I have been coming to south Tenerife for twenty years. Long enough to watch bars open and close, to learn which beaches are full by ten in the morning, and to make most of the first-timer mistakes myself so you can skip them.
Everything Tenerife exists because I kept searching for answers that were not there. Most of what you find online about the island is either an advert dressed up as a review, or something written by someone who has never set foot here, or a guide three years out of date pointing you at a restaurant that closed in 2022. I wanted the version I always wished I had in my hand. Honest, specific, and current.
Every guide on this site answers a question I have actually asked myself. Do you need a licence to hire a jet ski here. Is the Teide cable car worth the money and the queue. Where do you go to watch the football on a Saturday afternoon. Which of the fish restaurants in Los Abrigos are the real thing and which are coasting on the view. I had all of these questions, usually sitting in a hotel room on my phone, trying to decide what to do that evening. That is exactly who I write for.
What this site covers
I stick to the south. The resort strip from Los Cristianos through Playa de las Américas to Costa Adeje and La Caleta is where most British visitors actually stay, so it is the ground I know properly. I would rather cover one corner of the island well than spread myself thin across places I only half understand.
You will find beaches, restaurants and bars, activities and excursions, where to stay, how to get around without a car, and the practical things nobody tells you until you are already out here and stuck.
How I write these guides
Honest before flattering. If a place has gone downhill, or a beach is packed by mid-morning in August, or a jet ski operator’s photo service is the only way to get pictures because phones are banned on the water, I say so. A guide that only tells you the good bits is not much use to anyone.
Specific before vague. Real prices, real addresses, real opening hours. “Around twelve euros for two sunbeds and a parasol” helps you plan. “Reasonably priced” helps nobody.
Current before historical. Places close and prices move, so I check before I publish, and I go back and fix guides when things change. A review from this year is worth more than one from three years ago.
A note on the links
Some of the tours and activities I recommend link through to GetYourGuide, and I earn a small commission if you book through them. It costs you nothing extra. I only link things I would happily send a friend to, and that commission is what keeps the site running and the guides free to read. If a tour is not worth your money, I will tell you that too, link or no link.
If you spot something that has slipped out of date, a restaurant that has closed, a price that has jumped, or a detail I have got wrong, tell me. The whole point of this site is that it stays useful to the person reading it on their phone, halfway through a holiday, working out what to do next.