Description: We drove out of Santa Cruz and headed for San Andres, all the time keeping in the direction of the mountains. Not far from the centre of the city, there is a sign for Las Teresitas beach. We took this, planning to spend half an hour at the beach.
There is lots of parking at the back of the beach - it is free to park here. It was quite busy the day we visited, but we had no trouble finding a parking space.
Las Teresitas beach is a bit of a novelty in Tenerife, thanks to the long expanse of golden sand. There are no natural golden sandy beaches on the island, the norm is black, volcanic sand. The beach here is long, arching and was created with millions of tons of sand shipped in from the Sahara in 1973. It is 1.5km long. The golden sand slopes very gently into the water. There is a purpose built breakwater, so it is calm and lagoon like and very safe.
The setting here is beautiful. The dramatic grey mountains in the background, the golden sand and the canarian and coconut palm trees complement each other perfectly. It should be paradise, but on closer inspection, for me, there were a few things that spoiled it. Firstly, the sand was full of pigeons, pecking around and walking all over your belongings. Secondly, there were 2 huge oil tankers on the horizon which did spoil the view somewhat. It was also quite busy, there were lots of heavily tanned people sunbathing on the beach, we explored other black sandy beaches on the island and I did tend to prefer these.
At the back of the beach there are lots of restaurants, bars, beach huts and some changing rooms. There were also a couple of toilets, these seemed to be locked when we tried them.
We went to one of the beach huts for lunch. It looked a bit basic, but the food we got was delicious - sandwiches and drinks, very reasonably priced with Spanish music playing in the background, it was great.
We spent about half an hour on the beach, then left, taking the climbing, windy road towards Igueste. The road takes you on a steep, winding journey - the views over the beach and the Santa Cruz coastline are simply stunning.
At the top of the hill, by some derelict bunkers covered with grafitti is a stopping place and a viewpoint. This is a must-see place. You get the most amazing views of the golden beach, the Santa Cruz coastline and even the auditorium in the distance. From up here you also get a wonderful view of the lovely, colourful buildings of the little fishing village of San Andres. It seems to cling to the hillside beside the beach. For us, this was one of the most beautiful views on the island of Tenerife.
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