The Passport Thing That Keeps Catching People Out
Check the issue date on your passport, not just the expiry date. This trips people up constantly and it’s completely avoidable.
Since Brexit, UK travellers need a passport that’s valid for the full duration of their stay in Spain. Fine. But there’s a second rule that nobody talks about: your passport must be less than ten years old from the date it was issued. Not from the expiry date. The issue date.
Before 2018, the passport office used to add extra months onto renewals as a goodwill gesture. So you might have a passport that expires in, say, 2026, but was issued in 2015 with a few bonus months added on. That passport could already be invalid for EU travel, even though it looks fine on the shelf. Check it now, not the morning you leave.
Our passport checker tool takes about thirty seconds and will tell you exactly where you stand.
Travel Insurance: Do It Properly or Don’t Bother
Tenerife is part of Spain, so your GHIC card will cover you for state medical care. That’s useful. But state hospitals here can mean a long wait, and most tourists end up at a private clinic because it’s faster and easier. Your GHIC won’t touch that bill.
Get actual travel insurance. Read the excess. Check whether it covers cancellations, lost luggage, and medical repatriation. The cheap policies that come with current accounts are often fine, but read what’s in them before you rely on them.
The thing most people don’t think to check: does your policy cover activities? If you’re planning to hike Teide or rent a jet ski, some standard policies won’t cover injuries from those. Worth knowing before you go, not after.
Book the Teide Permit Before You Think You Need To
If you want to hike to the summit of Mount Teide, specifically the section above the cable car station, you need a free permit from the Spanish National Parks system. And they go. Fast.
Spring and autumn are the most popular times, but even in quieter months the summit permits are limited. The process is straightforward on the Teide National Park permit page, but don’t leave it until the week before. I’ve spoken to people who arrived in Tenerife having planned their whole trip around that hike and couldn’t get a spot. Don’t be them.
And a quick note on the mountain itself: even in July, it’s cold up there. The air is thin, the wind comes out of nowhere, and the light at the top in the early morning is this flat, almost white brightness that bounces off the rock in a way you genuinely weren’t expecting. Bring a proper layer. Warm, not just a hoodie.
The Currency Trap at the ATM
You’ll need euros. Card payments are widely accepted in tourist areas, but smaller bars, market stalls, and a surprising number of car parks are still cash only.
Skip the airport exchange desks. The rates are genuinely poor and there’s no good reason to use them. A Wise card or a Starling account will save you a noticeable amount over the course of a week, especially if you’re a family.
When you use an ATM and it asks whether you want to pay in pounds or euros, always choose euros. Always. The machine is offering to do the conversion itself, which sounds convenient, but the rate it applies is significantly worse than what your bank will give you. It’s called dynamic currency conversion and it’s how they make money from tourists who don’t know to say no.
What Everyone Gets Wrong About Getting Around
People assume Tenerife is small and easy to navigate. It’s not tiny, and the geography is weirder than the map suggests.
There’s a mountain in the middle. A big one. Which means driving from the south to the north isn’t just a straight motorway run; it takes about an hour, and if you go through the mountains rather than around the coast, it’s slower, windier, and more dramatic than you probably planned for.
Hiring a car is honestly the best way to see the island properly. Buses are cheap and go to more places than people expect, but they don’t go everywhere, and some of the best spots, the Anaga peninsula in the north, the road down to Masca, the back roads around Vilaflor, are places you’ll only reach if you’re driving. Book through a reputable company and read the insurance excess terms before you sign anything. Some hire companies have excess clauses that will ruin your day if you chip a bumper.
For a solid breakdown of the bus network and what the Bono card actually saves you, The Tenerife Forum’s transport guide is genuinely useful, written by people who actually live here rather than people who visited once and copied someone else’s article.
Pack for the Island That Actually Exists
The south of Tenerife is warm, dry, and what most people imagine when they book the trip. The north is cooler, greener, and gets real rain in winter. The mountains are a different climate entirely.
I’ve seen people arrive in shorts and a single light jacket in October and genuinely struggle on a day trip to Teide. The volcanic ground up there is rough and pale grey, the wind cuts in sideways, and you can be standing at 3,700 metres with your eyes watering and your hands numb while it’s 24 degrees and calm down on the coast. Pack a proper layer.
Comfortable walking shoes matter too, not trainers you’d wear to a shopping centre, actual walking shoes with grip. Even the gentler hikes like the walk around Masca or any of the Anaga trails have loose stone and uneven ground. And high-SPF sun cream, because the UV index here is higher than most people from the UK expect, even on overcast days. This isn’t a warning from a health leaflet. I’ve watched people get properly burnt in March because it didn’t feel sunny enough to bother.
The Booking Window People Always Underestimate
Popular whale and dolphin watching trips out of Los Gigantes and Los Cristianos book up well in advance. The good ones, smaller boats, responsible operators, proper naturalist guides rather than someone with a microphone playing dance music, fill up days or weeks ahead. The trips with space on the day are usually the ones you don’t actually want.
Same with restaurants, particularly in La Laguna and the north. Locals eat late, often 9pm or later, and the places worth eating at know it. If you’ve read about somewhere specific and want to go on a particular night, book ahead. Turning up and hoping doesn’t work the way it used to.
Download Everything Before You Leave the House
Mobile signal is patchy in parts of the island. The Anaga peninsula, the mountain roads around Teide, and various rural areas in the north will drop you to nothing without warning. Download Google Maps offline before you travel. Download your flight details, your hotel confirmation, your hire car booking. Keep them somewhere you can reach without a signal.
Actually, I should mention this before I forget: if you’re going to drive up to the Teide summit or along the mountain roads, download the offline maps the night before rather than the morning of. They’re large files and hotel WiFi isn’t always fast.
What People Ask Before They Go
Do I need a visa from the UK?
No. UK citizens can visit Spain, including Tenerife, for up to 90 days in any 180-day period without a visa. That covers almost every holiday and extended stay.
Is Tenerife safe?
Yes, in the way that most busy tourist destinations are safe if you’re not careless. Watch your things on crowded beaches, don’t leave anything visible in a hire car, and use your common sense at night in the busier resort areas. Nothing unusual.
Can you drink the tap water?
Technically it’s treated and safe. In practice, almost nobody drinks it, locals included. The taste isn’t great and it’s heavily chlorinated in places. Bottled water is cheap and easy to find everywhere.
What’s the best time of year to visit?
For good weather with fewer crowds, September and October are hard to beat. Spring is good for hiking. Winter is mild and quiet, which a lot of people actually prefer once they experience it. Summer is busy and hot, especially in the south.
Do you tip in Tenerife?
It’s not expected the way it is in the US, but it’s appreciated. Rounding up the bill or leaving a euro or two for good service is the norm. You won’t cause offence either way.
One More Thing
None of this is complicated. It’s just the stuff that’s easy to forget when you’re busy counting down the days and picturing yourself sitting somewhere warm with a cold drink.
Do the boring admin early, sort the permit, check the passport, get the insurance, and the rest of the trip takes care of itself. Tenerife’s a good island. It tends to reward the people who arrive slightly prepared and then let it surprise them.
You’ll be fine. Just check the passport.
