Atlantic waters off Tenerife are part of the migration route for blue marlin, white marlin, wahoo and big-eye tuna.
Snorkel Tour at Tabaiba Reef
Tabaiba on the south-east coast is one of Tenerife's marine reserves, and the volcanic reef just offshore is teeming with life: sea bream, ornate wrasse, parrotfish, octopus, and large schools of damselfish.
Private Sailing Yacht Day-Charter
Skipper-driven private yacht charters from Puerto Colón are surprisingly affordable when split between 4–8 guests.
Hiking
Masca Gorge Hike
The 5-kilometre descent from the cliff-top village of Masca through a near-vertical gorge to the Atlantic is the single most spectacular hike in Tenerife.
Anaga Rural Park Hike
The Anaga peninsula in the north-east is one of the oldest geological formations on Tenerife — and one of the last remaining examples of the laurisilva, the prehistoric laurel forest that once covered most of the Mediterranean.
Food & Wine
Volcanic Wine Tasting
Tenerife wine has been quietly excellent for centuries — Shakespeare praised 'Canary sack' in Twelfth Night — and the island's volcanic soils and unusual indigenous grape varieties (Listán Negro, Listán Blanco, Negramoll) produce wines made nowhere else.
Guachinche Dinner Experience
A guachinche is a uniquely Canarian institution: a family-run restaurant set up inside a wine-producing house, open only when the new wine of the year is being released.
Puerto de la Cruz Tapas Tour
Tenerife's first tourist town has reinvented its old centre as a serious gastronomic destination.
Adventure
Tandem Paragliding from Ifonche
Tenerife is one of Europe's premier paragliding destinations, with reliable thermals, year-round flying weather and launch sites between 800 and 2,200 metres.
Jet-Ski Safari to Los Cristianos
Twin-seater jet-ski tours leave hourly from Puerto Colón in Adeje and follow the south coast for 1.
Buggy Tour to Mount Teide
A different way to experience Teide National Park: 4-hour two-seater buggy tours climb from sea level through pine forest to the lava landscapes at 2,200 metres.
Road Cycling to Mount Teide
The 41-kilometre climb from the southern coast at Granadilla to the Teide cable-car station is one of the most respected ascents in cycling, regularly used by professional teams for winter training.
Horse Riding in the Pine Forests
The pine forests above La Orotava offer some of the most beautiful trail-riding in the Atlantic islands — wide forest roads through scented Canarian pine with views over the cloud line to the coast.
E-Bike Tour Through Anaga
E-bike day tours through Anaga Rural Park climb from sea level to the laurel-forest viewpoints at 800 metres without exhausting the legs.
Family
Siam Park Water Kingdom
Voted the world's best water park six years in a row by TripAdvisor, Siam Park is a Thai-themed extravaganza of slides, lazy rivers and a wave pool that produces three-metre artificial waves.
Loro Parque
Consistently voted Europe's best zoo on TripAdvisor, Loro Parque in Puerto de la Cruz is a 13.
Culture
Garachico Heritage Walk
Once Tenerife's main port, Garachico was buried by a volcanic eruption in 1706 and rebuilt in the lava that destroyed it.
La Laguna UNESCO Walking Tour
The original capital of Tenerife and a UNESCO World Heritage Site, San Cristóbal de La Laguna is a colonial-era grid of pastel mansions, baroque churches and atmospheric courtyards — and home to the island's main university, which gives the city a young, creative energy.