Canary Islands Ever been? - Specifically Tenerife.

Looking at spending 6-7 days there this summer. Seems to be a good blend of Europe, good food yet tropical/outdoorsy/Caribbean vibe sort of thing. Seems right up our alley. Am I wrong?

Thanks,

George

Not in 21 years. I have no real relevant info. Cool place though. Really interesting wines there now.

Also there wintertime early 90s for a few days. Several national parks on Tenerife, place is beautiful.

Like John stated, place has a real cool wine scene now.

Cool wine scene. I didn’t know that. Definitely in now.

The Ritz in Tenerife has a Michelin 2** and a 1*. How bad can it be? Rooms are 200 Euro a night.

George

You can check out a number of the wines via the Jose Pastor Wine’s catalog.

I know they often have them at Crush.

I haven’t been there since the 70’s, twice, but I’d go back. Get up on the volcanoes, spend some time on Lanzarote, check out a few world class gardens, go wherever the Germans are not.

P Hickner

… and there are places that attract Brits on package holidays. [barf1.gif]

No specific experience, but I’ve always been advised that location is everything, and is the difference between charming and ‘less than charming’.

Think the time we have chose will avoid a lot of the Brits on package holidays. Certainly not all but hopefully most. Early June is not a popular time as far as I can tell.

Ian - please correct me if I am wrong.

George

I like visiting big telescopes, been to many over the years. the canary’s are some of the best. They offer star gazing tours.

This site looks pretty good in general.

George
Early June should avoid the big rush (July/August) though that’s as much a school/family driven peak

Bump. Any recent trips to the Canaries? Hotel/restaurant/activity recs?

Bump.
Anyone have any insights?
Thinking of going end of February. Will hit some cool weather but avoid the big tourist crowds.

I was there last year, mainly on Gran Canaria but also on Tenerife. Beautiful islands, particularly as you go inland into the volcano areas. I’ll go back, but it’s a PITA to get to from the States (we took a day on each end in Madrid). As noted, some very good local wines. The weather was fantastic around Labor Day; could get cool and damp in February.

The downside is a lot of areas have been developed solely to cater to the German and British tourists. You’ll walk down the road and all of the signs will be in German or English, not in Spanish. A lot of those tourists just stay in the beach towns and don’t venture inland so even in peak travel season, the roads through the parks and volcanic craters are not crowded. The restaurants in the tourist towns are weak across the board - doing your homework and driving a little helps.

One tip we learned a few days in. They are not used to Americans there. If you have a credit card that doesn’t charge a foreign exchange fee, you have to make sure the merchants run the charge in Euros. Otherwise they routinely use a conversion system that charges in dollars and adds on conversion fees.

While we are busy slagging on various Europeans, make sure to avoid flights with Dutch pilots.

The Norwegian schools have a winter holiday in the last week of February, so expect a lot of Norwegians…

We prefer to stay in Puerto de Mogan, it is somewhat calmer than most of the tourist areas. Que Tal is an excellent restaurant there.

Another option is La Gomera, one of the smaller islands and much less tourists.

I wouldn’t fly there for a vacation from the US.

I agree. I go there in lack of better options, and from the US you have plenty of better options.

There’s some great cycling. But mostly it’s a winter sun destination. I was last there in 1996 in the terrible British part. We got caught up in a huge riot one day. I think it wasn’t uncommon.

Of course if you are really into volcanic geology, flora and fauna then that’s different.

We stayed near Puerto de Mogan. Agreed, it is a calmer area than other tourist towns along the coast.

Thanks for all the info. I changed my plans. (It was not the Norwegians or Dutch pilots or conversion fees on credit cards that affected the decision.)

The travel to and from the US is a bit tricky and travel time would eat up too much of the trip. I agree - there are better options.
I appreciate the insights, however.