Tenerife beyond the Playa de las Américas strip. Anaga’s laurel forests, the north coast’s banana villages, Teide National Park, and the parts of the island most south-coast holidaymakers never see.
Tenerife’s northern coast is defined by extreme geography and strange history. From the spiteful 16th-century gardens of La Orotava to the dizzying volcanic drops at El Sauzal, here are four stops that prove the north is an unforgiving escape from the package holiday sunbeds.
To find the real Tenerife, you have to completely abandon the southern mega-resorts. Driving the extreme north reveals a 20-million-year-old rainforest, isolated cliffside villages, and a raw volcanic coastline.
Most tourists never leave the southern beaches, but Tenerife’s ignored East Coast holds the island’s genuine timeline. From a freezing UNESCO city that became the blueprint for Havana to a bizarre abandoned leper colony in the desert, this is the history they’re missing.
Far more than just an industrial port, Santa Cruz is a vibrant, living capital. This guide explores the deep naval history, pristine tropical parks, brutalist architecture, and golden beaches that 7 million tourists skip every year.
Around seventy percent of Tenerife’s visitors never leave the southern resorts. I drove the north-west coast instead: an accidental stop in San Juan de la Rambla, the street-sledging tradition of Icod de los Vinos, Garachico buried by lava in 1706, the seven-million-year-old Teno massif, and a one-euro bus to the restricted lighthouse at Punta de Teno.
Skip the ferry. For £50, the 15-minute Binter Canarias flight to La Gomera offers an eye-level view of Mount Teide and the best island-hopping experience in the Canaries.
