Tenerife · Things to do

Spain's highest mountain at 3,718 m, reached by road across the caldera and then by cable car; online cable-car tickets start around €24. The last stretch to the actual summit is a separate permitted path booked well in advance, and since January 2026 some time slots on it carry a fee. The crater rim is cold and exposed year-round — bring layers whatever the coast is doing.

Water park at Costa Adeje, open daily 10:00–18:00 from 1 May to 29 October and 10:00–17:00 the rest of the year. Tickets are sold through the park's own online system, and it is the most expensive single day out on the island.

Short-finned pilot whales and bottlenose dolphins live year-round in the channel between Tenerife and La Gomera, so two- to three-hour boat trips from Los Cristianos, Puerto Colón and Los Gigantes have a high hit rate. Choose an operator carrying the whale-watching authorisation required by the Canary Islands government, and take the morning sailing before the wind gets up.

Laurel forest on the ridge above Santa Cruz, a UNESCO biosphere reserve, with marked trails and roads that take far longer than the map suggests. The walk down to the black-sand beaches at Benijo and Almáciga is the standard half-day; the Cabildo's own nature portal holds the trail descriptions and any closures.

A UNESCO World Heritage site for its unwalled grid plan, the template the Spanish then used for colonial cities in the Americas. It is a working university town rather than a preserved one, flat and walkable in an afternoon, and the tram from Santa Cruz drops you at the edge of it.