Tenerife Guide · 4 articles
Tenerife's towns, seen by day
These are Tenerife's towns by day, mostly in the north, where our calendar has no clubs but the island keeps its capital and its history. Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the carnival city and a port of squares and avenues, with a beach just up the coast. La Laguna, at the end of the tram line, keeps the World Heritage street plan of the island's first capital. Puerto de la Cruz is where tourism in the Canary Islands began, with a seafront walk and its botanical garden. If you'd rather sleep in the north, one guide compares the three as a base, without recommending hotels. For the north after dark, see Santa Cruz and Puerto de la Cruz by night.
Areas & towns
La Laguna, Tenerife: a World Heritage old town at the end of the tram line
At around 600 m above sea level, between the Anaga hills and the slopes of La Esperanza, La Laguna was the island's first capital and still keeps the street plan it was given at the end of the fifteenth century. Come for an afternoon of churches, mansions and wooden balconies, stay for dinner, and know how you'll get back to the south.
Areas & towns
Puerto de la Cruz by day: a seafront walk, a garden from 1788 and the bus south
Puerto de la Cruz is Tenerife’s smallest municipality, at 8.7 km², and the place where tourism in the Canary Islands began: a Lugar de Interés Turístico since 1955, with more than 140 protected buildings in its old town. This is the day before the night: what to see on foot, the official hours we could confirm, and how the buses link the north with the club nights of the south.
Areas & towns
Santa Cruz de Tenerife by day: Calatrava’s Auditorio, a morning market and a Saharan-sand beach
Santa Cruz has been Tenerife’s capital since 1833 and is the city of the carnival, but most of the year it’s a port town of squares, sculpture-lined avenues and a beach just up the coast. Here’s the capital by day, with the hours each venue publishes, and how to link it with the nights of the north and the south.
Areas & towns
Where to stay in north Tenerife: Santa Cruz, La Laguna or Puerto de la Cruz
The north of Tenerife gives you the capital, a World Heritage old town and the island's first resort, all close to Tenerife North airport. What it doesn't give you is our club nights, which are all in the south. This guide compares the three bases on what matters for your days and for reaching those nights; we don't recommend hotels.