Dates: December 31, 2018 to January 3rd, 2019
We were definitely looking for somewhere warm to intercut our vacation to a location with a climate identical to Seattle, and we found a cheap flight to the home of Richard Alpert, so there you go. Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands (and the largest island in Macronesia). It’s close to Morocco, but not so close that you can get there by boat. This island is at roughly the same latitude as Orlando, so it’s warm all year. The island is also the home of the largest mountain in Spain (Canary Islands are a territory of Spain). As a result the north side of the island (where were were staying) is roughly ten degrees cooler than the south side of the island.
Our Airbnb was at an abandoned resort by the Tenerife North airport (which is unfortunate because we landed in the south). Renting a car, we drove there after sunset (which was around 8pm). We spent around forty dollars to get an international driving permit from AAA (which is one of only two places you can get this), though at no point was it asked to be seen. The Airbnb was one of the most impeccably styled places we’d ever been, and the abandoned resort felt equal parts cool and terrifying. There were other occupants, but the rooms were all individually owned and the amenities (like the pool, clubhouse, bar, patios) were empty.
In our time there, we did a little exploring to some beaches. They were black sand beaches and had amazingly high waves, which made for great swimming and great sitting in the sun. The beaches were surprisingly not crowded for such a lovely day.
Our last day on the island we went to La Laguna, the oldest city on the island. The parking there was very difficult to come by and toward the city center, the streets were mixed with both cars and people. This city is a twin city with Santa Cruz, the capital of the territory, and has roughly 400,000 people combined. In general, despite the single Starbucks and Subway we spotted, we found this place to be much less American than other places we’d visited. Many people spoke no English (making communication very difficult, especially because Canarian Spanish is not exactly like Spanish).
All told we feel like we could have spent months there.