Family Friendly Tenerife

Teide National Park/Mount Teide

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Attraction | "Mount Teide Volcano"

Mount Teide Photo - Teide National Park/Mount Teide, Tenerife, Canary Islands

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If there is a place on Tenerife that you must visit before you leave the island, it is Mount Teide. This place fascinated us so much, we hired a car during our first week and spent the day exploring the area, then we did the same thing on our second week. It is fascinating, beautiful and very unusual.Mount Teide is actually Spain's highest mountain, standing at 12,198 feet above sea level. It dominates the entire island, is the first thing you see when you fly over Tenerife and is the main geographical feature. Added to that is the fact it is a dormant volcano! It is the third largest volcano in the world. Only in Hawaii will you find 2 bigger volcanoes.Our son was thrille...Read More

If there is a place on Tenerife that you must visit before you leave the island, it is Mount Teide. This place fascinated us so much, we hired a car during our first week and spent the day exploring the area, then we did the same thing on our second week. It is fascinating, beautiful and very unusual.

Mount Teide is actually Spain's highest mountain, standing at 12,198 feet above sea level. It dominates the entire island, is the first thing you see when you fly over Tenerife and is the main geographical feature. Added to that is the fact it is a dormant volcano! It is the third largest volcano in the world. Only in Hawaii will you find 2 bigger volcanoes.

Our son was thrilled and very excited (and a little bit wary if truth be told) about visiting a real volcano. The adults in the party felt pretty much the same way!

Mount Teide was actually formed about a million years ago. The last eruption was in 1909, but apparently at the summit right now, sulphurous wisps and steam come out of cracks in the earth. The most famous eruption was in the early 1700's when 2 lava streams destroyed the harbour at the town of Garachico.

Mount Teide and its snow-capped peaks dominate the entire area. Wherever you drive and go you will have wonderful views of this stunning mountain. Our son is not usually too interested in beautiful scenery - but needless to say he was amazed to be looking at a volcano!

The 10 mile crater - Las Canadas has weird and wonderful rock formations, volcanic ash, lava and more incredible things to see. The main road runs through the caldera and there are lots of places you can stop and get out and explore. At this level, we were just about warm enough with short sleeves, but did wish we had brought light jackets. It does feel fairly chilly at times.

The landscape in the caldera is almost lunar like - you would half expect to see ET emerging from behind one of the rocks. It is quite unlike anything I have ever seen before. It is easy to see why they picked this area to film Star Wars, Planet of the Apes and more Hollywood movies.

There are fields of lava rocks, we found it a lot of fun (and a great photo opportunity) to pick up some of these huge rocks and boulders - they are extremely light. There are also some fabulously unusual rocks at Llano de Ucana. Roque Chinchado is a must-see place. This rock formation and others nearby are so strange and unearthly. We parked and wandered around this area. There were lots of tourists here, but if you follow the path a little way away and around the back of the rocks, it feels as if you have the whole area to yourself. Read Less

Teide National Park/Mount Teide

Tenerife, Canary Islands

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Loro Park (Loro Parque-Parrot Park)

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Attraction | "Loro Parque"

Koi carp pool Photo - Loro Park (Loro Parque-Parrot Park), Canary Islands, Spain

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We booked an excursion to Loro Parque through our tour operator, before we left the UK. We did have a good day out, but in hindsight, had we known exactly how long the journey there and back would take, we would have given it a miss. The tour operator said it took just over an hour to get there from our location, it took well over 2 hours each way, so a lot of our time was wasted travelling on the motorway.Loro Parque is in the north of the island, in Puerto de la Cruz. It is a wildlife park - with all sorts of animals including sharks, gorillas, parrots, penguins and all kinds of other exotic animals. It is a massive attraction on Tenerife, they advertise and promote themselves heavily ju...Read More

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on January 20, 2013

Loro Park (Loro Parque-Parrot Park)
Puerto De La Cruz
Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain

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Siam Park

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Seal area at Siam Park Photo - Siam Park, Adeje, Tenerife

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Siam Park is supposedly the biggest water park in Europe. When you are in Tenerife, you can't fail to hear about this place. It is very well marketed and there are adverts and huge posters literally everywhere. We drove past it on our way from the airport on our first day, so it was a must-do for us, according to our 9 year old son. We did have a great day out at Siam Park, in fact our son thought it was the best thing he did in Tenerife.The park is in Costa Adeje, not far from Playa de las Americas. Apparently if you are staying in one of the big resorts - Los Cristianos, Playa de las Americas or Coste Adeje, they run a free bus service to the park. Our hotel was about 25 minutes dr...Read More

Siam Park is supposedly the biggest water park in Europe. When you are in Tenerife, you can't fail to hear about this place. It is very well marketed and there are adverts and huge posters literally everywhere. We drove past it on our way from the airport on our first day, so it was a must-do for us, according to our 9 year old son. We did have a great day out at Siam Park, in fact our son thought it was the best thing he did in Tenerife.

The park is in Costa Adeje, not far from Playa de las Americas. Apparently if you are staying in one of the big resorts - Los Cristianos, Playa de las Americas or Coste Adeje, they run a free bus service to the park. Our hotel was about 25 minutes drive away. We booked the trip through our tour operator, it included tickets to the park and a bus ride there and this worked very well for us. If you want to go alone, ticket prices are 30 Euros for adults and 19.50 Euros for children.

We spent about 6 hours at the park and the time literally flew past. We had read somewhere that if you want to avoid the queues, go there on a Sunday. I can testify to that - we visited on a Sunday, and although there were plenty of people there, we never had to queue for any of the rides and slides.

When we arrived there were a lot of people at the entrance, but everyone was dealt with efficiently and it didn't take long to get inside the park. It has a Thai theme, all the rides and the landscaping is meant to be like Thailand - it is very beautiful.

We easily found loungers with sun-umbrellas. There was no issue with finding somewhere to sit - we chose near the lazy river but there are also lovely places by the golden, sandy beach. If you want to treat yourself, you can also hire a cabana. We didn't do this - but saw the cabanas perched high above the wave pool. They looked like Thai huts and were very impressive.

There are lots of rides in the park, all are spectacular and all are really great fun. The lazy river was wonderful - apparently it is the longest lazy rive and the highest lazy river in the world (there is a difference in levels of 8 metres). It wasn't at all busy and you could float around and feel as if you had the place all to yourself. The water was a little chilly, but you soon got used to it. It is desalinated sea water and heated to 25 degrees. It is recycled to water the plants and keep the park green.

There are rides and slides to suit everyone - from the thrill seeker, down to young children. For people who want a thrill, the Tower of Power would definitely fit the bill. It is an extremely steep and high slide and at the end you whizz through a shark tank. I was too much of a scaredy cat, but my husband did it and confirmed it really was as bad as it looked.

There are other tamer slides, a family raft ride, a volcano ride and much more. We spent quite a long time in the children's play area. It is lovely, lots of slides and places to explore and our son loved it here.

Be sure to also check out the wave pool. It is surrounded by a "beach" of golden sand, so is very picturesque. Apparently they also have the largest man made waves in the world here - another record.

The Thai village is also worth exploring. There are lots of shops, places to eat and it is said to be the largest Thai village outside Thailand - there are 25 different buildings. We had lunch in the Thai tea room - the sandwiches were delicious and very good value.

The thing that really most impressed me about Siam Park was the way it is landscaped and designed. The park has been really carefully and artistically designed, so that the vegetation and plants hide the structure of the slides. There are no ugly tubes and pipes, just beautiful plants and flowers and a "hole" at the bottom where people on the ride "pop" out. It makes the rides more enjoyable and also more thrilling.

We had a wonderful day out here. It suited everyone in our party and even though the weather was a bit rainy and overcast, it did not affect our enjoyment. We loved it and would definitely recommend it! Read Less

Member Rating 4 out of 5 on January 16, 2013

Siam Park
Autopista TFE 1
Adeje, Canary Islands
00 34 922 691 45

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Los Gigantes and Puerto de la Cruz

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Puerto de la Cruz Photo - Tenerife, Canary Islands

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Two seaside towns that we as a family enjoyed visiting were Los Gigantes and Puerto de la Cruz. Los Gigantes is in the south of the island, Puerto de la Cruz is right up in the north, but both offer lots of family friendly things to do.Los Gigantes was only about 15 minutes drive from our hotel, so we decided to go there and explore. It is a nice resort - quite touristy, but still fairly small. The good thing is that there are no high rise hotels, so the views are still very lovely.The resort, on the day we visited, had beautiful views over the sparkling sea, blue skies and glittering sands. It gets its name from the huge, dramatic cliffs which tower over it - the giants. ...Read More

Two seaside towns that we as a family enjoyed visiting were Los Gigantes and Puerto de la Cruz. Los Gigantes is in the south of the island, Puerto de la Cruz is right up in the north, but both offer lots of family friendly things to do.

Los Gigantes was only about 15 minutes drive from our hotel, so we decided to go there and explore. It is a nice resort - quite touristy, but still fairly small. The good thing is that there are no high rise hotels, so the views are still very lovely.

The resort, on the day we visited, had beautiful views over the sparkling sea, blue skies and glittering sands. It gets its name from the huge, dramatic cliffs which tower over it - the giants. They are the backdrop to the whole place and the little town nestles below them. They are over 800 metres tall and are almost vertical. You actually get a better view of the cliffs if you drive out of the town. Just follow the winding road out of the resort and up the hillside, eventually you come to a viewpoint. There is plenty of parking here, a little cafe with a terrace, but best of all amazing views of the cliffs. We also enjoyed looking through the telescope out to sea.

In the resort there is a nice marina with lots of restaurants and interesting boats to look at. The beach is also worth a visit. The sand is black, volcanic sand and there are lots of beachside bars and places to have a drink or a snack. Best of all though, the beach is perfect for snorkelling or for children to splash around in the shallow water. It was not at all crowded. There were lots of sailing trips out to spot whales and dolphins. They also offered fishing and diving trips, or waterskiing and banana boats - something for everyone.

Away from the beach, the streets are winding and the whole place has a charming air to it.

Puerto de la Cruz is right in the north of the island and is very lively and cosmopolitan. Our son really enjoyed it here, I did think it was a little tacky and extremely touristy, but that said, we did spend a nice afternoon here.

There are lots of cobbled streets, pavement cafes and bars and some pretty squares. This was a former fishing village and life still revolves around the harbour. We spent most of our time in the old town area. There is a nice walkway by the sea, but it was quite busy. It is lined with touristy shops and restaurants, but if you venture into the old town area, it is still touristy, but the restaurants are a bit nicer.

We had lunch at a pizzeria with a terrace over the sea. It is easy to find, I would recommend it - the pizzas were delicious and the view was truly wonderful.

Apparently everything here grows at an alarming rate - it is a tropical paradise. They have Botanical Gardens - we did not visit due to time constraints, but apparently they are like a South American jungle. There are also orchid gardens - Agatha Christie spent a lot of time here. Even just walking around though, you can see banana plants, palm trees and exotic plants - a constant reminder that you are only 300 km off the coast of Africa. Read Less

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La Orotava

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La Orotava from the bridge Photo - Tenerife, Canary Islands

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La Orotava is a beautiful little town in the north of the island - very close to the resort of Puerto de la Cruz. It kept both the adults and children in our party happy. It is an old, elegant and very sophisticated hill town with amazing architecture - great for the grown-ups, but with steep, cobbled streets, wooden balconies and great places to explore so it is also fun for children.Traditionally La Orotava was home to Tenerife's aristocracy. The most wealthy and noble families settled here after the Spanish Conquest. There is still something of an aristocratic air about the whole place today.We parked and crossed over the bridge towards the old town. If you stop on the...Read More

La Orotava is a beautiful little town in the north of the island - very close to the resort of Puerto de la Cruz. It kept both the adults and children in our party happy. It is an old, elegant and very sophisticated hill town with amazing architecture - great for the grown-ups, but with steep, cobbled streets, wooden balconies and great places to explore so it is also fun for children.

Traditionally La Orotava was home to Tenerife's aristocracy. The most wealthy and noble families settled here after the Spanish Conquest. There is still something of an aristocratic air about the whole place today.

We parked and crossed over the bridge towards the old town. If you stop on the bridge and take in the view, it is very special. You see the town, the valley and beyond. Our son was especially taken with the dragon trees - there were a lot of them here, all various ages.

Close to the bridge, there are some little shops and when we were there, they had photos in the window of the Corpus Christi events in the town. They cover the streets with flowers, and in the town hall square, they use coloured sand from the volcanoes to make the most amazing and intricate "sand carpets" - usually showing religious scenes. Apparently the town has entered the Guinness Book of Records for the largest event of this type in the world. We enjoyed looking at the pictures, then walked up to the town hall to see where it all takes place.

The Town Hall itself is also a very nice building, with a wonderful dragon tree right next to it. The streets all around are full of beautiful old mansions and the architecture everywhere you look is simply stunning.

If you walk up the (extremely) steep hill near the town hall, then you come to the Casa de los Balcones. Just a word of warning - the streets here are really steep, lots are cobbled as well, so you definitely need to make sure you are wearing comfortable shoes.

The Casa de los Balcones have the finest examples of traditional balconies that there are in Tenerife. The balconies are ornate and very beautiful - even our 9 year old was very taken in by them. You can actually go inside the buildings too - I would definitely recommend this. The building on the left side of the road had lots of displays of Canarian costumes, a big gift shop, local wine tasting and displays of the sand carpets inside. They had 2 examples of the sand carpets you could get very close to. This was fascinating. Outside there was a wonderful terrace, with views over the valley and a potter at work making things to sell in the shops. We had to almost tear our son away, so interested was he in watching this craftsman.

The balconied house on the other side of the street is also well worth a visit. Inside there is the most beautiful inner courtyard - it is amazing. Upstairs they have a quirky museum. Entrance is very cheap and it is worth having a quick look.

Walking back down the hill, there is a lovely skyline view - the Iglesia de la Concepcion is stunning with its round tower. We went inside this beautiful church too for a few minutes.

We spent about 1.5 hours in La Orotava - a beautiful town and interesting for children with the sand carpets and Canarian balconies. Read Less

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