Going Native in Tenerife – Tenerife Beaches

When we first visited Tenerife to check out if it was a place we could live, an ex-pat resident commented on the fact that I was wearing shorts. It identified me as a tourist, 'because locals didn’t wear shorts,' she explained.

It turned out this wasn’t in the slightest bit true. The Canarians do wear shorts in the summer and what’s more they do almost exactly the same things that visitors do; when it’s hot they go to the beach. The town and city section of ‘Going Native in Tenerife’ therefore includes information about the best beaches around the island. Whist Tenerife doesn’t have Seychelles type beaches, it does have a great selection of crescent shape beaches and small coves dotted around its coastline. Around the resorts, beaches tend to be man-made with imported sand and rows of sunbeds underneath thatched umbrellas and that suits many people.

Alternatively, there are also many wild coves, volcanic black sand playas, secluded nudist beaches and long sweeping bays of naturally pale gold sand. Some of these are only a hop, skip and a jump away from the main southern tourist resorts and ideally placed for those who like to go native and seek out beaches that are a bit more as nature intended. The quiet beach in the picture is barely 20 minutes from Playa de las Américas.