To be surprised Tenerife is overrun with tourists?

Going 20/25yrs ago things may have changed

We love it there - been going maybe 13yrs

I completely sympathise with the people of the Canary Islands who are fed up with the tourists which constitute 40% of their entire economy. I’m sure they will cope perfectly well without me and my horrid British money, so in solidarity with their struggle to reclaim their islands, I won’t be visiting at any point in future.

So what do the protesters want to do to keep their economy afloat instead? What did they do before the Canaries became a tourism mecca and particularly a winter sun destination? Why is the work situation there precarious? They have all-year-round tourist business.

Don't think you've understood the protests or any of the issues involved. Given that you went once and hated it, I'm surprised you care enough to post.

If you stay in Las Americas, yes, it's awful. If you stay virtually anywhere else, including Costa Adeje which borders it, it's fine. Not everyone wants to stay in an AI eating English food, getting rowdy drunk and watching drag acts. Mount Teide is a great day out; Masca and Los Gigantes are lovely. The North is very green. Whalewatching and snorkelling is very good. There is plenty of natural beauty and we find the locals very friendly. We're in Lanzarote at the moment and didn't see today's protests as they're in the downmarket area; every place has one- you just need to do your research and avoid.

When people went somewhere once decades ago and decide the whole place is awful to this day 🙄🙄

My BIL has actually been living in Tenerife for the last few years. He works near the university. We went for Christmas and ate dinner on the balcony in the sunshine. It was lovely. It was so easy to book a flight and we hired a car and went to some spectacular scenery. Gorgeous weather even in winter.

But if you want a holiday on a plate with coaches, hotels etc well - it's going to be touristy!!!

Is that what makes a holiday on a plate? Coaches and hotels? Surely that's the bare minimum!

I used to think it wasn't nice, especially Playa. Then I went to Santa Cruz which is different.

Tenerife probably needs tourists though, now it's been reliant on the for 50 years or so.

However, it’s the attitude of the locals towards tourists even back then that made me vow never go back. Tourists were treated like barely tolerated cash machine

OP, you are so brazenly tone deaf it's sickening. The Canarians are protesting against the unsustainable tourism model and the degradation of housing, water supply, the landscape, the building of hotels on public land, the precariousness of work, unemployment and more. And all you care about is your holiday.

How does that work? Surely it’s not crowded if no one goes.

We go 3 times a year, love getting some winter sun in the short December days, due to go in a couple of weeks which will be a blessed relief from the awful weather at home…then another couple of weeks later in the summer.

I avoid the pissed up Sun reading knuckle draggers like the plague

I agree. The Royal Hideway Corales is fab. There are some really lovely hotels in Tenerife. I went over 20 years ago and stayed in a shit hotel but that’s because I was a student and paid peanuts for the hotel. I didn’t let that put me off the whole island like the OP!

We used to go in the 1990s when I was a kid and went back in 2014 its okay for a cheap holiday in the sun a short flight away. Places like Turkey, Egypt and Morocco have better weather and all inclusive options now.

We had a great time in February 1/2 term about 6 years ago when DD was 9. Everybody was friendly and helpful (and didn't laugh too much at my iffy Spanish).

We booked a (for us) cheap AI package in an apartment in Costa Adeje (so we had scope to cook food if it was dire- it was okay). We also had a free pass to Siam Park (which was what swung it with a water-mad child).

We took the opportunity to hire a car for a couple of days and head up north to the capital for Carnival for a couple of nights at a hotel school (so excellent food and service, if patient/understanding) and came back across snowy Mount Teide (it was looking hit and miss as to whether they would open the mountain and it was fun watching all the snowball fights and the anxious policemen).

There are definitely "nice" bits of Tenerife off-season but I would be sensitive to the Airbnb issues.

No way, I’ve been twice and went specifically because I am not a sunbed and souvenir type of holidaymaker. It has amazing hiking, stunning scenery up round the volcano and the centre of the island. You can do some great bike rides, go on whale watching boat trips, there is a rainforest, you can hike the Inferno Gorge which is a great experience.

It can be the opposite of a sunbed holiday if you have the ability to look beyond the package holidays.

Lots of over-touristed places now. Amsterdam, Lisbon, Lake District, Edinburgh, Kyoto, Dubrovnik etc etc.
Time for a surge/peak city tax model?

I went 20-30 years ago with parents and they didn't like it and so hadn't been back. Have been now 4 times since we have had kids - it's come a long way! Some of the 4 & 5 star hotels are out of this world they are absolutely fantastic, can't say I will be hanging around Las Americas or Los Cristianos soon but there are plenty of lovely places.

I expect the locals in Cape Verde will eventually get pissed off about be priced out of housing too. Its happening everywhere now alas

The Canaries' locals have had enough of mass tourism, simply because it's unsustainable for the islands.

If you don't get it, go on holidays to another country, or better yet, stay on your own.

Love the interview this morning with one ex-pat immigrant moaning about people buying houses - the irony!

Just looked at Cape Verde .com and found this 😂😂😂
“Be aware of the time of the winds (Tempo das brisas) on the flat islands from October to July, from which especially surfers and kite surfers benefit, and the rainy season (Tempo das chuvas) in August and September.”

Cape Verde was an absolute hole. Brothel outside the 5* hotel with very very young girls working there, the reps said oh just cross the road and they'll stop calling over. Constant hassle and ag from locals who wanted to get money under any circumstances and looking at the place I can't blame them.

I wouldn't go to Tenerife again either but certainly wouldn't recommend CV

I don't understand that either. I would hate AI! We like to explore and eat in locally-owned restaurants, and none of us would enjoy 7 days plonked beside a pool on a sunlounger and see nothing of my surroundings!

We have been to Teneriffe twice, Grand Canaria 3 times and Lanzarotte once.

I like them all and have never come across rude local people. It's usually the pissed up Brits who are rude!

Canarian food is lovely, and if you go up to the hills and away from the AI beach resorts, so is the countryside.
I say that as a big fan of AI holidays with little kids, but you need to do other things too.

Yes and the rise in Air B+B meaning places locals might have lived now being unavailable and /or too expensive

Hotels provide trade and employment - air b+b just rob rental properties

There are no nice old towns like you get in mainland Europe and it's a cultural desert.

Tell me you didn't leave the south coast without telling me you didn't leave the south coast.

There's a UNESCO world heritage old town in Tenerife for goodness sake!