We spent a wonderful 10 days on Tenerife, which is one of the Canary Islands, and had an incredible vacation! The Canaries are part of Spain, but they are in the Atlantic, about 60 miles west of Morocco. So they have a really interesting feel that is a mix of desert (apparently some of the beaches have sand brought over from the Sahara)…dry air, cacti, etc. and tropics (palm trees, blue ocean). I had never really heard much about the Canary Islands, but since they are only a 4 hour direct flight from mainland Europe, they’re a popular holiday destination here (kind of like how in the States people might go to Hawaii, Mexico, or the Caribbean). The island was filled with mainly Brits, Germans, Russians, and Spanish, and in fact almost all the signs/menus were written in the 4 languages to accommodate everyone. With everything pretty much shut down here around Christmas time, and with Isaac off school, we decided it would be a good time to take a longer trip and get some sun to warm our bones. Our goal was to find somewhere warm where we could just chill out, swim, and have good family time.

The hotel we stayed at, and so many of the facilities around, were super family friendly! As we were first checking into our hotel and getting our welcome drink (champagne for us, apple juice for the kids), we noticed there was a play area right in the lobby, which quickly became one of the boys’ favorite spots in the hotel, and also an arcade room that Isaac loved (he would just pretend play the driving video game, steering the wheel and pretending to drive). There was also a little play area right in the dining room, so at breakfast once the kids finished eating, they could play while Jeff and I finished our food and coffee in a somewhat leisurely manner 🙂 Throughout the day, they had kid activities and at night a “mini disco” but we didn’t really partake in any of those, though it was nice to know they were available.

Our main activities each day consisted of going to breakfast at the hotel, swimming in the pool, playing in our room and around the hotel, resting, taking a little walk around Costa Adeje (which was the area around our hotel), and then going out for dinner. So it was a very very relaxed pace. We had a few particularly yummy dinners out: tapas one night, fish one night, and a delicious middle eastern meal another night. And some good wine a few of the nights.The best part was eating outside for almost all dinners, with some restaurants overlooking the water at sunset.

A few of the days, we ventured on little outings. We surprised Isaac with a Hanukkah gift of a submarine ride. It was so fun to have a little special “date” with him (kids under 2 weren’t allowed on the sub, so Jeff stayed back with Rafi), and he’s been interested in submarines for awhile, so it was cool to have the chance to go on one together. Another day, we went to a waterpark near our hotel. It was Isaac’s first time going down little water slides, and we weren’t sure whether he would be into it or not, but he loved it! And another day, we went to the beach. The water was a little chilly, so we didn’t swim, but had a great time building sand castles. We also observed the very “European” nature of the beach, with some people going for the “clothing optional” choice 🙂

Our big adventure was when we rented a car for a day (which you could do right from the hotel lobby), and drove around the island. Our main destination was a place called Loro Parque, which is kind of like a combo aquarium/zoo/parrot park. They had orcas, dolphins, penguins, gorillas, and lots of parrots. I have mixed feelings about places that do whale/dolphin shows, but it genuinely seemed like they take really good care of them and that the big focus of the park is conservation and sheltering of animals in danger. Another “first” for Isaac was riding a little roller coaster at Loro Parque, which was his favorite part of the day.

On our way back from Loro Parque, we took the scenic route so we could drive past the island’s famous volcano, Teide. We stopped off briefly in a town called La Orotava, which has a historic area with beautiful balconies and plazas. It was nice to get a little taste of a classic Spanish town, as the majority of our time was spent around the resort area. I definitely want to go back to other parts of Spain, since, even though this was Spain, I didn’t feel like I got a very strong sense of Spanish culture, being on mainly a beach holiday. But that’s ok, and hopefully I’ll have another chance while we’re here to get to other parts of Spain.

As we left La Orotava, we climbed higher and higher up toward the mountains, and the roads were narrow and windy and on the sheer edge of a cliff. I was definitely channeling my mom (who gets very nervous on high windy roads!) as I clutched the seat and tried not to hyperventilate. Jeff was an awesome driver — it was just my own anxiety, not a reflection on his driving 🙂 We also didn’t know how long the drive would take and it was getting later into the afternoon. We didn’t want to be driving the winding roads after dark, so I was freaking out a bit. But we survived!

We climbed higher and higher and finally glimpsed a view of El Teide. It’s the highest point in Spain and is the highest point above sea level on islands in the Atlantic. There’s even snow at the top of it! A lot of people go all the way to the top, and there’s a cable car you can take up, but we didn’t do that. Instead, we drove through the national park surrounding it, which is filled with windy roads, other mountains, and all kinds of interesting rock formations formed by lava over the years. A super cool part was when we were making our way down the mountain back toward Costa Adeje, we were actually above the clouds! Also, descending the mountain at sunset, we got a great view of the sun coming down into the ocean.

So all in all, it was an amazing vacation (or “holiday” as they say here), and I’m so very grateful we got to visit Tenerife, experience the beauty there, and get some down time together. It’s hard to capture in words, so I’ll post the pictures now, which hopefully give a good sense: