To think the canary isles are tacky?

Tenerife is a stunning and very diverse island when you step away from the touristy towns.

You've got Masca in the NW (https://maps.app.goo.gl/Ku7SN3x6nH9piDbT8)
Natural pools in Garachico (https://maps.app.goo.gl/QE1SqX1jdcMpTe3K6)
Anaga mountains and forest in the NE (https://maps.app.goo.gl/kwfkNXYX2unfLPry5)
Forests and wonderful views leading up to Teide
The lunar landscape of the lava fields (https://maps.app.goo.gl/bqJd6wzSdU3YSNNf6)
And of course Teide (https://maps.app.goo.gl/6CEnbApjbbjJmppE8)

I think I must have been to Tenerife about 10 times over the years and we always rent a car and drive around the island. It's just beautiful. Fantastic star gazing up at the volcano too. We did a private stargazing tour that started before sunset, so we had a bottle of bubbly, overlooking the fantastic scenery (we were above the clouds), watched a gorgeous sunset, then when it was dark went back to our guide, who'd set up a professional telescope so we could look at Saturn and Jupiter and a real close up of the moon.

There's a fantastic eco marine tour too that takes no more than 8 people out to look for whales and dolphins. They use a hydrophone so you can hear them underwater too (https://www.atlanticecoexperience.com/)

The hotels tend to be really good because there's so much competition. We normally stay in Adeje. If you are having a resort day, there's a promenade walk along the front all the way from Adeje through to Los Cristianos. Yes, there's some touristy / chavvy stuff, but no worse than any British seaside town IMO.

I'd take Tenerife over Dubai any day!

Lanzarote and Gran Canaria are fine and have some nice places to see but Tenerife has a lot more diverse landscapes.

No it's not fine.

Fine is asking for recommendations without being sad enough to try and make yourself look as though you're above others.

But you're never going to admit your post is nasty anyway, so I'm not sure why you're asking if you're 'being a judgy bitch' when you can't accept the answer.

Agree with this. The idea that 'going nice' is expensive is wrong. Some of the best places we've stayed over the years have been cheap but quirky. You have to hunt for them but it's worthwhile. One of my favourite things to do on holiday is to go to the local supermarket - we generally do breakfast / lunch like this to keep costs down. And I'm loathe to paying entry to anywhere unless it's somewhere particular special. So I hunt down as much to do for free as possible. This usually involves doing a lot of walking! A holiday with me is often 20000 steps a day as a result... Which I totally get isn't everyones cup of tea. But if you want to do culture then walking really is the best way to get the vibe of somewhere.

Even with 'upmarket' destination staying in the best known locations is rarely the best option - the best restaurants aren't on the biggest/busiest street. They are usually cheaper than the tourist trap restaurants that are. People are lazy and don't wander just a street away unless the know the place, do their research or are curious.

I would say I wished more people were curious but then it would ruin my lovely experience. So I'm quite happy for Brits to be Brits Abroad as long as I can avoid that as it actually works in my favour!

This. The Canaries are gorgeous. Beautiful landscapes, food and culture. Just don't stay in the tacky bits.

Some people are happy to go just for the sun, to relax, have fun and take life a bit easier. Not everyone uses every holiday for culture and exploring especially when you have children tagging along.

Tenerife is one of my favourite places

Go to fuerteventura - benidorm and tenerife are my idea of hell but north fuerte is amazing (avoid caleta de fuste though)

Tenerife is awesome! Loads of variety so you don't have to do the Brits abroad thing if you don't want to.

I think what you’re saying is that “the British have ruined the Canary Islands”.

Don't restrict yourself OP, do you not want to write off the whole of Bali, Yucatan peninsula, Amsterdam, the Black Sea Coast and southern Turkey as well while you're at it?

@TimeForATerf How so? Born and bred Northerner here, not sure why reference to Black Pudding should offend me? It's not something I've ever considered especially / exclusively Northern? Unless you're referencing the War of the Roses black pudding throwing legend, which is a pretty niche string to pull at.

There are tacky bits and there are lovely bits. I love the Canaries tbh. Lanzarote has some beautiful scenery - I love the bleakness of the volcanic landscape, and the colours as you fly in are just amazing. It's not as high rise as some other bits of the Canaries as that sort of building was put a stop to years ago. But Fuerteventura and Tenerife (not been to the others) are mainly lovely too. Yeah, the towns can be a bit Brits-on-the-piss but they've also got loads going on, decent beaches, and nice restaurants and bars. Personally I've never had a bad holiday to the Canaries, like others say, you just need to get out of the touristy bits and explore.

If you go to the Playa- type places aimed at a certain type of Brit, then yes very tacky. Places aimed at Spanish locals and holiday makers (Puerto de la Cruz and Garachico in Tenerife, Aldea San Nicolas and Las Palmas in Gran Canaria for example) lovely and traditional and not tacky in the slightest.

Drinking beer and spending tacky time is a personal choice.

We chose an area friendly for mid-length natural hikes and enjoy them a lot, be it green hilltops at Gigantes in Tenerife or deserts of Fuerteventura.

And, we tend to end up in hotels with German speaking guests, not that it really matters.

No-one here gives a shiny shite where you go on holiday or if you 'have your mind changed'.

It's the nastiness and pure snobbery in your OP that's unnecessary but you know that.

You just don't like being called out on it.

La Gomera is spectacular.

We've been on a few holidays to these "tacky" places. It's very much what you make of it. We avoid the bars and tat shops. We go on walks and in the sea.

I love people watching especially drunk people. I'm quite happy to sit round the pool of an all inclusive and watch stag/hen dos and couples who have one too many. I'm far too old and boring sensible to join in.

Well aren't you just better than everyone else?

You often don't even need 'very expensive luxury' to go to the nice parts.

We've been to the Alpuljarras areas a few times (mountains between Malaga and Granada).

Just about everything is quite cheap - accommodation, restaurants, public transport, especially if you use the local bus app. Nice accommodation starts at about £50 a night, for 5 euro you can get a couple of beers or glasses of local wine that come with free tapas (real food like a slice of tortilla or pork steak on crusty bread) that are enough for lunch and for a euro or two you can go on the bus to all the little villages up in the mountains. Lots of marked hiking trails so you can go for walks from the villages for free. Plus there's loads of natural springs which feed fountains in villages so you can get as endless mineral water for nothing.

Sounds like your family are a bit chavvy OP 😂 Sorry couldn't resist. Yes there are bits like that, but there's other bits too!

We went to Tenerife, it wasn't my favourite ever, but there is definitely lots of nice little villages with plenty of culture, if you're willing to get off the beaten track - hiring a car definitely helps. We went to Pascua Florida in Guia de Isora (hope I've spelt that right!), absolutely beautiful floral festival they do at Easter. I didn't hear any British accents that day - possibly because of the terrifying drive there....

There's also Mount Teide of course, really interesting landscape.

I went to Lanzarote a few years ago, and while I didn’t love it, I did enjoy the holiday and it certainly wasn’t “tacky”

I’m not going to claim I didn’t come across any ‘Brits abroad’ places, although it wasn’t Brits causing issues to be honest, it really wasn’t hard to avoid the main touristy areas.

We hired a car (but the bus service was brilliant anyway) and explored. Found some amazing restaurants, beautiful beaches, pretty towns and villages, little markets with local sellers, boat trips, went up the volcano, “The Cracks”, etc.

How does my post piss all over the holiday choices of probably thousands of MNetters and their families?

The OP clearly woke up full of nastiness and thought she'd try to make others feel like shit over how they spend their hard earned money on their families.

That and the ignorant xenophobia is why she needs to take a long hard look in the mirror.

That was my impression of the Canaries until I went. Tenerife was absolutely lovely. Wasn’t full of high rise hotel tower blocks, the hotels seem to fit in with the landscape. I thought it was absolutely lovely and would go back in a heartbeat as it was so pretty and scenic.