However, it is the Mes de Canarias which means that there is loads of events put on for the locals which also means that there’s loads for the discerning visitor who wants to experience the real Tenerife.

The Best Fiestas on Tenerife in May

We’re a bit late with this as we’ve been trekking across Gran Canaria but, for future reference, 3rd of May is the Día de la Cruz with crosses in Puerto de la Cruz, Los Realejos, Santa Cruz and a few other places being decorated to commemorate the founding of Santa Cruz de Tenerife on 3rd May 1494. The big event is the mammoth firework display at Los Realejos which takes place on the night of the third but as that’s passed there’s no point in waxing lyrical at this stage.

Fiestas de Mayo, Santa Cruz
Santa Cruz celebrates its founding big time with free events (exhibitions, dance, concerts, sports, markets) in the city throughout May. Turn up on any day and there will probably be something interesting to see but a couple of concerts to look out for are Son 21 (Plaza Candelaria,10 & 11 May, 9pm) and the World of Bolero (Plaza Candelaria, 18 May, 9pm).

The Best Festivals and Music on Tenerife in May

Mueca, Art in the Street (Puerto de la Cruz, various places, 10 – 12 May)
Music, dance, theatre, art and madness fill the streets of Puerto de la Cruz for the most avant-garde festival on Tenerife. With between 20 and 30 various acts each day (and night) there’s far too much going on to list. Saturday is the big day of the festival with a whopping 50 events taking place. Turn up, walk round and be enchanted.

Festival Latino (La Laguna, 11 May, Plaza del Cristo, 9pm, €15)
The South American vibe rocks the Tenerife’s former capital with three Latino bands turning Plaza del Cristo into a huge salsa and Merrengue dance floor.

Jazz Festival (Los Cristianos, 18 May, Plaza de la Iglesia, 8.30pm)
Hot jazz on a warm night sounds a delicious prospect. With Enrique and Valdevieso plus the Edith B. Band. Got to be better than sitting in a karaoke bar.

The Fairy Queen (Santa Cruz, Auditorio de Tenerife, 11&12 May, 6pm – also midday on the 12th, €10)
Henry Purcell’s enchanting opera is aimed at the children, but that doesn’t make it any less enjoyable for adults.

Foodie and other Events on Tenerife in May

Papeando entre Volcanes – Ruta de la Tapa (Puerto de la Cruz, 13-31 May)
Yay – we love tapas routes. This one has around 25 bar and restaurants in Puerto de la Cruz offering creative tapas with a glass of vino or cerveza for a couple of euros. A great way to get a true taste of the town.

Sensaciones (Granadilla de Abona, Plaza González Mena, 31 May)
More food goodies in Granadilla with the chance to pick up the best of local products between 10am and 2pm and tapas and wine galore to be sampled and guzzled between 7 and 11pm.

Dia de las Tradiciones (El Médano, Plaza Roja, 26 May, from 10am)
The surfers in El Médano will have to make way for a more traditional scene towards the end of the month. Folklore, dancing, local food, traditional sports and livestock competitions bring a very different feel to the south’s bohemian coastal town.

Whilst these are our pick of the most interesting events on Tenerife, there is an overwhelming amount of interesting activities on Tenerife each month. Cultural Centres are excellent places to find out what’s happening wherever you are on Tenerife.

Jack is co-owner, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites as well as a contributor to lots of other places. Follow Jack on Google+

I’d read a number of reports about going underground at the Cueva del Viento (Cave of the Wind) near Icod de los Vinos but had never seen mention of the pink and grey headgear that went under the hard hats and which, let’s be honest, makes you look like a right geek.

As we pulled them onto our heads, the scene transformed into a photographic quick draw to see who could get the most ridiculous shot that could be used as blackmail material later.

It was a moment that was indicative of our visit to the Cueva del Viento – fun but with a serious side (the hard hats were essential as I did smack my head towards the end of the underground trip when my concentration lapsed. It did its job perfectly and I felt nothing except a jolt).

Before Going Underground
We’d turned up at the Visitor Centre 30 minutes early as instructed and had spent the time perusing the info boards and taking note of the insects that we didn’t want to encounter within the cave – we particularly weren’t keen on running into eyeless cockroaches.

The visit starts with a 25/30 minute presentation about how the Cueva del Viento was created. It was the sort of thing our visiting nephew, Liam, had studied at university so he was interested in this part but I was chomping at the bit to get below ground.

However, the enthusiasm and mischievous humour of Francisco Manuel Mesa Luis (“my name’s Frank but you can call me Francisco”) – biologist and our guide – made the prep highly enjoyable as well as being fascinating.

I’m not going into detail as it’s much better to hear and see how tunnels like the Cueva del Viento are formed from the likes of Francisco but he did whet my appetite even more for getting underground to explore Europe’s longest volcanic tube (17 kilometres). Plus his description of pahoehoe (rope-like lava) and ‘a’a (uneven, jagged lava) is a hoot.

Getting to the Entrance of the Cueva del Viento
First there’s a short ride up vertical country lanes, then it’s time for hard hats and silly caps and a hike into the heady pines. Francisco references points of interest along the way including flowers, pahoehoe lava and the first site of the tube itself at the ‘cave of the old woman’ (so called because an old woman fell down it and had to be rescued).

It’s not a long or difficult walk but it did prove a problem for one woman in our group.

Into the Cueva del Viento
Anyone who has visited the Cueva de los Verdes on Lanzarote will find the Cueva del Viento quite a bit different. Where the Cueva de los Verdes has been developed to be able to welcome hordes of tourists daily, the Cueva del Viento feels more like the real deal; a place to study a natural wonder. Don’t get me wrong, I like Cueva de los Verdes but I got much more of a thrill descending into Tenerife’s grittier volcanic tube.

There’s no tasteful lighting and soporific music, only silence and a narrow arc of light provided by head torches. Underfoot is surprisingly rough on the soles of the feet and decent shoes are required.

Within a few seconds, the blackness closed in around us and any movement of the head revealed intriguing caverns and other tunnels leading from the channel we were exploring. There was a door on one and Francisco explained that it was a tube where some of the tunnel’s creatures lived and that the door kept them safe from us. In the darkness in the bowels of the earth in such a fantastical setting it was impossible not to wonder ‘or does it keep us safe from them?’ But that’s probably a product of a mind fuelled by too many Jules Verne novels and Steven Spielberg movies.

Throughout our exploration of the tube, Francisco kept us fed with juicy snippets and just before it was time to head to the surface, he played his ace card – lights out time.

The total darkness was almost physical, like a presence that crowded my senses and made me feel small and insignificant. It also made me want to laugh when, breaking the eerie silence, someone’s stomach groaned… at least I hoped it was someone’s stomach.

Giggle potential aside, it was an appropriately dramatic conclusion to an imagination stirring journey to the centre of Tenerife’s earth.

The Visitor Centre is open from 9am to 4pm with four guided tours each day (10am, 11am, 1pm and 2pm); tours can be arranged in different languages; tickets are €16 for adults – €10 for residents. Don’t turn up without booking a place first.

Finding the Cueva del Viento
The Cueva del Viento and its Visitor Centre is located in the hills above Icod de los Vinos on the road leading beyond El Amparo. Anyone who knows Icod de los Vinos will know that ‘in the hills above’ means you’re in for a steep climb in the car, even if you approach from the La Montañeta side. The Visitor Centre is well signposted from both approaches but it’s worth becoming familiar with where it is on the map.

Jack is co-owner, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites as well as a contributor to lots of other places. Follow Jack on Google+

Although Arona is home to some of Tenerife’s biggest resorts, the powers that be there seem intent in alienating the tourists that bring much needed dinero into their sun-kissed world.

As well as ridding Playa de las Américas of the popular horse drawn carriages and treating the lifeguards, who watch over the municipality’s suntan seeking guests, abominably by not coughing up their wages, the council has now taken another step to piss off the people who they should be bending over backwards to please.

But they’re not alone in tarnishing the image of Tenerife during uncertain times.

The sorry, silly saga started when the council stupidly agreed to signs being placed in the sun lounger zones of Playa de las Vistas which decreed ‘Reserved area for the exclusive use for clients of sunbeds and umbrellas’.

It was misguided and possibly even contravening the law of their own country as all Spain’s beaches are public. However, it’s common for some of Tenerife’s politicians to behave like Medieval despots, forgetting they’re democratically elected representatives and that they have to abide by their country’s laws like everyone else.

In reality the signs probably wouldn’t have made much of a difference to life on the beach if it weren’t for tabloid style spin and exaggerated implications on the part of a couple of English language reports. The sensationalist ‘interpretations’ of the impact of the signs has lead to some people thinking that they’d have to pay to use the beach and others declaring they’d think twice about coming to Tenerife in future.

Apart from being utter tosh and nonsense, they also revealed a lack of understanding of local life on Tenerife’s beaches.

No room at the beach? Stop pulling my suntanned leg.

Sun Bed Zones – Who Uses Them?
I don’t like them and subsequently I don’t use them. Comfortable though they may be, they’re cattle pens for sunbathers. Many Canarios and Spanish visitors seem to share the same view, opting to lay out their towels in the sand rather than fork out for a sun bed. There’s a marked difference on some beaches at different times of the years. In the winter the balance leans more toward sunbed usage as many visitors a) hail from Northern Europe and b) are quite mature and so like a bit of comfort. In summer, the sunbeds on some beaches lie like rows of Billy-no-mates as Spanish and Canarian beach goers prefer the virgin sand.

The point here is that the people who tend to prefer to lie on the sand really don’t want to lie amongst the regulated rows of sunloungers. Therefore the sign deterring them from doing so is, in many ways, academic. If, as was suggested, anyone is worried that it’s going to impact on families who pay for the sunbeds for the adults but not the children, threaten to walk away if confronted by a jobs-worth quoting questionable rules and see what happens.

So who really wants to plonk their towel in the middle of the sunbeds?

Sun Bed Zones – Where Are They
Another fact that makes a mockery of outraged outcries is that sunbed zones are often in areas that the savvy local population avoid like the plague – i.e. the middle of the beach. Smart sunbathers stick to the area of sand near the shoreline where there’s less of a foot-burning trek to the water. Lesser numbers hug the back of the beach where walls, cliffs etc. may offer some shady respite when it becomes too hot.

However, the points above don’t address the ridiculous suggestion that there won’t be enough beach to go around.

The idea that these silly signs would result in there being no space on the beach for the general public is quite incredible.

Hope we can find some space to lay down the towel

The existence of the signs wouldn’t significantly change the amount of space available on the beach for all those who don’t want to fork out for a sun lounger. Suggesting otherwise amounts to scaremongering and doesn’t do a lot for tourism.

Have you seen Las Vistas? There’s an awful lot of beach to go round.

The only people it would affect are those who like to stick their towels smack bang in the middle of the sunbed zone. Hands up how many of those are out there (see above).

The bottom line, if you’re thinking of visiting Tenerife, is don’t be deterred by silly transient politics or sensation seeking journalism. There’s plenty of FREE room on Tenerife’s beaches.

SIGH - no sunbeds, no sillines... no worries

And if you really want to avoid the nonsense, head to the real Tenerife where the beaches are more wild, carefree and beautiful anyway.

We’d been showing visiting travel writer Kirsty Fergusson one of our favourite walks in the Anaga Mountains and, with perfect timing, arrived at the troglodyte village of Chinamada at lunchtime.

The village has one restaurant, La Cueva, which is, as the name suggests, partly set in a cave.

Eating underground sounds intriguing but only a small part of the restaurant is actually inside the hillside it backs on to. Nevertheless, it’s still an unusual lunch venue and Chinamada lies in the sort of location that makes you gasp involuntary, especially when the bruma gods are on holiday and the Anaga peaks are exposed in all their dramatic glory.

La Cueva is a Tardis of a restaurant, probably thanks to the whole cave thing going on. There are three dining areas – an outdoor terrace; a sort of halfway house section that is bright and airy and a smart and dark interior (where the cave part is located).

Northern Europeans tend to pick the sunny terrace whilst Canario diners head for the shady interior. We’d just spent a couple of hours under a hot sun so the bright, covered halfway house section suited us just fine.

At 1.30pm on a Saturday La Cueva was packed with an eclectic mix of customers. Visiting and local walkers were dressed in sensible, comfortable clothes whereas some city dwellers from Santa Cruz and La Laguna looked as though they were set for cocktail hour in a sophisticated urban bar rather than a rural retreat. One girl wore killer heels, that shot her way above her normal altitude, matched with a mini leopard skin dress so tight that it might actually have been body paint.

La Cueva’s menu is traditional Canarian hill fare so we opted for a selection that included some favourites from the rustic Canarian cuisine scene.

Hearty Canarian Nosh: The Food at La Cueva
Knowing how filling Canarian country cooking can be we settled for two starters between the three of us; fresh goats’ cheese and, a must for anyone being introduced to local specialities, gofio escaldón.

The goats’ cheese was queso fresco and was creamy with subtle flavours. Andy and I find queso fresco a wee bit bland, preferring semi-curados that hit your tastebuds like a cartoon Tasmanian devil. However, La Cueva’s cheese came with a dollop of jam which perked up its character.

Gofio escaldón isn’t the sexiest of dishes and La Cueva’s was no exception. I don’t think we’ve ever had two escaldóns that looked the same. The last one we ate was smooth and creamy whereas this was thick with chunky peaks. Escaldòn is stock mixed with gofio (toasted cereal flour that dates back to Guanche times). This one was made with vegetable stock and had shredded meat mixed in. It’s difficult to describe escaldón’s flavours – a savoury paste that tastes like veg stock mixed with cereal flour and meat. This was a particularly good one; some locals claim La Cueva’s escaldón is one of the best on Tenerife. It is also very filling; good peasant food, ideal for working in the hills.

For mains we ordered a meat heavy mix; albóndigas (meatballs) which were very meaty and lightly spiced. They were also quite dense. Six didn’t seem a lot but Kirsty struggled to get through them even with us assisting. Andy went for the ropa vieja which translates as old clothes – not a name that’ll have English speakers clamouring to order it. This is another one of those dishes that varies depending where you have it. Andy’s old clothes were obscured by chips and were a real mishmash of sweetcorn, peppers, carrots, onions, potato and shredded meat. It wasn’t the best. My cabra (goat) was tasty enough but some chunks were on the fatty side.

Overall the food was a bit on the hit and miss side. But it was authentic, different and there was a great atmosphere about the place. We enjoyed our long lunch a lot and would definitely recommend a visit. Feel free to wear whatever you want, but a word of warning  if you decide on a figure-hugging animal print dress. After some hearty food at La Cueva it might not look quite so flattering when you leave as when you arrived.

Restaurant La Cueva; Chinamada, 14A; Anaga Mountains; (+34) 922 690 076; raciones average €7; open 11am to 7pm Wednesday, Thursday & Sunday; 11am to 10pm Friday & Saturday; closed Monday & Tuesday.

Fiesta wise it’s a slow month, but there’s usually a lot of good music about and outdoor events begin to get more interesting and varied as spring fever perks up the local population.

The Best Fiestas on Tenerife in March

With Easter falling in March this year there are even less fiestas on Tenerife than normal this April. Best bet is Icod de los Vinos which holds a series of fiesta related events throughout the month in honour of San Marcos.
One of the liveliest romerías on Tenerife takes place in lovely little Tegueste on the 28th of the month. The little town near La Laguna becomes packed as ox drawn ships (yes, you read right) take to the streets for the Romería de San Marcos and the area’s young contingent dig out their colourful trad costumes. They look ab fab as well. It’s a vibrant event and gets very, very busy.

The Best Festivals and Music on Tenerife in April

The Beatles in Tenerife (Puerto de la Cruz, 27 April to 9 May)
The Beatles visited Puerto de la Cruz 50 years ago, showing they had good taste in their choice of resorts even if one local story has it that they were refused entry to Lago Martianez because of their long hair. The visit is celebrated with a series of events at the end of April beginning of May. Too many of which are to do with people talking rather than singing. But there is a Beatles Market place on the 27th (11am to 1pm) and a concert in Sala Timanfaya on 4 May followed by another Beatles themed concert in Plaza Charco at midday on the 5th

XI Festival de Música Antigua y Barroca (Puerto de la Cruz, 6 to 13 April)
The Antique and Baroque Music festival adds some old school class to Puerto in April with a series of concerts in Castillo San Felipe and Iglesia Peña de Francia.

Pink Floyd – The Wall Tribute (Teatro Leal, La Laguna, 13 April, 9pm, from €8)
We don’t normally connect tribute acts with Tenerife’s historic former capital of La Laguna, but we’re guessing this will be a quality act rather than a cheesy one (tickets from €8).

International Jazz Week (Various)
Cool jazzy cats are catered for well on Tenerife this month with Tuck & PattiPatti playing the Teatro Leal in La Laguna on 26 April (9pm, tickets from €12). Also at the Leal is JazzTap on 28 April (9pm. From €6). Whilst jazz funk outfit Incognito play Tenerife’s Auditorium in Santa Cruz on 28 April (9pm, from €22).

Swan Lake (Teatro Leal, La Laguna, 29/30 April, 9pm, from €25)
The Moscow Ballet are back in town to perform Tchaikovsky’s beautiful but tragic ballet.

Dancing in the Street (Santa Cruz, 20 April, 6 & 8pm)
An interesting curio should be the event to commemorate the 1st International Exhibition of Street Sculpture in Santa Cruz 40 years ago. Various dancers will be performing beside Parque García Sanabria’s eclectic collection of sculptures. Sounds wonderfully pretentious, so should be fun.

Foodie and other Events on Tenerife in April

Tegueste Wine Month (Tegueste, er… all month)
There are loads of wine related events in Tegueste this month, many involving our favourite bodega, El Lomo. Running alongside is a Tapas and Wine Route which involves tascas, cafés and restaurants throughout the municipality. Tapas and a glass of wine will set you back €2.75 until 30 April.

Tapeando Isora (Guia de Isora)
Restaurants in Guia de Isora are also participating in a tapas route this month. Although many are in Guia de Isora itself, there are a few in Playa San Juan and Alcalá, both within easy reach of anyone staying in the Los Gigantes area. For this one, a glass of vino or cerveza and a tapas will cost €2.50.

III Feria de Queso Canarias – 3rd Canarian Cheese Fair (Pinolere, La Orotava, 6/7 April)
A must for cheese monkeys on Tenerife. The 3rd Canarian Cheese fair is a strange little affair in that as well as being a showcase for Canarian cheese it is specifically honouring goats’ cheese, cheese from Fuerteventura and dogs. Where the dogs come into the picture who knows (maybe they are sheep dogs or, in this case, goat dogs).

Whilst these are our pick of the most interesting events on Tenerife, there is an overwhelming amount of interesting activities on Tenerife each month. Cultural Centres are excellent places to find out what’s happening wherever you are on Tenerife.

Jack is co-owner, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites as well as a contributor to lots of other places. Follow Jack on Google+

The weather on Tenerife recently has been about as perfect as weather can be. Warm, sunny days with a rare shower during the night just to stop things drying out too much. Spring has wowed us with an exuberant display of wild flowers this year and we’ve been out and about enjoying it whilst the show lasts.

Over the last couple of weeks we’ve walked in the east and the west; this time we decided to stick closer to home and pointed the car up the hill towards the upper La Orotava Valley.

We figured that it would be busy at La Caldera (an aptly named zona recreativa located in a wide cauldron in the pines just beyond Aguamansa) but thought that by arriving at an early-ish 10am we’d get there before the crowds.

Wrong.

There wasn’t a space to be had in the large car parking area and we had to dump the car on the track that circled the saucer-shaped picnic zone.

The giddy mood that met us as we left the car was smile-inducing infectious; the sound of Canarios enjoying Viernes Santos al fresco.

Children laughed, people sang, the air was filled with an aroma of freshly grilled meat and fish that taunted our nostrils and made the sandwiches in the rucksack seem like very poor and inadequate cousins. It was a buzzing hive of activity as families transported Medieval sized feasts from their pick-ups to chunky wooden tables in the forest. Tiny toddlers struggled with cool boxes whilst older male members of the family lugged huge pans filled with stews.

Every face we passed was split by beaming smiles and every single person shouted a jaunty ‘hola’ ‘¿que tal?’ or the one that always makes me think of a Beatles’ song; when I say ‘hola’ they say ‘adios’.

This open friendliness is one of the things we love about the Canarios at play. In the fields of this island of contrasts, there are no suspicious glances or gloomy stares. It’s the same when walking; when we pass Canarios or Spanish on the path, we are always greeted by a smiley hola.

The warm and fuzzy scene in La Caldera was so appealing that it tempted us to forego our jaunt in the forest and simply park ourselves at a bench and absorb the heady mix of sounds, smells and party atmosphere. But the lure of a long walk through the pine forest just shaded it.

These zona recreativas don’t exist on the same scale in southern parts of the island`- probably because they are always in forested areas. The first time a friend who lives in the south of Tenerife saw one during a midweek walk, when they lie dormant, he pondered ‘why so many picnic tables? They’re never going to fill all of these.”

He’d never seen one on a weekend or during a public holiday.

By the time we’d completed our walk above Los Órganos (a cliff face that looks like organ pipes) the scene around the zona recreative was much, much busier. The forest was absolutely rammed with cars and pick-ups, parked wherever there was a flat bit of ground. Picnics had spread from the zona recreativa into the leafy glades around its perimeter. In places, people lay sprawled on the soft pines sleeping off epic lunches washed down with generous amounts of vino del pais.

Cars created an unbroken chain all around the zone’s rural ring road; even the spot especially created for parking horses was filled to capacity with mechanical rather than four-legged beasts.

We like to finish walks with the reward of a beer and whatever choccie treat is available at the nearest drinking establishment. La Caldera has a great little log cabin bar/restaurant which does all sorts of goodies ranging from fresh trout from the nearby farm to bars of Twix.

Despite the number of people around La Caldera, the bar itself was relatively empty – most people having brought their own food and drink – and a shady table was easily procured as were two cervezas and the Twix (€3 the lot). We sipped our beers and nibbled our choccie fingers, observing the mix of walkers of a variety of nationalities, forest rangers and extended Canarian families that came and went. At the table opposite, a toothless old Canario with a long traditional walking stick teased his compadres whilst on the adjacent table a young German girl rested her smiling face on her arms – shattered but happy after a long walk in the forest.

It was hot, it was sunny and everyone was smiling and laughing, enjoying the day and some very special natural surroundings.

It was a proper public holiday and another reminder of why we live here.

Jack is co-owner, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites as well as a contributor to lots of other places. Follow Jack on Google+

A couple of weeks ago we followed our own Island Drives route of ‘Peaks Into The Past’ and stopped off at this beautiful spot to enjoy a coffee and marvel at the scenery.

The name ‘Taganana’ is derived from the original Guanche name for the settlement and means ‘surrounded by mountains’, a simple and indisputable truth that quickly becomes evident as you enter the heart of the village. Dating back to 1501, the area was originally known as the valley of Santa Maria de las Nieves and its little church of Nuestra Señora de las Nieves dates back to 1515 and is the fourth oldest on Tenerife.

Isolated from the capital city and much of the rest of the island until 1968 when the road was built, the Tagananeros have survived on agriculture throughout their history, beginning with sugar cane planted by the Spanish conquistadores in the 16th century and later vines. Today its terraces are still planted with vines, along with sweet potatoes, potatoes and onions and the villagers still mainly survive on subsistence farming, younger generations being forced back into the family farms as a result of the economic depression.

Prior to the construction of the road, the only communication between the Tagananeros and their capital city was by way of the camino real known as Las Vueltas which links the hamlet to the TF12 road. The path, which remains a popular route for walking on Tenerife, has so many twists and turns that it’s said there’s a bend for every day of the year.

However you find your way to it, Taganana is one of Tenerife’s true hidden delights and taking an hour or so out to enjoy a coffee or a traditional Canarian lunch in the presence of all that simple beauty is a tonic for the soul.

Andrea (Andy) Montgomery is co-owner of Buzz Trips and The Real Tenerife series of travel websites. Widely published online and in print, you can read her latest content on Google+

Tenerife is an incredibly popular destination that attracts millions of visitors each year. This, subsequently, has resulted in a lot of guidebooks written and published by everyone from the famous guidebook stables to new kids on the block.

At Real Tenerife we’ve produced our own guidebook. The question is what makes the Real Tenerife guidebook different from all the others out there?

We’re professional travel writers
It’s what we do for a living. We’ve contributed to Tenerife and the Canary Islands guides for websites and some of the well known names in the guidebook and newspaper world. But that’s doing it the way someone else wants it.

We wanted to be able to write a guidebook about Tenerife that was informative, entertaining and, at the same time, candid.

We live, work and play on Tenerife
Tenerife in summer is a different place than Tenerife in winter and that’s not just to do with the weather. There are differences in Tenerife from month to month. You have to live on the island, or have visited it every single month to know what these are. Even the best travel writer in the universe can’t get a fully rounded handle on a place if they only visit every so often.

Tenerife north is different from Tenerife south just as staying on the coast is different than staying at 1000 metres or staying in a purpose built resort is a million miles away from staying in the capital city. It’s essential to have spent a lot of time in different parts of the island to know what the differences are.

We’ve pushed out the Zs in everything from luxury hotels in Costa Adeje to a tent in the pine forest above Vilaflor. We’ve eaten in restaurants frequented by King Juan Carlos, fishermen’s guilds in Punta de Hidalgo, ramshackle guachinches in La Orotava and drive-through McDonalds in Candelaria.

We’ve drank at bars in Veronicas, squeezed in between grizzled caballeros at cerveza kiosks in the hills and salsa’d (badly) at Cuban clubs. We’ve seen famous blues stars at music festivals in Santa Cruz and watched local bad boy rock stars smash up their guitars at biker festivals in Garachico.

We’ve dressed up for Carnaval’s all night street parties, stood in the darkness in chilly La Laguna streets to watch silent religious processions and shared cervezas with toothless inebriates in obscure hill towns.

We’ve climbed Mount Teide to watch sunrise and trekked for hours through ancient laurel forests to hamlets where access is only be sea or by foot. We’ve shared a joke with the mayor of Santa Cruz, shared a bedroom with Tenerife’s president and marched arm in arm with Canarios in protest at political shenanigans.

These examples are only the tip of our Tenerife iceberg.

The Real Tenerife is full of unique information that comes from first hand experience of living, working and playing amongst the Canarios combined with hours of research in tiny town libraries, translating quirky information from books that no-one outside of the town is ever likely to read.

As a result we’ve been interviewed by the Spanish press because of our ‘insight’ into life in the Canary Islands.

The Real Tenerife guidebook is a culmination of years of personal experience and objective research.

That’s why we know it is unique.

Plus who else has a man carrying a goat into the sea on the cover?

The Real Tenerife is now available in paperback as well as being also available on Kindle.

Jack is co-owner, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites plus lots of other things. Follow Jack on Google+

First impressions of the Ruen Thai near the Puerto Palace was that it wasn’t quite like any other Thai restaurant we’d been to. It was big, bright with jaunty piped music and didn’t exude that calming elegance that is characteristic of Thai places.

Second impression was that the waitresses were Spanish. I guess you don’t have to be Thai to work in a Thai restaurant and they were very friendly and efficient. But by this point we were starting to wonder what was Thai about the Thai Ruen.

The menu didn’t help with the distinct lack of a Thai vibe. There was no tod man pla.

A Taste of Thailand?: The Food at Ruen Thai
I don’t think I’ve ever been in a Thai restaurant that didn’t have tod man pla (Thai fish cakes) but it’s a big country and there are regional variations. What the menu did have was 20+ curries including Thai favourites – reds, greens and yellows.

In the absence of the sort of Thai starters we like, we opted for Vietnamese spring rolls filled with pork and prawns and little half moon pies with potato and curry. Both were light, crispy and nicely savoury, especially when perked up with a picante dip. The potato pies were a wee bit dry but that didn’t really make them any less tasty.

For the main course we decided to test the hot factor by picking stir fried pork with red curry and basil, which came with a maximum ’3 chilli pepper’ warning on the menu, and a less dangerous ’2 chilli pepper’ stir fried beef with red pepper and basil.

We know that people here on Tenerife aren’t big fans of spicy food and maybe that had a bearing on why a ’3 chilli’ dish had a slight kick but nothing more and a ’2 chilli’ one had the kick of a claw-less kitten.

Saying that, we enjoyed both dishes – the pork and beef were both lean and tender and the sauces flavoursome. Mine was like a rich oyster sauce. They were nicely cooked and the portions were a good size. If we’d been eating in a Chinese restaurant we’d have been more than satisfied.

But this was supposed to be a Thai treat and tasty though the food was, it didn’t have that mix of perfumed flavours that characterises Thai cuisine.

Andy didn’t bother with a dessert as they consisted of those ‘shipped in’ little glass bowls that you can find in a lot of restaurants here but I took their advice and tried the house speciality, tapioca.

It’s one of the few times that I’ve not been able to finish a dish – I didn’t get on at all with the chunks of tapioca ‘pearls’.

I usually think I’m a good judge of whether I can trust a restaurant review or not and although I believe the one that drew us to Ruan Thai was completely honest, I don’t think they knew their Thai food. The food at the Ruen Thai wasn’t like Thai food we’ve eaten in various visits to Thailand or even in Thai restaurants in Britain.

It was good food and well prepared, but we felt we’d eaten a Chinese meal rather than a Thai one.

To be fair to the Ruen Thai when you look at the small print under the sign and on the menu it says ‘Cocina Asiática’ (Asian cuisine) which is probably more accurate.

If you’re after good Asian cuisine then I can recommend the Ruen Thai; for a Thai hit, look elsewhere.

Still, the Singha beer was authentic.

Restaurant Ruen Thai; C/Dr. Celestino Cobiello Zaera (beneath the Hotel Puerto Palace); Puerto de la Cruz; (+34) 922 376 946; main courses average €8; open midday to 4pm and 7 to 11pm daily).

Jack is co-owner, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites plus lots of other things. Follow Jack on Google+

With Andy waiting for the paperwork for her driving licence to clear, I’m on all driving duties at the moment and had to ferry her into town for a meeting with a travel writer who’s exploring Tenerife.

As it was such a beautiful evening I decided to go on walkabout with my camera. I’ve got a zillion shots of Puerto de la Cruz, so I set myself the task of trying to look at it slightly differently.

The Fishers of Men

Although parts of the harbour are still taped off due to wild seas throwing huge waves at the coastal defences, the local fishermen don’t take a lot of notice even though there are still a few lively waves about.

The Egret

Also taking advantage of the sea’s bounty was this lone egret patrolling the calm rock pools between the concrete block sea defences and the old fort wall at Plaza Europa. The wall was a good vantage point to snap away at this guy without freaking him into flying away.

Ermita San Telmo

The low evening sun illuminated the entrance to the tiny Ermita de San Telmo; a sunny spot for enjoying views along Puerto’s promenade and the last resting place of the victims of a storm that was much, much more ferocious than the one we’ve just experienced.

Avenida Colón

A recent local council announcement stated that Puerto’s restaurants and cafés were going to have to spruce up their terrace furniture. As Puerto’s forward thinking former mayor had already instigated such an initiative during her all too short reign in office a couple of years ago, pedestrianised areas like Avenida Colón have been looking smart and sophisticated for quite some time.

Playa Martiánez

Playa Martiánez gets quite a bit of stick locally, I’ve never been able to figure out why. It’s got a rough and ready appeal that suits it being the local surf scene. The seating and fountain behind the beach is quite arty and contemporary. Maybe that’s the problem. Personally I like its youthful vigour.

La Jibia, Lago Martiánez

Backing the beach is the Lago Martiánez, a watery haven for anyone who isn’t keen on battling Atlantic rollers, and Cesár Manrique’s sculpture La Jibia, aka the squid. At this time of year, six o’clock is the perfect time to capture the squid as the low sun brings out its golden hues.

Los Alisios

It’s also a good time to photograph Los Alisios, another of Cesár Manrique’s works. Thanks to the visionary Lanzarote architect, Lago Martiánez is much more than a swimming pool complex; it’s an open air interactive art gallery as well.

Simply Puerto de la Cruz

This one scene, taken in the back streets, includes much of what Puerto de la Cruz is all about; a sunny cobbled street, lush foliage, trees with delicate flowers, colonial architecture, pavement cafés,  abstract art, family life and a thick, black cable.

Discover the best of Puerto de la Cruz with our Real Tenerife Town & City Walking Guides.

Jack is co-owner, writer and photographer for BuzzTrips and the Real Tenerife series of travel websites plus lots of other things. Follow Jack on Google+