Things to do in Tenerife?

[PikachuSayBoo]

After swaying between booking a holiday in Mallorca or Malaga I',vet booked an apartment in Tenerife.

Mainly because I want to go whale watching and also up to Mount Teide.

Any other recommendations of places to go/stuff to do/restaurants?

Not bothered about Loro parque or Siam waterpark. Dd is 16. Will have a car. Staying in the middle of Playa de los Americas (I know, I know). .

unless you are in a flat above one of the footy bars in August, Las Americas isn't necessarily like you assume.

Tenerife has wonderful walking, from the flat stroll along the seafront for miles to the Masca gorge to the Teide hikes. Hopefully you'll get the weather to go up the cable car too.

lots of real settlements to see. A trip to La Gomera (well worth it for the view you get of Teide alone). And of course beach time and swimming.

Certainly not above a footy bar so hopefully should be ok.

Masca gorge sounds good. Off to google boat trips to Gomera. Thanks.

Which resort are you in?

If it's Costa Adeje area it's possible to walk to La Caleta which has some lovely more traditional seafood restaurants.

Scuba diving try dive/course.

Make sure you get the pass in advance if you want to go right to the top of mount Teide.

We've been to Tenerife 3 times with the intention of going all the way to the top and not got there yet. First two times, no passes available (I suspect the coach tours snaffle a lot of them, but we wanted to go up ourselves, rather than join a tour). Third time, got the passes and drove up, only to find cable car was closed due to high winds .

So we had a little wander about in freezing temperatures and winds so strong and loud you could barely stand up or talk to each other and then we carried on driving and went over to the north side of the island to have a mooch around Puerto de La Cruz, which was lovely.

We then drove back the fast way round the coast instead of back over the mountain.

Will be on the seafront in Playa de las Americas so maybe a 30 min walk from La Caleta.

I'm slightly confused about Teide. Do you need to pre book a cable car ticket? Does the cable car go right to the top? I read something about pre booking a permit to go right to the top but it said it was a five hour walk. So I go to the impression the cable car went part of the way up and then if you had a permit you could walk up higher?

And scuba diving would be a no. Tried it once and found it quite scary.

You don't have to prebook the cable car, it goes nearly to the top - I think there is a bit of a climb to the top but more like 10 to 20 minutes not 5 hours, that would be from much lower down, maybe from the refugio where you can stay overnight.

Anyone can go up the cable car, unless it is closed due to high winds obviously, but limited numbers can go right to the top - that's what you need a permit for.

There are hiking maps available online and marked trails - you can walk all over the mountain if you wanted to.

the cable car takes you most of the way and will be well worthwhile.. To stand on the very peak you need the permit. It is only a short but steep hike from the cable car top - the five hours is if you start at the base of the mountain.

I've been to the top many many years ago before you needed the permit. I do recall that it was the third attempt in a two week holiday as on the previous two the cable car was indeed not running.

it looks like there is now a new system for the cable car:

www.volcanoteide.com/en/blog/teide_cable_car/ascend_mount_teide_by_cable_car_without_any_delays_or_queues

plenty of other good walks in the park. And to state what should be obvious but isn't judging by the sights you see; Las Canadas is at altitude and Teide is even higher. Do not turn up in flip flops, t-shirt and shorts. You will need warm clothes and proper shoes.

That's helpful. Thanks.

YY about the temperature special. On the day we went it was about 30 C on the south coast and 4 C and extremely windy at Las Canadas (near the bottom of the cable car), which was freezing.

We had on trainers, jeans, fleece etc, basically all the warm clothes we had taken there and it wasn't enough.

PDLA veteran. What do you want to do is it the tourist type thing? There's a mini golf near the safari centre, body boarding/surf school on the beach etc or the more explorer type thing We did the astronomy tiede tour which we found really interesting . With regard to restaurants which apartment s are you staying at and what sort of thing do you like.
There's loads of decent food but too much 3 course for 10 Euros as well..

We like habibi the Lebanese bar/. Restaurant
We had tapas at la caleta
Will try a few different ones on our next trip.
There's a nice German one in los Cris.Primavera
Also like cordon blue chicken at sol y Lina
Dh likes octopus at el cine