Tenerife

The Parque Nacional del Teide has been a nature reserve since 1954, and it’s a great place to enjoy hiking, with 40 different trails to explore. The park is named after Mount Teide, a 3,555m (11,663 feet) tall mountain that can be conquered by taking the Teleférico del Teide, a cable car.

The six elongated pyramids near the village of Güímar were originally thought to be extremely ancient - but they were actually only built in the 19th century. The reason why remains a mystery, but the site has been thoroughly excavated and is open to the public, along with an exhibition about the original archaeologist who worked on the site, Thor Heyerdahl.

Costa Martiánez is a unique project, a leisure complex designed by artist César Manrique. It contains seven swimming pools filled with refreshing seawater, with areas for the whole family to enjoy. It also hosts concerts and other cultural events.

Tenerife is a great place to head out on a whale-watching tour, with the surrounding waters populated by schools of dolphins and the odd pod of whales. One particularly excellent area for whale-watching is in front of the steep cliffs of Los Gigantes in the area of Santiago del Teide. Some of these tours also include the chance to go snorkeling and get up close to the wildlife.

The Observatorio del Teide is one of the largest of its kind in the world, taking advantage of the altitude of Mount Teide and the relatively low levels of light pollution in Tenerife. Its powerful and modern telescopes collaborate with other observatories around the world to increase our understanding of space. You have to book a tour in advance, but it’s absolutely worth a trip.

A trip to the zoo at Loro Parque is a great day out for the whole family. In addition to replicating the conditions of Antarctica for 250 penguins from different species, it also has the world’s largest collection of parrot species and two tigers.

The action-packed slides in Siam Park water park in Costa Adeje are sure to get the pulses of all adrenaline junkies racing. The park also contains the Mai Thai river, the longest lazy river in the world, and the Wave Palace is the largest wave machine in Europe.

The picturesque town of La Orotava can be found about two and a half miles outside of Puerto de la Cruz. The town’s houses have beautiful balconies that are typical of Canarian architecture, with the best example being the Casa de los Balcones, which was built in 1632 and today houses the Museum of Folk Art. The town also contains several churches and small souvenir shops.

Tenerife has several beaches with black sand made of eroded lava rock. One of the best examples is the Playa de Bolullo, which offers a spectacular alternative to the crowded tourist beaches. Other beaches to check out are the Playa de las Arenas in the west and the Playa Jardin in the north of the island.

The region of Icod de los Vinos contains a botanical garden called Parque del Drago, which houses a tree of the Canarian species Dracaena draco that is said to be about a thousand years old. This living emblem of Tenerife is one of the highlights of an attraction that contains 7 acres of native plants and ethnological exhibits.