About Tenerife
Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands and as such, has an area of 2.057 sq km and a population of almost 750.000.
Tenerife is situated 200 miles off the west coast of North West Africa at about 28 degrees latitude and 16.5 degrees longitude.
The landscape of Tenerife is dominated by Mount Teide, an extinct volcano that stands some 3718m high. This gives Tenerife the highest mountain in the Spanish Territories, and on a clear day Mount Teides’ peak is quite visible from all of the other Canary Islands.
The volcanic scenery on Tenerife is awe inspiring so it hardly surprising that it has been chosen so often as the backdrop for many box office successes such as Star Wars and Planet of the Apes.
Tenerife Climate
Even though the West African coast, with its dry and hot climate, is only a few kilometres away, Tenerife experiences a spring like temperature throughout the whole year. The balanced climate can be attributed to specifically the Passat winds coming from North east and the cold sea current from the North of the Canaries.
Spring temperatures dominate throughout the year and the average temperature in Tenerife lies between 20-22ºC but even on cooler days, the thermometer will rarely fall below 16ºC and seldom gets higher than 30ºC even on the hotter days of the year.
To see how warm it will be during your visit, here is Tenerife weather guide..
In keeping with the other islands, you’ll also find that the climate in Tenerife varies dramatically from north to south giving Tenerife a number of different climatic zones.
On the one hand Tenerife’s northern areas are filled with an abundance of vegetation and humid forests, whilst the southern shores are parched and dry.
The South of the island is more often than not warmer and sunnier than in the North and this is where invariably the holiday makers crowd onto beaches, like Playa de Las Américas and Los Cristianos to bask in the year round sun.
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Tenerife Culture
Tenerife is also famous for its Carnival celebrations which are renowned to be the best in the northern hemisphere although not quite on the scale of those held in Rio de Janeiro and New Orleans.
The annual Mardi Gras Carnival at Santa Cruz is a spectacular event that involves all the people of Tenerife, and isTenerife carnival held every February. It is a celebration definitely not to be missed if you are visiting at this time of year.
The Santa Cruz de Tenerife carnival (Santa Cruz de Tenerife map) is said to attract in the region of 1 million people ranging from those just visiting to soak up the heady carnival and party atmosphere to those actually taking part in the festivities.
Preparations and planning for the carnival start many months in advance and the actual festivities span a period of about three weeks but the main event takes place in the week prior to Ash Wednesday.
Also not to be missed when visiting Tenerife is the fiesta of Corpus Christi. This is when the Tenerife islanders spend endless hours building dream carpets made of sand and flowers. Some of the most amazing decorations can be seen in the floral carpets at La Orotava and La Laguna.
View some nice photos of Tenerife on Tenerife Forum to get an idea of the island and it’s beauty and follow Tenerife Forum on Twitter.
For news about Tenerife, check Tenerife Weekly for all the very latest updates.