Tenerife Islands

This was a first journey for my daughter. Driving to the Munich airport and then a four hour flight to Tenerife was easier than I've expected. Already on the airport she made friends as Tenerife are a popular destination for young families. But you do need to adjust for such a journey as there are places where small children are not allowed to visit. One of such places was the peak of Pico del Teide, another were the caves… 

Travelling with a child is easier if you can use the car. You're freer and the child can catch a nap in between. Also, if you're planning for longer drives, it's also cheaper. I booked a car in advance and got a deal for 200€ for 8 days, which included full insurance. When I picked up the car I had to pay for a full tank of gas, but I could drive it back empty. We used up all the fuel, but I guess many people don't. The island is quite small and you can quickly see all the interesting roads. It's also great for cycling, so there's many people on two wheels here and many cyclists have their winter preparations here. The roads are nice and the climate is just perfect so there's no better place to do it. Before leaving I was thinking, just what will we do on a small island? I'm just not used to those holidays where you're lazing, I want to explore and get to know the land and people, meet people go to nature and have as much sports as possible. Upon arrival I realized that as a hobby photographer I will not be bored. A whole new world opened up for me. I got a feeling of freedom once I started getting around with a rented car and we really got to now the islands and most attractive parts. The roads take you over many hills and valleys to rocky shores with tunnels. For many the roads induce fear because there are many canyons. 

 

What's better than leaving the cold and depressing winter weather and go to sunny warm places? It was up to thirty degrees on the island. It's quite unusual when you step off the plane and you're dressed for occasions back home but you get to bathe in the sun with people dressed up like in the middle of summer. The climate is just perfect and there are many sunny days with little rain. The beaches were full of tourists even though it was winter by our standards, yet there were half naked tourists in volcanic sand. Along paradise beaches there are also many hotels with their own swimming pools, which were also all full. Tenerife attracts many lovers of golf and cyclists, who mostly go there in winter time. The Canary islands are popular all year around, winter and summer, when people want to escape unbearable heat. The wee one also felt great in these warm parts and enjoyed the beach and the hotel swimming pool. 

 

The local roads are not for everybody. If you're afraid of roads along cliffs you should not take the scenic route along the nice but quite narrow road pass the village of Masca, with some 150 people. The biggest attraction of the place is the road itself that offers a great view of the mountains and the sea, but there's a lot of traffic from minibuses to cyclists, bikers and other cars. After seeing this part I thought this was the most extreme road on the island – but I was wrong. First we saw a side way to the left, read the map and realised there's one road taking you straight through the cliffs. This one was even more terrifying. It goes along the edge of a cliff with some tunnels along the way and many safety nets to protect you from falling straight into the sea. In some places there's so much netting you feel like you're driving through a cage. 

 

The island is volcanic in its origin, thus the many mountains and uneven landscape with vivid plants. There's the 3718 metre tall Pico del Teide, which is the third tallest volcano in the world and the tallest on in Atlantic. There's a cable cart riding up and it's always full of tourists. There's some half an hour walk from the top station to the peak, but you need to register first – and it's usually overbooked as the number of daily visitors is limited. The wait would be a month and a half at the time we got there. But I didn't care much as the top station of the cable cart offered a great view already. Besides, they don't allow such young children to go to the top. As I love caves I was also interested what the underground world of a volcano looks like, so I took an organized tour to the fifth biggest volcanic cave in the world (the largest ones are on Hawaii). It's nice to see all types of caves, as these are much different from the ones we're used to. They would, however, be quite boring for speleologists, as they are mostly empty and very much alike. The tunnels are larger or smaller, but that's about it, as lava made its way to the surface. But caving is really developed on the islands and there are over thousand official caves on Tenerife. There are many caver's societies and they are exploring the new caves, learning how they formed. The children younger than five are not allowed to enter caves, so my mother was waiting outside with her granddaughter. 

 

The south and southwestern shores are especially full of hotels. Some were bothered by dark volcanic ashes and sand, so they started covering it with Sahara sand. Some places were thus converted into traveller's paradise, although even the dark sand places are perfectly nice. Larger settlements, where there's a hotel next to a hotel with nice swimming pools in between and many palm and banana trees offer much fruit, as although there are huge plantations the island doesn't export bananas, but just offers them to guests. There are also four hostels that are perfect for getting to know travellers from all over the world. These are Hostel Casa Grande Surf, Hostel Albergue Juvenil Tiguerorte (Villa de Mazo), Hostel Bed & Breakfast La Laguna and Hostel Finca los Geranios. 

 

There are only about four hours of flight separating us from this almost tropical part of the world, that's still part of Europe. The spectacular volcano in the middle of the island, the lush vegetation and tall cliffs along with terrifying roads and paradise beaches. Tenerife are still mostly budget friendly destination and great for traveling, especially when it's winter back home. And it's also an island great for young families.