Tenerife, Spain - March 18th, 2025
Our original first port of call on our transatlantic cruise was supposed to be Madiera, an island in Portugal, but the weather changed our ship’s plans. Instead, we stopped at the island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands, part of Spain. Princess did a wonderful job of preparing us for Tenerife when the plans changed less than two days before our port of call. They quickly set up tours and gave us a wonderful education session on what there is to see and do on Tenerife.
Tuesday, Day 10 of our cruise, was our Tenerife port of call. Tenerife is the largest of the Spanish Canary Islands. Almost one million people live on the island. We were docked at the city of Santa Cruz.
We got up early, at 6:30 am, to make sure we could eat a breakfast before meeting for our shore excursion. We noticed that we had a cell signal at the dock, so Keith turned on his cell data. Our AT&T international service kicked right in with no issues. We didn’t even notice the difference between using the phone in the States. Since we didn’t have anyone else’s signal to compare it to, we don’t know if we had a lower priority than a local number or not. AT&T charges us $12 per day of use for the first phone, and $6 for the second phone, up to ten days per month, with no charges after ten days in the same billing period. Instead of turning on Ann’s cell data and getting a second charge, she connected to Keith’s hot spot on his phone, both from her phone and later from her laptop. That seemed to work fine. We were able to download our emails, send a text message to our kids, pay a lodging bill that was coming due, download Google Maps for Tenerife, and download some videos.
We had plenty of time to eat at the buffet before heading down to the Soleil Dining Room by 8:15 am. We both brought along our daypacks, with jackets, water bottles, cell phones, and our wallets with our driver’s licenses, credit and debit cards, and some cash. We were told that all we needed while on shore was our driver’s license and our Princess Medallion. We did not need to take our passports and could keep those in our room’s safe.
Since our shore excursion didn’t return until 1:15 pm, we were concerned about finding somewhere to eat lunch, since Spain normally takes a long siesta in the afternoon. We were assured by the tour desk that there will be plenty of places open, especially when they see a cruise ship docked at port. Keith brought along a candy bar from the ship’s store, just in case.
Our shore excursion was the Panoramic Las Cañadas National Park. The Las Cañadas del Teide National Park (Teide National Park) contains the large volcanic caldron, located in the center of the island. It also contains Mount Teide, the highest peak in all of Spain, at 12,600 feet (3715 meters). Mount Teide is still an active volcano, but hasn’t erupted since 1909.
The bus ride to the park was very interesting. We went right past the opera house in Santa Cruz, up to the town of Laguna, then up a road that bisected the island. Up was the operative word. We rose from sea level to about 7000 feet, or 2135 meters.
After leaving the town of Laguna, we wound through pine forests, before rising above the tree line. Then we were surrounded by colorful lava fields. There were views down to the coast, to the north and to the south. It looked like we were above the clouds, which added drama to the scenery.
Our first stop was a quick one at an overlook, where we could see Mount Teide in the distance.
The second stop was at Papillon Restaurante for a half hour coffee break. Our tour guide recommended trying the local specialty, the barraquito. It is a layered coffee with coffee, Licor 43, frothed milk, and condensed milk with lemon peel and cinnamon for seasonings. Keith tried the coffee. Ann is not a coffee drinker, so she had the frutos rojos (berries) or red tea. Keith enjoyed the coffee, but it was a little sweet to have all the time. Half an hour was the perfect amount of time for everyone to be served, enjoy their refreshments, pay, and return to the bus.
The gorgeous drive continued over to the Garcia Rocks (Roques de Garcia). There we had half an hour to wander around the rocks and some of the trails before returning to the bus. We were able to explore most of the area, but not all of it in the allotted time.
From there, we started heading back to Santa Cruz the way we came. Our only stop on the way back was at the Papillon Restaurante for a quick 5 minute bathroom break. Only a handful of people got off to use the facilities.
We returned to the dock only about five minutes past our scheduled time. We didn’t have any Euros yet, so we tipped our guide and driver with dollars. Hopefully, they didn’t mind. Keith asked our tour guide, Liz, for recommendations for having tapas and sangrias. She said not all places have sangrias. She suggested a restaurant with sangrias and good food. Keith thought she said the place was called Natural 57 while Ann heard Lateral 57. We tried looking it up in Google Maps, only to find El Lateral 27. Hopefully, that was the place she meant because that is where we went.
The restaurant was about a ten minute walk from where we were docked. We followed the signs directing us to the City Center, then took C. Bethencourt Alfonso, a pedestrian street, from the Plaza de España. The restaurant was right on the pedestrian street. We took an outside table, where we could fend off all of the pigeons. They really didn’t bother us, but the staff kept trying to scare the pigeons away.
The restaurant didn’t have tapas per se, but we just ordered two appetizers and a salad, to keep it light. Of course, we also ordered sangria. Tenerife is known for its sangria. Our first appetizer was a plate of Canarian cheeses. The second one was thinly sliced chorizo and Iberian sausage. Then we split a large salad with greens, tomatoes, avocado, a variety of nuts, raisins, a couple orange slices, and two, thick slices of a warm, soft cheese. For a dressing, they provided packets of olive oil and vinegar. Spain is the world’s largest producer of olive oil. All of the food was delicious. Thank you, Liz!
We made our first faux pas of the trip. We’re sure it won’t be our last. Keith paid the bill via Apple Pay, since we didn’t have any Euros yet. He was expecting there to be a way to specify a tip, but there wasn’t. And we didn’t have any Euros to leave on the table for a tip. Oh well. You live and learn. Tips are not necessarily expected in Europe as they are in the United States, but a 10% tip is appreciated. Next time, we’ll try to either ask to round the bill up before paying or have small bills in the local currency to tip with.
From there, we strolled around the old town. We only had about an hour or so before we needed to return to the ship. Everyone was required to be back on board by 4:30 pm and we didn’t know what the process was like to go back through security.
We wandered around the old town pretty aimlessly, but it was a pleasant stroll. At every corner, there was an interesting building that drew us down the next street. When we decided to start heading back, we didn’t have too many issues finding our way. The city is built on a slope, so we knew we just needed to head downhill and we would eventually end up at the ocean.
On the way, we stopped at an ATM, at a Deutsche Bank. The ATM was on the outside of the building, which is more prone to card skimmers than inside a bank. We have heard to try to tug on the card reader to make sure there is not a skimmer, but there didn’t seem to be anything to tug on. We withdrew 200 euros, in a variety of denominations, using our debit card. The ATM charged us 5 euros for the transaction. We didn’t need Euros any more for Tenerife, but we’ll need them quite a bit during the rest of our European trip, including the La Coruña port of call coming up in a few days.
Security to get back on the ship was not too bad. We just needed to put everything into our daypacks and have them scanned. Everything included cell phones, watches, and belts. We were back on board a little after 4 pm.
We would have liked to have spent more time on Tenerife. Hiking in Panoramic Las Cañadas del Teide National Park would have been nice. So would more time wandering the streets of Santa Cruz, visiting the El Mercado Nuestra. Señora de África (Our Lady of Africa Market), touring the Auditorio de Tenerife Adán Martín with its unique architecture or wander through the Palmetum botanical garden with its hundreds of palm species. However, we felt like we experienced a great introductory visit to Tenerife. We didn’t even know of Tenerife’s existence a couple of days prior. It’s amazing how much you can learn with just a days notice.
Check out our related video: Tenerife, Spain
(Ann)