Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands. It has an area of around 2,000 km² and around 900,000 inhabitants. The year-round mild climate particularly attracts tourists from England, Germany and Scandinavia to its beaches. Well-developed hiking trails and picturesque historic towns are attractive destinations. The island is also popular with holidaymakers from the Spanish mainland, especially during Easter.
The island can be divided into three zones
metropolitan area
It is located in the northeast of the island and is
relatively densely populated. About half of the island's population
lives in this area. It basically includes the cities
1 Santa
Cruz de Tenerife internet (Santa Cruz for short) . Capital of the
island with the largest port.
2 San Cristóbal de La Laguna
internet (La Laguna for short) . Counts as a World Heritage Site
because of the historic townscape.
3 Tegueste . The town is
surrounded by the metropolitan area of La Laguna and is known for
its wine.
4 San Andres. One of the oldest settlements on the
island with a large sandy beach.
The North
Like the metropolitan area, the north coast is
influenced by the north-east trade winds with somewhat more
unsettled, spring-like weather. From east to west, here are the
locations:
5 Taganana . Traditional town with a rich
tradition in sugar cane and wine growing.
6 La Esperanza. Village
in the municipality of El Rosario founded by Castilian settlers.
7 El Sauzal (Sauzal, El) . City surrounded by hills and vineyards.
8 La Orotava internet (Orotava, La) . Almost the entire Teide
National Park belongs to the urban area.
9 Puerto de la Cruz
internet (Puerto Cruz for short). City with many colonial-style
buildings and a huge, artificial bathing area. Tourist center with
the Loro Parque and the Botanical Garden.
10 Icod de los Vinos
internet . The city is home to the oldest and largest dragon tree in
the world and the largest volcanic cave in Europe.
11 Garachico .
Well-preserved port town.
12 Buenavista del Norte. In the Teno
Mountains with the small town of Masca and the picturesque gorge.
The South
The southwest coast is the most important tourist
region. Here the sun shines more often and longer than in other
parts of the island. The spacious bathing bays are protected by
piers and there are beautiful sandy beaches. From the southernmost
point at Punta de la Rasca to the north are the places
13 Los
Cristianos . Tourist center with a small harbor from where excursion
boats to the Los Gigantes cliffs and the neighboring island of La
Gomera depart.
14 Playa de las Americas . Tourist center, like
Los Cristianos, it belongs to the inland town of Arona.
15 Costa
Adeje . Resort on the beach in the inland city of Adeje.
16 Guia
de Isora . With Playa de San Juan on the coast.
17 Santiago de
Teide. The municipality also includes the coastal towns of Puerto de
Santiago, Playa de la Arena and Los Gigantes.
The south-east coast has been badly hit by heavy deforestation over
the past few centuries. Nevertheless, this part of the country has its
charms, as not so many package tourists can be found here. Here you can
get to know the hinterland very well.
18 Vilaflor . The highest
community on the island is inland.
19 San Miguel de Abona
20
Granadilla de Abona . With the resort of El Médano, popular with
surfers.
21 Güímar internet . Known for enigmatic pyramids and its
wasteland.
22 Candelaria. Marian pilgrimage site to which Canarian
Catholics make pilgrimages.
The first inhabitants of the Canary Islands were the Guanches. This
people, probably descended from the Berbers, had a strictly hierarchical
form of government, at the head of which ruled a mencey or king. At the
time of the first contact with the Spaniards, this was the Mencey
Tinerfe, from which the name of the island of Tenerife derives and after
which the islanders are still called Tinerfeños today.
After the
first missionary attempts, the islands were violently subdued. After the
Spaniards' victory at La Laguna in 1496, the Guanche culture was almost
completely destroyed. The Canary Islands became immensely important for
the Spaniards as a stopover for their ships on their way to America, and
other seafarers also recognized the strategic importance of these
islands. In 1797, the English admiral Nelson tried in vain to conquer
Tenerife.
Tenerife experienced a heyday during the Enlightenment.
Important personalities such as Alexander von Humboldt visited the
island. Nevertheless, Tenerife could not free itself from the prevailing
feudal social order, so that reforms only took place in the 19th
century.
The early years of the 20th century were characterized
by progressive radicalization. In 1936, General Franco launched his coup
from Tenerife. The Spanish Civil War did not reach Tenerife, but the
economic isolation under the dictatorship had a very negative effect.
The only export goods were bananas for the mainland. After
democratization from 1975, Tenerife and all the other islands in the
archipelago gained autonomy and tourism became increasingly important.
By the way, in 1885 for the first time 350 tourists from England
visited the island. Six years later there were already 5,000 guests a
year, and in 2001 it was 4.8 million.
Many of the plant species growing on Tenerife are endemic, i. H. they
are only distributed locally. This includes the Canarian pine, probably
the most important conifer in the Canary Islands, whose needles are
about 30 cm long. Also known is the Teide Bugloss, which only occurs in
the Teide National Park. The Canary dragon tree, the best-known specimen
of which is in Icod de los Vinos, is also one of them, as are numerous
cactus-like spurge plants in the south-west of the island.
However, numerous plants were also introduced and are now naturally part
of the island's vegetation. Well known is the Canary banana, today one
of the main export items. It was settled from Southeast Asia, as was the
sugar cane, the remains of which are still wild today in the Barrancos.
Both types of plants were successfully exported to America, but other
plants came from the New World. The opuntias have spread particularly
successfully on the barren volcanic areas, originally they were
cultivated as a host plant for the cochineal scale insect to obtain
dyes. Also typical of the islands are the small potatoes papas, which
are harvested several times a year and eaten as papas con mojo.
The botanical garden of Puerto de la Cruz was an attempt to introduce
foreign plants from all over the world in order to later spread them to
Europe.
The island's main industry, tourism, has already contributed to
widespread environmental degradation in Tenerife. The excessive
building, the disposal of the garbage and the fresh water supply of the
crowds have a particularly negative effect on the flora and fauna. The
"Ley de Espacios naturales de Canarias" ("Law for the Declaration of the
Canary Islands' nature reserves") passed in 1987 stipulates that
ecological crimes should be punished more severely and fewer building
permits should be issued. Ultimately, the law had little effect because
it was not able to be enforced. A trend reversal, however, took place in
the consciousness of the island population: educational measures and
campaigns by environmental protection organizations such as the
"Coordinadora Ecologista de Tenerife" are bearing fruit, and the number
of members in these associations is growing steadily. Another step
towards nature conservation is the creation of access restrictions for
national parks.
There is currently a discussion about the extent
to which the Teide National Park should be made accessible to hikers and
nature lovers. More than 2.5 million explorers visit the park annually.
400,000 of them alone use the Teleferico cable car to get to the summit
area. To protect the area more, Teide Park was recently enlarged from
13,571 to 19,522 hectares (ranking fifth in terms of Spanish national
park area) by adding new regions around the Cañadas. Since the regions
around Mount Teide benefit the least from tourism, but have to bear the
greatest damage, they were given more influence. There is now discussion
about whether the park should be subject to a fee, no cars should be
allowed behind the Cañadas and instead buses should chauffeur tourists
through the volcanic landscape.
It is not yet clear whether or
when these plans will be implemented in the (near) future.
Spanish is spoken on the island. In the tourist centers you can get along well with English and German, there are restaurants where the menu is in 10 different European languages.
Tenerife has two airports:
1 Tenerife South Airport
(Aeropuerto de Tenerife Sur, Aeropuerto Reina Sofia, IATA: TFS) . The
airport in the south of the island is used by most holiday airlines.
2 Tenerife North Airport (Aeropuerto de Tenerife Norte, IATA: TFN). It
is from here that mainly planes depart for the other Canary Islands.
The cheapest means of transport are the green, mostly air-conditioned
buses operated by Transportes Interurbanos de Tenerife S.A.U. (TITSA for
short), usually called Guagua here on the Canary Islands. They go to
every town on the island and are very cheap, especially with the
practical "Bono-Bus" savings cards, but the journeys through small towns
usually take quite a long time, even for short distances, due to the
numerous stops in between. However, there are direct buses between Playa
de las Américas and Santa Cruz (approx. 50 minutes). For those who are
very comfortable, there are also organized excursions to interesting
tourist destinations, e.g. B. from Viajes Teide
For shorter
distances, you can also get around the area quite cheaply by taxi.
All major and many local car rental companies are represented in
Tenerife. The road network is in good condition, can be very narrow and
winding in the mountains (road to Masca in the Teno Mountains). Petrol
is cheaper than in Germany (January 2013: approx. €1.08/l). When you
take delivery, you should check the condition of the vehicle and tires.
Theme and amusement parks pick up their visitors from the tourist
centers free of charge, the shuttle buses often only run on certain days
of the week.
In addition to the scenic beauty and diversity, the island offers an
excellent variety of activities. In winter you can drive up to Teide and
have a snowball fight, then return to the south of the island and
sunbathe on the beach or swim in the sea - all in the space of two
hours. There are some beautiful round trip routes with breathtaking
scenery. There are also some very good amusement parks such as Loro
Parque near Puerto de la Cruz.
Mountain bikes and e-bikes are
highly recommended - mountain fitness provided (otherwise taking a cheap
folding bike is a good idea) - and are taken by the airlines for €20 to
€30 each way - if you book in advance. With a bit of talent, it is also
possible to sell a cheap used car privately with almost no loss
(preferably to long-term tourists). On many buses you can transport the
wheels in the luggage compartment free of charge - they should be
relatively robust and you shouldn't be bothered by increased scratches.
The locals mostly go on weekend trips with their downhill bikes in this
way.
Hiking, climbing, diving, mountain biking - organized tours
are available in most hotels.
Hiking areas and routes
Anaga
Mountains in the northeast
Teno mountains in the northwest
and of
course the mountains around Las Cañadas with the Teide ascent
The local cuisine can be described as hearty and extremely tasty.
Typical are the potatoes cooked in brine (papas arrugadas) served with
the sauces called mojo verde and mojo picon, along with garbanzos
(chickpea stew) etc. Go a little away from the coast and seek out the
restaurants where the local workers' cars are parked and not the tourist
buses. You will be amazed at what is served to you!
In the
tourist centers, the cuisine is very much geared towards the interests
of the tourists. But there are also oases here where Canarian cuisine is
offered. You can get very nice tapas in the restaurants. But if you want
to enjoy real Canarian cuisine, then you have to go to the small
villages that have not yet been flooded with tourists. Communication is
often very difficult, but eating becomes a reward.
gofio
Gofio
was the staple food of the Canarian people before the introduction of
the potato. It is still popular with the islanders today. Gofio is a
flour made from roasted grains or legumes. In the gofio mills, wheat,
corn, garbanzos (chickpeas), etc. are roasted and then ground into
flour. Various basic products are often processed into flour together
between the stones. The flour is then either kneaded into a mass with
honey, raisins and/or ground almonds or eaten together with a meat or
vegetable broth. On Tenerife, the sweet version of gofio in slices or
the strong version of gofio is served as a starter, e.g. B. served with
conejo en ajo (rabbit in garlic sauce) or cabra (goat). There are
various electrically operated gofio mills that you can visit and where
you can buy different types and mixtures of gofio, even in smaller
quantities. e.g. B. in La Orotava about 100 meters above the House of
Balconies directly above Parque San Francisco or 100 meters below the
House of Balconies (La Maquina) directly in front of Casa Lercaro. In
German cuisine, Gofio is suitable for thickening sauces, giving them a
slightly stronger taste.
Tenerife is never closed, meaning there is always something going on somewhere. There are numerous bars that are open 24 hours a day. There are discotheques that are open until the morning and there is always something going on. There is something for every taste. But that's all made for the tourists. If you want to celebrate with the locals, you have to go to the small villages in the interior of the island. Here you will be received very hospitably and is part of every small fiesta.