Tenerife Guide

Day of the Cross (Día de La Cruz)

marketing6 — Mon, 23 Apr 2012 15:12:05 +0000

The Day of the Cross (Dia de La Cruz) is a religious holiday which is celebrated in many Spanish and Hispanic areas. It is believed that on the third of May, Elena, the mother of Emperor Byzontine, found the Holy Cross on which Jesus had died.

In Tenerife the holiday has an additional meaning, as the date coincides with the founding of the city Santa Cruz in 1494. In this year, on May 3, the then Governor Fernandez de Lugo erected a wooden cross during a ceremony on the beach of Santa Cruz in order to officially establish the emerging metropolis.

The Holiday is celebrated every year with representations of the Cross adorned with flowers and other decorative objects. There are also colourful, vibrant processions celebrating this day with La Cruz de Plata (Co-Patron Saint of the town, along with La Virgen de Nuestra Señora de la Peña de Francia). Other cities in the north such as Puerto de La Cruz and Los Realejos, have amazing firework displays.

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Embarcación Virgen del Carmen

marketing1 — Mon, 11 Jul 2011 15:07:57 +0000

The 12th of July is one special day in Puerto de la Cruz. The fishermen of the city celebrate on this day the Holy Virgen del Carmen who is their patron saint. At 5.30 pm, the statue of Carmen is carried from the church ‘Nuestra Señora de la Peña de Francia’ by the people of Puerto de la Cruz in a big procession to the small fishermen harbour. From there, the statue is lifted out to the sea by boat to bless the water and the fishing.

Moreover, this festivity is also called the festival of water pistols. The inhabitants of the city pour water over the public from the balconies and windows of their houses or fire water with their pistols at people in the street. After the procession the visitors and inhabitants celebrate dancing in the streets which finishes with a great firework.

Click on the link below to see a video of last years “embarcación”

Embarcación Virgen del Carmen 2010

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Corpus Christi in La Orotava

marketing1 — Thu, 30 Jun 2011 19:40:27 +0000

Every Year the city center of La Orotava in nothern Tenerife celebrates the festivities of Corpus Christi over several days. Since 1847 the over 500-meter-long loop road of the procession is ornamented with a carpet of flowers and coloured sand. The carpet contains a couple of pictures (tapicas) and pattern paints (corridores) which are filled with petals. The way is divided- depending on local conditions – into approximately 50 chapters. The carpets are constructed by different groups and individuals (alfombristas) using models. Those groups are for example neighborhoods of different suburbs, schools, working groups. The individuals often posses a public charge or are public people of the city. They often design their chapter on their own, but get help from family and friends at preparing their chapter. Some chapters are created by traditional-resident families for which the participation and the activity in the community play an important role. Here and there, external or foreign groups are invited to participate in creating a chapter. The single chapters are bases on religious topics.

The town hall square which is located half way, shelters since 1912 a big picture of sand of over 900 square meters. The installation of this picture starts a month before Corpus Christi and needs about 2 000 kg of coloured sand. To prevent the picture to be spoiled by rain, the square is covered with a tarpaulin for several days. The progress of the work can be tracked by the public people from the upper end of the town hall stairs.

On the following sunday the ‘Romería de San Isidro’ takes place to celebrate the Holy Isidro el Labrador who is one of the patron saints of La Orotava. The peasants and peasant women process in their traditional costumes and with their animals and bands through the city.

Sources: Tourist Office Canary Islands, Wikipedia

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Football on holidays

marketing1 — Wed, 20 Apr 2011 16:43:30 +0000

Convincing your husband to go on holidays when an ”important” football game comes up, could turn out to be rather tricky. On this occasion we would like to inform you that you do not have to worry at all. In Tenerife you can watch the Premier League as well as the German Bundesliga in many locations. Even though the majority of bars show mostly Spanish football, there are quite some bars where you can follow your team and enjoy watching a football game while zipping a cold beer or cider. In case you find absolutely no bar that shows your preferred game and you are desparately looking for a good spot, no worries, here you will have some ideas on how to safe the day!

In the South of Tenerife, directly opposite to the famous Torviscas Market site in Las Americas, you will find the Bobbins Bar. They have 11 TVs and show Scottish Premier League, English Premier League and Big European Competitions. In case you are interested in the German Bundesliga and you are staying up North in Puerto de la Cruz, you can find a little cozy bar called SAMS in the Avenida Venezuela. If you prefer to sit outside on the terace you can go to the Avenida Generalìsimo in a bar called Kö-Pi. Moreover there is a little English bar which is famous for its English atmosphere; called The Bee Dive and located in Calle de la Hoya .

If you know about other good bars around the Island please contact us under isladetenerife[at]gmail.com and we will be happy to include them here.

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150 webcams in Tenerife

admin — Thu, 03 Dec 2009 19:45:33 +0000

Tenerife has reached 150 live webcams with the new Iberostar hotel webcams and more traffic webcams added in Tenerife North. If you are planning to visit Tenerife soon, you may want to check out how the weather and the beaches look like before you go in tenerifewebcam.com. The image above shows Las Vistas beach in Los Cristianos from this morning.

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Ryanair flights to Tenerife

admin — Wed, 29 Jul 2009 11:45:12 +0000

Ryanair is starting to operate 7 new routes to Tenerife South Airport Reina Sofía on October 26th. You can start booking already for the beast deals.

Find the new destinations below:

Birminghan – Tenerife South (Starts October 27th )
Bournemouth – Tenerife South (Starts October 26th)
Bristol – Tenerife South (Starts October 28th )
Girona (Barcelona) – Tenerife South (Starts October 26th)
London-Luton – Tenerife South (Starts October 27th)
Porto – Tenerife South (Starts October 28th )
Madrid – Tenerife South (Starts October 27th)

As you may know Ryanair also has the folllowing departures:

Dublin – Tenerife South
East Midlands – Tenerife South
Liverpool – Tenerife South
Shannon – Tenerife South
Stansted- Tenerife South
Glasgow (Prestwick) – Tenerife South
Frankfurt-Hashn – Tenerife South
Düsseldorf (Weeze) – Tenerife South

Prices vary but they start at 21 GBP (24 EUR) one way + taxes and fees.

Apart from these, Ryanair is also starting to fly in October to Gran Canaria and Lanzarote from the same destinations. For more detailed information you can check Ryanair website.

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Car hire companies in Tenerife South Airport

laura — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 17:06:01 +0000

Here is a list with links to car hire companies that have an office in the Reina Sofia airport in Los Cristianos, most commonly known as Tenerife South:

Orcar Canarias (from our own experience this is actually the cheapest)

Autoreisen (They actually share an office with Orcar in TFS Airport)

Avis Great service in general, although they are one of the most expensive car hire companies here.

Cicar They only operate in the Canary Islands.

Europcar They usually have the cheapest prices in his category (worldwide rent a car company)

Hertz Great service, although they are one of the most expensive ones

Goldcar

Inforentacar

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Tenerife county map

admin — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:17:17 +0000

Municipalities in Tenerife

Tenerife is composed by 31 counties or municipalities, commonly grouped in three categories:

Metropolitan area: Santa Cruz de Tenerife, La Laguna, El Rosario, Tegueste.

North area: Puerto de la Cruz, Icod de Los Vinos, Tacoronte, El Sauzal, La Matanza de Acentejo, La Victoria de Acentejo, Santa Ursula, La Orotava, Los Realejos, San Juan de la Rambla, La guancha, Garachico, El Tanque, Los Silos, Buenavista del Norte.

South area: Adeje, Arona, Santiago del Teide, Guia de Isora, Vilaflor, San Miguel de Abona, Granadilla de Abona, Arico, Fasnia, Guimar, Arafo, Candelaria.

As a curiosity, Puerto de la Cruz is the smallest county in Tenerife and Canary Islands with just 8.73 Km2. La Orotava is the largest county in Tenerife (207.31 Km2).

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Flight durations to Tenerife

admin — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 18:38:11 +0000

How long does it take to travel to Tenerife from my city? This is one of the concerns for many travellers: After all, what’s the point of spending eight hours on a plane for just a long weekend. The exact flight time is not entirely predictable – strong jet streams can trim or save time when crossing the Atlantic, for instance. It also depends if the flight is to Tenerife North (TFN) airport or Tenerife South (TFS). Here there is a time estimation of flights to Tenerife for some European destinations.

Flight	Length
Tenerife - Madrid	2h 30m
Tenerife - London	4h 00m
Tenerife - Manchester	4h 20m
Tenerife - Liverpool	4h 40m
Tenerife - Dublin	4h 30m
Tenerife - Glasgow	4h 40m
Tenerife - Frankfurt	4h 45m
Tenerife - Paris	3h 45m
Tenerife - Belfast	4h 40m
Tenerife - Newcastle	4h 40m
Tenerife - Berlin	5h 00m
Tenerife - Amsterdam	4h 40m

Flight Length

Tenerife - Madrid 2h 30m

Tenerife - London 4h 00m

Tenerife - Manchester 4h 20m

Tenerife - Liverpool 4h 40m

Tenerife - Dublin 4h 30m

Tenerife - Glasgow 4h 40m

Tenerife - Frankfurt 4h 45m

Tenerife - Paris 3h 45m

Tenerife - Belfast 4h 40m

Tenerife - Newcastle 4h 40m

Tenerife - Berlin 5h 00m

Tenerife - Amsterdam 4h 40m

As the average time from Occidental Europe is four hours, it is not recommended to visit Tenerife just for a weekend. A long weekend or even better a week or two weeks is the ideal length to enjoy your visit and have enough time to get to know the island.

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Photos from locals and tourists

admin — Wed, 18 Feb 2009 17:40:18 +0000

Flickr has an important collection of photos of Tenerife. We found these pictures far more real than the typical tourist guides photos, as they show the Island of Tenerife from the point of view of tourists and locals without censorship. Clicking the current photo provides the author and sometimes the location.

If you are looking for photos of a specific location or subject like Carnival or beaches check out the following Tenerife photo gallery: Photos of Tenerife

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