In February 1999 my friends and I decided to book flights to Tenerife as we wanted to spend a great time at the Carnival of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Before the trip we had created extraordinary costumes for our participation in that special event. We really enjoyed having parties in the streets, dancing to music of Caribbean rhythms, drinking Sangría and meeting people from anywhere. There were many interesting bands and orchestras playing in the streets. The atmosphere was just brilliant! I guess you can imagine we did not sleep too much. My personal highlight was DJ Armand Van Helden´s performance at the Santa Cruz Dance Carnival on Monday of Carnival.

Tenerife is a fantastic vacation place for nightlife in general. We liked the evening programs in our hotel in Playa de las Americas a lot. In the week after Carnival there was a karaoke show for everyone, and me and my friends sang a song which was originally recorded by the Spice Girls.

Playa de las Americas is the perfect location for going out. We spend a lot of time during the nights in the clubs. My favourite one was Tramps, the most popular night club of the island. I admit it was not cheap at all. However, some of our Canarian friends knew one of the guys working there, and so we got entrance and at least a few drinks for free. One night we were not into dancing that much, so we decided to spend some time at Brannigans, a small pub where the DJ played Indie music most of the time.

If you still look for a place where to spend your next party vacation, do not hesitate and a book a flight to Tenerife – it is a real nightlife paradise.

My hotel was located in Playa de las Americas, this is in the south of the island.

I was shocked, because my first impression of the south was like an desert. If the trees and plants don´t get water from the resorts, then nothing would grow up there. But it looks very nice.

The name of our hotel was “Los Hibiscus”, a very nice location. There you can find a swimingpool and the rooms are with balcony. The beach was only 10 minutes away from the hotel.

The beach has black sand, but at some bays they put white sand, so it looks like classic beaches. Because of historical reasons, the island arised by volcano activities, the sand has it´s black colour.

At my first night I found some cockroaches, but you have to know, they live here longer then any human and are very shy. It´s pretty normal in these warm regions to see cockroaches.

At my second day of the holdays i made a dolphin tour, and it was very nice. Included in this dolphin tour is a shipping near the stone coast at Los Gigantes a very huge (500 meters high) mountain at the coast. After some minutes we saw many dolphins. This was my highlight of the travel to tenerife island.

There are different possibilities to hire a sailing yacht with skipper for a group of friends or the whole family.

There are different sport marinas on the isle of Tenerife where you can dock with your own sailing yacht and fill up your water and fuel deposits. One of these marinas is situated in Radazul a few kilometres from Santa Cruz.

On a sailing cruise ahead Tenerifes coast you can get a new perspective of this beatiul piece on earth. You can take a bath in hidden bay’s, which can hardly be reached without a boat or a yacht.

If you want to live a little adventure during your holiday on Tenerife you have the possibility to take a sailing trip to one of the surrounding isles like La Gomera or La Palma.

Tenerife and the whole Canary Isles are an adequate territory for sailing holidays and sailing cruises. Near the sport marinas you can find lots of hotels and holiday-apartments.

Particularly, the southern part of the island has very easy access to water. In the major tourist resorts of Playa de las Americas, Los Cristianos and Costa Adeje, you will find some of the island’s most spectacular beaches.

It is worth pointing out that several of them gained a reward of the European Blue Flag for their clear water and clean sand.

In Los Cristianos you will find two main beaches and several smaller ones, which are situated close to the hotels. The Los Cristianos beach is suitable especially for children. Additionally, it posses plenty of playgrounds and guarantees a great family atmosphere.

Playa de las Americas posses probably the most famous beach on the whole island of tenerife: Playa de Troya. It has not only shallow water and a great selection of restaurants and bars, but also many water sports options, particularly surfing due to large waves, which appear when the sea is more rough than usual.

If you would like to snorkel or to have some good fish on lunch, you should definitely spend some time on the coast of Costa Adeje with its small and rather stone beach: La Caleta.
This is also a perfect place to rest from other tourists, as a little known cove with a sandy beach: Playa de la Enramada is situated just between Las Americas and La Caleta.

The Teno-range in the west of Tenerife and the Anaga-mountains are a famous destination for active holiday makers and those who like hiking and exploring.

The visitor finds many small original villages, which escaped from the mass tourism because of their location far away from the popular beaches and the big cities. One learns about the roots of civilization of Tenerife and can enjoy the intact landscape and meet the autochthonous people living there.

We explored the moste interesting and charming places of the island to give you some usefull tips.
One of the most beautiful beaches, called Playa de las Teresitas, is situated in the north-east of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, the capital of the island. Playa de las Teresitas has been created artificially with sand from the Sahara desert, you can enjoy a safe bathing pleasure as well adequate for children.

In the south of the island of Tenerife you can find different natural sandy beaches at El Medano and artificially created ones in the tourist resorts like Las Americas and Los Cristianos.

La Tarta:

The so called queen of the Canary Islands guarantees temperatures of over 20 °C in winter as in summer with many sunny days to take a sunbath. Over all the south of the island is well known for nearly any cloudy or rainy day. Most beaches are situated near the holiday centres like Los Christianos or Playa de Las Americas.

The holiday-maker has a lot of hotels and a perfect tourist infrastructure with appropriate restaurants, amusement parks and much more on his disposal.

It is a quite special experience for every tourist to visit Santa Cruz during the carnival time the months of January and February. Thousands of people dressed up with colourful costumes dancing and celebrating on the streets of the capital of Tenerife.
The carnival is accompanied by Salsa, Merengue and Samba rhythms. The carnival of Santa Cruz is after the one in Rio de Janeiro the most popular worldwide.

So, you see, you have many possibilities to escape from the cold winter months in Germany.

The wonderful mild and pleasant climate all over the year is one of the biggest advantages of the archipelago. In winter hardly less than 18 degrees and more than 27 degrees in summer.

You can book a typical holiday package in the south of the isle in tourist resorts like Los Christianos and Playa de las Americas. An alternative is to spend your holiday in a nice country house offered by rural tourism in the area of Puerto de la Cruz in the north of Tenerife.

Stylish typical canary accommodations are offered far away from the hustle and bustle in country houses and fincas on the countryside of Tenerife.

You find a great supply of different private holiday cottages and holiday dwellings in all regions of the island. With a rental car or with the public transport system you can discover many beauties of Tenerife.

On the stretch of coast near to the island capital of Santa Cruz, look out for:

1 Playa de las Gaviotas north of the famous man-made beach of Playa de las Teresitas near Igueste de San Andrés in the north east of the island.

2 Playa de Benijo near Nuestra Señora de Begoña and El Chinobre in the far north.

3 Playa de Fabián.

4 Playa del Draguillo.

In the Puerto de la Cruz area, the best known is Playa de los Patos, about a half-hour’s walk from Puerto. Access is not easy but it is highly recommended by local naturists because of its seclusion.

Also recommended are:

1 Playa del Ancón near to the above-mentioned Los Patos beach.

2 Playa de Garañona near Tacoronte, which is a good beach but can be dangerous.

3 Playa del Camello.

In the south of the island, the best known is La Tejita at El Médano, close to the airport and the big local landmark of Montaña Rojo. Two other smaller beaches close to the ‘red mountain’, Playa de la Montaña Roja and Playa de la Mareta are also popular with local naturists.

In Las Galletas, Playa de Colmenares near the Costa del Silencio complex has its devotees, as does Playa de la Punta del Callao at nearby Los Cristianos.

Close to Playa de las Americas are Playa de la Puntilla and Playa de la Caleta.

Over on the east of the island, Playa de la Pelada is recommended in the Granadilla area.

All the beaches mentioned have been recommended by Spain’s own national naturism federation.

One word of warning though. These quieter beaches tend to be narrow and often covered by the tide at high water. Always take care to avoid being cut off by the incoming tide.

The event is based around the playground resort of Playa de las Americas in the south of the island from April 21-28.

Taking the lion’s share of award nominations is a Canadian film, ‘Tripping the Wire’, which is nominated in six of the eleven categories, namely best film, best actor and actress, best supporting actor and actress and best director.

A two-hour murder mystery set in Montreal and directed by Canadian director Stephen Surjik, Tripping the Wire stars Clark Johnson as street-wise detective Stephen Tree, who is struggling to keep a past crime of his own secret as he attempts to solve the brutal murder of a man set on fire.

The film is made by the Canadian company Galafilm.

The Tenerife festival also includes categories for best documentary, best short film, best foreign language film, best animated film, and best music video.

According to ABTA (the Association of British Travel Agents) London’s three airports, Heathrow Gatwick and Stansted will preside over the departure of over a million sun-seeking passengers.

And the largest proportion of them will be heading for Tenerife, with the southern resorts of Playa de las Americas and Los Cristianos likely to receive most of them.

Spain is also high on the list of popular holiday hot spots with Brits, followed by Turkey, Tunisia, Egypt and Morocco.

It’s all part of a record British Easter period, with around 2,500,000 want-aways set to leave the country by the weekend.

The UK Met Office is advising tourists to pack an umbrella and waterproofs as many European destinations are forecast to receive heavy rain over the next week.

However, those opting to spend their Easter break in Tenerife are unlikely to be disappointed. Apart from a few isolated showers on Saturday or Sunday, there is likely to be plenty of sunshine around right through the week.

Long before holiday revellers brought head banging from the London clubs to the nightspots of Playa de las Americas, Tenerife had its own variation of the phenomenon

A study of the skulls of the island’s original inhabitants by scientists at the Canarian Institute of Palaeopathology and Bioanthropology in Santa Cruz found that fractures were common among males in their 20s and early 30s, according to the Journal of Paleopathology.

The scientists examined over 400 skulls pre-dating the Spanish invasion of the island in 1496.

Some 10 per cent of the skulls showed circular cranial fractures, an injury rarely found among archaeological human skeletons.

The pre-Hispanic inhabitants of the island, the Guanches, had weapons similar to the Argentinean bolas – two or more heavy balls attached to a cord.

Over 80 per cent of the fractures show clear signs of healing, says the report, though the scientists suspects that brain damage must have resulted from the injuries.

A number of new courses have sprung up in recent years, all offering first class facilities in glorious locations.

Tenerife’s superb climate means that conditions for golf are almost always ideal, with average temperatures ranging between 20-26C throughout the year.

Probably the best-known of the island’s courses is Buenavista, located in the remote north of the island. Designed by five-times major winner Severiano Ballesteros, the 18-hole clifftop course has the sea on one side and the Teno mountains as a backdrop on the other.

The clubhouse, with a large lake in front of it, has superb panoramic views over the 6,019-metre course and the Atlantic Ocean beyond.

Last year the Buenavista del Norte course won a prestigious national award at the Spanish Golf Federation Gala in Madrid for the attention paid to the environment in its construction.

Also in the north of the island is Tenerife’s oldest golf club – and the second oldest club in Spain – the Real Golf Club de Tenerife at El Peñon, Tacoronte. Founded in 1932, the 18-hole par 71 course offers magnificent views to Mount Teide.

Most of the island courses are in the sunnier south.

Amarilla Golf near San Miguel de Abona is also close to the sea and has some spectacular holes where the ocean comes into play. The 18-hole par 71 course was designed by Donald Steel. Other on-site facilities include pitch and putt, a swimming pool and horse riding.

Golf Costa Adeje in the municipality of Adeje has 27 holes in three par 36 nine-hole sections with a variety of obstacles such as gorges and lakes adding to the interest. It affords breathtaking ocean views, wide greens and a spacious clubhouse with large terraces.

Golf del Sur in San Miguel de Abona also offers 27 holes, set among ravines that make it a difficult test for all but the most accurate of golfers. The course regularly hosts championship events on the men’s and women’s professional circuits.

Golf Las Americas is located in the heart of the island’s biggest resort, Playa de las Americas. Designed by British professional John Jacobs, the par 72 course is a real oasis of calm set in a natural amphitheatre facing the sea, offering magnificent views across the ocean to the nearby island of La Gomera.

Centro de Golf Los Palos in Las Galletas in the municipality of Arona is a nine-hole par 27 course designed by Jose Maria Olazabal. The relatively flat nature of this par-three course makes it ideal for beginners or older golfers who find the tough nature of some of the island’s other courses too demanding. The course has plenty of water obstacles, making it especially challenging for those who want to improve their short game.

Abama Grand Hotel Golf Resort at Playa San Juan in Guía de Isora is the gem at the heart of a magnificent complex of five-star hotel and luxury villas. The 18-hole course, designed by Dave Thomas, has 22 lakes and over 90,000 palm trees.