Accommodations
We stayed at this Airbnb in La Oratava. I am still absolutely obsessed with this Airbnb although there may be some dealbreakers for others. The good things are there are tons of similarly priced villas on the island that you could also rent for the same experience. First, there is a bus station right near it, but it is only serviced every few hours. The La Oratava stop is well serviced, but it is a hike up hill to get there, especially with luggage. The Villa is also generally out of the way of town, with only three walkable restaurants nearby and the beach isn’t a swimming beach (at least when we were there). If you have a car however, the drive is short to town so it is a quiet and secluded area that could be very relaxing. Since we had a group of friends, it was a lot of fun, but I would not stay here if I wanted to meet people. Second, it’s a villa built into the ruins of old villas. It’s basically a shack with plumbing. The water heater is electric so you won’t run out of hot water, but the roof is tin so when it rains it will be loud. It says it can fit 12 guests but realize three of the beds are in the common room and there’s only really one room with a door and three beds that can be completely closed off. I absolutely loved this, but others may not. The best thing about it was that they had a grill, so we grilled out after our long hike up to El Teide. This is seriously one of my favorite travel memories to date.
Transport
The airport is small but well connected to Madrid. The public bus is called the TItsa bus which is not very reliable but if you have phone service and nowhere to be, you can use it for most things, like we did. We used a cab outside the hours of the bus to get home from El Teide and the get to the airport. It was very cheap considering the distances and when splitting it 2 or 3 ways it won’t break the bank.
Restaurants
- San Diego Grill had decent food considering the location.
- El Bolullo had decent food considering the location.
- Pomodoro is a nice Italian Restaurant on the water. The outdoor seating is nice but consider that you are on the water and it’s going to get windy and cold, most likely.
Above all else, if you stay in a place like us, know food options will be limited.
Attractions
- El Teide is one of the main attractions here, if not the main attraction. You can hike up to the cable car, but you need a permit to hike to the mouth of the volcano. If you want to go to the volcano, plan far in advance. If you do this hike make sure to plan in advance. The distance we saw online sounded doable, but in hindsight we think it was just the distance to the reserve. The cable car is actually MUCH farther. It took us exactly from the time the first bus drops off at the trail head until the last cable car to complete it (some of our friends did it faster though). Keep in mind you are hiking to the highest point in Spain directly from sea level and you are doing so in direct sunlight. The last bus is before the last cable car, so we had to take a taxi home.
- Santa Cruz is the main town on the island where locals come to work. We came here on a Sunday, and nothing was open or working. We sat at a random restaurant and the service was super slow. Then we decided to try Playa de las Teresita’s which is a man-made beach. We stayed for only like 45 minutes because of the buses and the water was still very cold.
- Puerta de la Cruz is the main place where tourists stay. There are lots of restaurants and shops. We hiked there from our villa.
What I would do differently
I would rent a car, if possible, when I return. Also, I would get a permit for the volcano and rent a night in the reserve at the top of the mountain for stargazing. Both are booked far in advance so this would take some planning. Tenerife is known for star gazing and the reserve would be the ultimate place to do this.