The south of Tenerife: which place suits whom
Updated October 1, 2026 · 9 min read
The south of Tenerife isn’t a single area, but a chain of places with forty kilometres of coast between them. The short answer: families stay in Costa Adeje, quieter travellers in Los Cristianos, teenagers and night owls in Playa de las Américas, surfers in El Médano, hikers in Los Gigantes. The most reliable excursion for all five is a short whale trip – the animals sit twenty minutes off this coast. The Travelin’ Lady from Los Cristianos is the island’s most-reviewed tour on GetYourGuide with 4.7 stars from 19,007 reviews and costs €29.90 for ninety minutes. From Puerto Colón in Costa Adeje, the Whale Watching Catamaran with Drinks runs for €35; from Los Gigantes, the Dolphin & Whale Watching Cruise with Swim Stop for €28.
See availability and prices for the Travelin’ Lady
Book two weeks here and you’re not choosing “the south” – you’re choosing one single place, and living with that choice for fourteen days. Why the sun is so reliable on this side of the island in the first place – trade winds, cloud build-up, rain shadow – is covered in the island overview under What to see in Tenerife; here it’s about what that means for choosing a place.
Five offers on this coast, compared
| Offer | Duration | from | Rating | best for |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Travelin’ Lady: Eco Yacht Whale & Dolphin Safari | 1h 30m | €29.90 per person | 4.7 (19,007) | guests in Los Cristianos who want the island’s most-reviewed trip |
| Costa Adeje: Whale Watching Catamaran with Drinks | 2 - 3 hours | €35 per person | 4.7 (4,121) | couples in Costa Adeje with a short walk to the jetty |
| Los Gigantes: Dolphin & Whale Watching Cruise with Swim Stop | 2 hours | €28 per person | 4.7 (5,427) | anyone who wants to depart right beneath the cliff face |
| Siam Park in Costa Adeje | Day ticket | €44 per person | 4.5 (18,556) | families with children tall enough for the slides |
| Full-Day Teide Jeep Safari from Playa de las Américas | 7 hours | €68 per person | 4.6 (1,166) | guests in Las Américas who want the national park without a hire car |
The places, from east to west
El Médano is the exception in the south, because here the wind isn’t a nuisance – it’s the point. Beneath Montaña Roja a breeze blows almost year-round, which has made the place one of Europe’s best-known windsurfing and kitesurfing spots. The sand is dark and genuine, the place has an old, grown core, and it’s the only stretch of this coast where you hear Spanish in the evening. The price for that: it’s the wrong place for sunbathing out of the wind, and almost no guided excursions start here. Stay here and you’ll be driving to your excursions.
Los Abrigos, Costa del Silencio and Las Galletas in between are quiet to very quiet – older complexes, fish restaurants, little going on. For travellers with no evening plans, that’s an advantage. As a starting point for excursions, they barely feature at all.
Los Cristianos is the largest place on this coast that existed before tourism did. You notice it in the plaza, in the old town centre behind the harbour, and in the fact that people live here in January who aren’t on holiday. The Playa de las Vistas next to it is one of the calmest beaches on the island: pale sand that was purpose-built, and breakwaters at both ends behind which the water stays flat and still. The Travelin’ Lady also departs from the harbour here.
Playa de las Américas was built on empty coastline from the sixties onwards and has stayed exactly that: a resort with no prior history, with the biggest hotels, the loudest evenings and the most listings for anything with an engine. The Full-Day Teide Jeep Safari also starts from here for €68, seven hours via Vilaflor and Masca. Travelling with teenagers, you’re closer here to what they’re after than in Costa Adeje. Wanting to sleep at ten, you’re not.
See availability and prices for the Teide Jeep Safari
Costa Adeje is the newest and most expensive stretch, getting newer as you head north: Playa de Fañabé, Playa del Duque, then La Caleta with its fish restaurants beyond. This is where Siam Park stands, where most of the family hotels are, and more guided excursions start here than anywhere else on this coast. The beach is well kept, the place interchangeable – which you’ll either like or not.
Further west the places get smaller: Playa Paraíso, Callao Salvaje, Alcalá are residential spots with swimming coves, without any excursions of their own. Puerto de Santiago and Playa de la Arena have dark natural beach instead of imported sand – anyone looking for the difference finds it here.
Los Gigantes right at the far end isn’t a beach resort but an address. The place clings to the foot of the cliffs, has a small harbour and 14 boat trips from €25 – more than some larger neighbourhoods. You stay here for the cliff face and for the quiet, not for the beach.
The three harbours – the question that matters before booking
Almost everything that floats on this coast departs from one of three places. That rarely appears in the listing description, and yet it can decide an hour of travel time either way:
Puerto Colón in Costa Adeje is the island’s biggest excursion harbour; most catamaran trips leave from here, including the Whale Watching Catamaran with Drinks for €35. The harbour of Los Cristianos is also the ferry port: the crossing to San Sebastián de La Gomera takes around fifty minutes on average, with several shipping lines running the route daily. The harbour of Los Gigantes is the smallest, and the only one from which you’re beneath the cliff face within a few minutes – the Dolphin & Whale Watching Cruise with Swim Stop for €28 departs from there.
See availability and prices for the catamaran from Puerto Colón
In practice that means: staying in El Médano and wanting to leave from Los Gigantes, you’ve got forty kilometres ahead of you. Many operators offer hotel pick-up, but not all of them, and pick-up often starts an hour before departure. Before booking, it’s worth checking which harbour is named – not which place.
The whales themselves are equally close from all three: the protected area begins a few kilometres off the coast, and the 37 offers under whale and dolphin watching from €25.20 depart from all three harbours. The same applies to snorkelling and diving, 44 offers from €22.95.
What the south has to offer on land
The most-reviewed offer on land is here: Siam Park in Costa Adeje, €44 and 18,556 reviews – only one whale trip across the whole island ranks above it, the Travelin’ Lady. It’s also the item that tips a family budget over – four people come to €176 there before anyone’s eaten anything.
See availability and prices for Siam Park
The second reason this stretch of coast is more than hotels: the slopes behind it. Above Adeje the terrain climbs to over a thousand metres within a few kilometres, and that’s exactly what the island’s 21 paragliding offers rely on – you take off up there and land on the coast. Looking for darkness rather than height: the sunset and stargazing trips into the national park pick up their guests along this coast before heading up; the three-hour stargazing trip costs €35.
The airport is at the wrong end – for half the guests
Tenerife South is near El Médano, at the eastern end of the chain. To Los Cristianos it’s around 17 kilometres and about a quarter of an hour; to Costa Adeje barely more – bus line 111 takes about twenty to thirty-five minutes and runs every half hour.
The second airport, Tenerife North near La Laguna, is around eighty kilometres away – a good hour’s drive to the south. That’s not a reason to rule it out, but it belongs in the calculation before booking the cheaper flight. Two adults save on the ticket exactly what the transfer costs them twice over.
Beaches: the difference worth knowing beforehand
This coast has two kinds of beach, and they look the same in photos. Some are man-made: pale sand, a shallow entry, breakwaters offshore – Las Vistas in Los Cristianos, El Camisón, Playa del Duque. They’re the calmest on the island and the reason the south works with small children; the details are under Tenerife with a toddler and Tenerife with a baby.
The others are natural: dark lava sand, open Atlantic, sometimes a considerable undertow. They’re the more beautiful ones and the more demanding ones. Which beach ends up on your doorstep is decided when you choose the hotel, not afterwards.
When the south is the wrong choice
If you’re after a town that grew rather than one that was built: apart from Los Cristianos and the small El Médano, everything here was built on a drawing board, and you notice it by the third day. Anyone wanting old towns, manor houses and greenery is better off in the north, and accepts more cloud in return.
If you’re arriving without a hire car and still want to see half the island: buses run reliably along the coast, but far less often inland and to Anaga. Then the guided tour isn’t the convenient option but the only one – which also means working to the operator’s timetable.
And if the plan involves long day tours with small children along: distances here are longer than the map suggests. What works at which age is under Tenerife with kids – and what should be settled before any boat booking is under Boat trip with kids – minimum age.
All the island’s excursions, sorted and with prices, are under things to do in Tenerife, the trips up the mountain under Teide tours from €20, and anything with an engine under buggy and quad tours from €56.95.
Our recommendation
For most people: the Travelin’ Lady from Los Cristianos for €29.90 per person. Ninety minutes, 4.7 stars from 19,007 reviews – the island’s most-reviewed tour, and the harbour sits in the middle of this coast, so it’s reachable from every place.
For families in Costa Adeje: Siam Park for €44 per person, 4.5 stars from 18,556 reviews. For four people that’s €176; the big slides have minimum height requirements that the park sets per attraction.
For guests in Las Américas without a hire car: the Full-Day Teide Jeep Safari for €68 per person, seven hours, 4.6 stars from 1,166 reviews. It starts right in town and takes in Vilaflor and Masca.
For anyone a boat trip isn’t for: if you handle swell badly, read beforehand what to expect on this coast – that’s covered under boat trips and sea conditions. And anyone staying in El Médano should think twice about an excursion from Los Gigantes: it’s forty kilometres each way, and pick-up often starts an hour before departure.
