From Tenerife North to Playa de Las Americas (South)
If you are coming to Tenerife (one of the Canary Islands) there are two airports: One in the north and one in the south. From Spain there is a good chance that your flight will land at TCI (the northern airport of the island). But chances are, if you are coming to Tenerife, you are coming for the beach and many of the beaches are in the south of the island. That was the case for us as we were coming from Seville, Spain. We took a flight on Vueling Airlines to Tenerife North that took about 2 hours and 15 minutes. Once at the airport there are 3 options to get to the south of the island: taxi (expensive), rent a car (expensive), or take the public bus, TITSA (cheap). Since Europe is so expensive we opted for the bus, even though people say that in general, taxis and car rentals are cheap here (and cheap gas). We looked into renting a car for the week and the prices were comparable to back home in the states – so that’s not bad!
Back to the bus. The buses in Tenerife are called, guaguas, and right outside the terminal is a guagua stop where you need to get on a bus that will take you to the main bus station in Santa Cruz Town (not Puerto De La Cruz). We took bus 102 and it cost 1.2 euros per person. Once at the Santa Cruz bus station (Intercambiador) you can find more information from their information booth and purchase a Bono bus pass that will save you a bundle! Without the bus pass, the cost to Playas De Las Americas would have cost 9.4 euros per person, with the pass it was half price! You will also get other discounts by having the pass, including discounts at museums and other bus destination discounts.
You want to take bus 110, a direct bus from Santa Cruz > Los Cristianos > Playa de Las Americas. The bus leaves about every 30 minutes during business hours on week days and takes about one hour and 15 minutes. If there is no 110 bus available there is bus 111, which will also take you to Playa de Las Americas, but is not a direct bus, so it will probably be at least twice as long.
The bus stations in both Playa de Las Americas and Los Cristianos (another beach town next to Playa de Las Americas) are very central and from either of these stations you should be able to walk to your accommodations if they are near the beach. We stayed at Sol Tenerife, and we just headed down the hill until we saw the monstrous towers of our hotel … a super location right on the beach and next to all the action!! The hotel itself is more a 3 star than the 4 star advertised and there is a lot of noise at night from all the bars, discos and drunk people on the street.
The bus turned out to be a great option for us as it has many routes to take you to different beaches and locations all over the island. You can get more information from their website at www.titsa.com.
Playa de Las Americas
Our first night on Tenerife Island we stayed on Playa de Las Americas at Sol Tenerife Hotel. Boy is it a party beach! The music was pumping until the morning hours.
Stay at Chayofa Country Club
Many months ago when we were in Phuket Thailand, Heidi won a week stay at a resort through a company called Absolute. When we looked to collect, we found there were three options: A stay at one of Absolute’s resorts in Phuket or Samui, Thailand or in Tenerife, Spain. We chose Tenerife, Spain since we had never been there before. In fact, we had no idea of its location, but we were pleasantly surprised to find out that it is part of the Canary Islands (Los Canarias) – off the African coast.
After our one night stay at Sol Tenerife in Playa de Las Americas we took the bus to our home for the next week: Chayofa Country Club. Located up the hillside about 3 kilometers from the beach. On arrival we showed the reception our voucher and didn’t have to pay a dime. Of course, nothing is completely free as we had to pay an administration fee of 60 euros when we signed up for the free week.
The resort is listed as either a 3 star or 4 star place, depending on the resource, but we think that it was probably a 4 star place when originally built then downgraded due to age. Well, now we think it is more like a 2 star resort and in desperate need of modernizing! The unit itself would be great if they would just update all of the furniture! But we shouldn’t complain too much since it does have a full kitchen, living room and a nice balcony. There is also a very nice large pool, tennis courts, pool tables, and ping pong. Our biggest gripe is that there is no internet available other than one terminal that costs 1 euro per/ 15 minutes … Yikes! Second gripe is that you either need a car or have to take the bus into town. Good thing that town (Los Cristianos) is only 5 minutes away by bus and the bus stop is right in front of the resort.
Here are some photos from the day we toured around Tenerife Island by bus/foot:
