In 2023, a wildfire devastated an area covering 14000 hectares along Tenerife’s cumbre, spreading further down northern slopes than southern ones. Where it can be difficult to visualise a number, official maps made it abundantly clear how much of the island was affected. Wildfires are, unfortunately, not uncommon in places with warm climates. We’ve witnessed plenty...
On Fuerteventura, the Barbary Ground squirrels have become almost as big a tourist attraction as the island itself. But they’re an invasive species.
Think you know what a barraquito is on Tenerife? Ordering Tenerife’s speciality coffee might not be as straightforward as you think.
Ever since we launched our Real Tenerife Town & City Guides, the one for Santa Cruz has niggled; it hasn’t felt quite right. We were satisfied the main route covered all the things we felt were most interesting in the centre of Tenerife’s capital. But the secondary route was more like a mini-me version of the primary route. It did have a few differences, but was...
The hill town of Santiago del Teide is, to put it bluntly, a mess. Despite nestling in one of Tenerife’s most picturesque valleys, it is not a particularly nice environment. Not at the moment anyway. And that’s because of the Anillo Insular. The Anillo Insular The Anillo Insular is a ring road linking the south and north of Tenerife via the west of the island rather...
‘That’s not Mexico,’ I exclaimed. The location at the start of BBC’s Nine Bodies in a Mexican Morgue was instantly identifiable. ‘That’s Abades on Tenerife.’ When I Googled it, AI disagreed, insisting only Gran Canaria appeared in the series, Jardín Canario de Viera y Clavijo to be exact. Not for the first time, nor the last, AI was wrong. The leper village that...
For the last few years, The Real Tenerife website has been virtually rotting on the vine. We didn’t outright abandon it, but we certainly neglected it. There were several reasons for this. One was we left Tenerife for Portugal in 2017. Another was that we grew so weary of other writers using our experiences and knowledge as a resource without crediting us (it brings...
There was a scene in Celebrity Traitors where Scottish actor Mark Bonnar took a step away from his fellow celebs and eyed them suspiciously, trying to work out who the traitorous rogues in the pack were. In a world where misinformation, misdirection, and fake news are rife, it’s more important than ever that we all do a ‘Mark Bonnar’ every so often. Take the news...
In our A to Z of Tenerife Part 1 we included a diverse range of things we like and find interesting about Tenerife, from a leper village to its colourful, and sometimes spicy, sauces. Part 2, N to Z includes a famous English admiral, an other-worldly flower, and the Canarian gastronomic speciality that everyone loves.
A couple of years ago A to Zs of travel destinations were all the rage so, even though I liked the idea, we kept away from doing one for Tenerife as, well, everybody seemed to be doing them.