Is tenerife really awful?

[TravellingSpoon]

Seen in mentioned on so many worst holiday threads.

Am taking the DC's on October. Hotel has good reviews but now I am nervous it's going to be awful.

We love Tenerife. I prefer las americas to los christianos. Adeje is beautiful too.

Haven't RTFT but Siam Park is brilliant and zoo very good too.

I hate being hassled by restaurant/bar staff when you are walking along. It's bad for that. And have heard and met a few people getting food poisoning.

Costa Adeje is way nicer than then 2 other main resorts imo

We just got back from Puerto del la Cruz and it wasn't that touristy because we chose to go to the local restaurants. It was lovely and peaceful and not really busy

Previously went to Costa Adeje and that was nice too

To those complaining about Loro Parque - they make a big thing of all their animals being rescue cases, not captured deliberately for exploitation. There was a full judicial enquiry before transferring Morgan, a rescued young Orca found off Holland, to Loro, for example.
My kids and I have enjoyed several winter sun holidays on Tenerife, mainly in Costa Adeje and Los Cristianos. The national park around Mount Teide is beautiful, the cable car to the crater has great views, and if you get a rainy day there’s a brilliant “Escape the room” adventure in Costa Adeje with different ones for all ages. The hobbit one was suitably non scary for kids. We avoided the very busy Playa de las Americas as it seemed a bit too Brits abroad/Benidorm, but that might be unfair, and lots of people like that kind of holiday.
The hotels tend to provide loads of activities and entertainment, especially for kids.
I went just for some January sun, expecting it to be ghastly (I’d probably read the same reviews, OP!) but I really enjoyed it and went back three times. Have a super holiday!

I liked Loroparc i really did however I don't think it is fair to keep orcas it iartificial pods also it is like keeping a goldfish in a thmble i and some of them were transferred from seaworld anyway I was just making the op aware people can make their own mind up.

No way Tenerife is lovely I’ve been twice! Loro Parcs is a must! Kids love it too! And Siam park! Absolutely nothing wrong with Tenerife where are you staying.

What is the weather like iń December?

Another vote for los gigantes - not touristy, plenty to do and easy to travel to other parts of the island

Went to Puerto del a Cruz with DD13, had a fab time, we avoid typical brits abroad places.

Avoid Lora Parc, they have captive orcas and reneged on an agreement to release and not breed.
uk.whales.org/2018/09/24/orca-morgan-gives-birth-at-theme-park-loro-parque/

Go to Playa la Arena/Puerto Santiago no hassle from people handing out flyers etc, Blue Flag Beach for 27 years no noise on streets after midnight. Avoid all inclusive it more expensive than self catering and do trip to Masca . Brilliant place to holiday

@quitefranklyivehadenough have you walked along to the next village? We normally do and there's a little van at the harbour where you can buy a drink and people watch. Last time we were there it was all locals and us, we had a great time watching them all jumping in and out of the sea.

We always stay in Golf Del Sur because it's so quiet in relation to the rest of Tenerife. Normally in December though and last time they had an amazing festival on as well. Just such a lovely chilled place

@quitefranklyivehadenough please go to la laguna, its about an hour from the south. Its a beautiful Medieval old city and it's where I lived...

en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/San_Crist%C3%B3bal_de_La_Laguna

Look how beautiful it is if you step away from the old English inns down south!

Or you can go to santa cruz which is now the capital, the bus takes you directly to the centre. From Los cris and playa. Honestly there's no excuse to complain about how shit tenerife is if you can't be arsed to look around.

Anaga mountains, also an hour from the south. You can surf around at the base, and also there's a couple of brilliant hippy beaches, one called Las Gaviotas which has a fab bar on it, another called Las Teresitas which has a load of kiosks which serve fresh sardines beer and cocktails. Teresitas is accessible by bus too.

Sorry to bang on, I just always feel A bit sad when I see threads like this!

The town with the dragon tree is nice as is the town with Black Madonna Basilica.

I’d highly recommend the Teide by Night trip. One of the most amazing experiences ever!

No its not very nice if you go to an area known for cheap booze, English breakfasts and clubbing but fortunately that's about 0.01% of the island so you wouldn't even know about that unless you actually went to that part.

Unbelievable that people still think this about the Canary Islands when they either haven't ever been or have only been on a cheap AI holiday.

Tenerife is one of my favourite places and we used to go 3 or 4 times a year, we're toying with buying either there or Lanzarote. We've been going to both for 15 years and I can honestly say I've seen about 3 cockroaches the whole time so I'm not sure why it has the reputation of being overrun. We stay near Adeje and love the walk from there to Cristianos harbour, one of our favourite restaurants, El Cine, is there. Best seafood I've ever eaten.

I’m going to Los Christians in Dec purely for the sun so have booked a penthouse apartment with sun deck to maximise exposure!

I’ve gone on and off for the past 30+ years, starting off as a drunken 18 year old, then with dh pre-kids, with babirsm todd,eras, older kids, teens and on a girls holiday with a friend a couple of times in recent years, and always enjoyed it. It can be whatever kind of holiday you want it to be

I have never been so happy to leave a holiday unfortunately