Top events in Tenerife

June
14

A festival rooted deeply in religion centered around intricate colourful carpets made out of flower petals and volcanic sands. The highlight of...

August
12

The Perseid Meteor Shower is a beautiful natural spectacle in the sky. More than 60 shooting stars sip across the sky every hour. Mount Teide,...

August
26

This fiesta is one of Tenerife's quirkest, bringing together three of the largest districts of La Laguna to compete in a friendly competition to...

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Mount Teide, Tenerife

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Tenerife Travel Guide

Key Facts

Geography

Area: 

2,034 sq km (785 sq miles).

Population: 

865,000 (2007).

Population density: 

425.3 per sq km.

Capital: 

Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Population: 221,000 (2007).

Government: 

Spanish autonomous region since 1982.

Head of state: 

King Juan Carlos I since 1975.

Head of government: 

Paulino Rivero Baute (president of the Canary Islands Government) since 2007.

Electricity: 

220 or 225 volts AC, 50Hz. Generally, round two-pin plugs are in use.

Painted with the most luxuriant greens, the deepest blues and a technicolour palette of exotic foliage, Tenerife is much more than a resort destination. Bursts of purple bougainvillea electrify the hillsides while delicate orange orchids add the finishing touches to meadows and mountain trails.

Tenerife has undergone something of a metamorphosis recently. The tag of crass commercialism is slowly being replaced with a designer label as the island finally gets to grips with its pies, fries, and beer image. Nowadays, the island is quick to reveal a more colourful picture, promoting golf, nature, and wellness programmes as alternative pursuits to daytime sun baking and night time devilment.

The Canary Islands are the aftermath of mighty eruptions. Looming over the island, Tenerife's emblematic natural icon, Mount Teide - the world's third largest volcano - sleeps a majestic slumber.

Nature's less explosive contributions include jungle-esque rainforests in the mountains of Anaga; soft sandy beaches in the surfer's paradise of El Medano; and the vertiginous cliffs leaning over Los Gigantes in the west, while high in the interior tiny hamlets hide beneath a fringe of pine forest.