Best bet: to hire guide/taxi in Tenerife

[SugarLover]

I am actually cutting and pasting the following from a post I made over on a Celebrity Roll Call. The person I was responding to made an excellent suggestion for me to repost my experience over here, for others to find.

This was in response to the question whether to rent a car, or hire a taxi for the day in Tenerife (as opposed to going on a group tour).

Hope this helps someone else in the future!

 

"We have friends who have rented a car, with no problems, and success driving around, but NOT up to Mt Teide. I believe that's best done with a guide of some sort, whether by way of a tour, or hiring a taxi/guide at the dock. If you've never been there before, you don't know the best places to pull over for the best views, where to park, etc.

 

we did the latter when we were first there (hired guy at the dock). It happened purely by accident, as the tour through the ship we had booked had promised a different vehicle (Jeeps, 2-3 each, with a driver), and what showed up was a caravan of larger 4WD vehicles that had four real seats (one front, three middle) and then a horrible 'jump seat' in the rear for the OTHER FOUR PEOPLE. We're both tall, and as there were no regular seats left, and we knew we couldn't FIT in the back, X promised more cars to come... which never did. Finally, after the dock was practically a ghost town and every other tour had left, we told X forget it, we would get a refund, and we approached a few cabbies and negotiated a price for the two of us. I can't remember, but I think we used the X price as our starting point, but went less for an agreed-on price since this guy didn't have overhead, advertising, etc. His English wasn't perfect, but we spoke Spanglish, so we were able to communicate just fine.

 

We took off, in a comfortable brand new car, and saw lots of sights on the way up to Teide, including town, the univ, etc. He also suggested we stop for snacks and drinks to bring along, as our lunch stop would be quite late. Our driver knew the best spots to pull over, and which ones to skip. When we got to the place just past Teide, where the tours/guide go for the most amazing views, of course he did what he did at every other stop...passed everyone and all the busses and jeeps, etc. pulled right up to the very very front and dropped us to do our wandering while waiting. We even saw our "Tour" parked waaaaaaay back, LOL. He stopped at every little place I wanted to for the perfect pic, and then brought us a different way back down, stopping through town to see several other sights, going in churches, etc. including a stop for late lunch at a fabulous restaurant overlooking the city... live music, lots of locals, really cool place, didn't want to leave. He delivered us back to the dock in plenty of time, and just as we were shaking hands and saying our goodbyes, our tour pulled up LOL, and people unfolding out of the vehicles that had been packed like sardines, were not happy after a very long and uncomfortable day. They of course, saw some of what we saw, but took much longer as there were so many to wait on, and also didn't see all that we did, nor had such a great lunch with locals.

 

That had been only our second time trying to do a packaged tour, and again, after our experience, we have continued to say NEVER to a packaged group tour. Every other port we've been to, we always hire someone locally, either in advance or on the spot as we walk off, for a private tour. Our Tenerife day was fabulous, no different than other port stops.

 

I realize you are not interested in a tour, but my point is, Tenerife, unless you've already been there once before, needs a guide of some sort to fully appreciate the experience, and to navigate your way up the winding roads to Teide. Renting a car is fine for elsewhere on the island, but I think for a first time visit and seeing Mt. Teide in all her majesty, I'd suggest hiring a taxi. Hope this helps."

[grayjay]

Can you please tell us what you paid for that day, if possible? And were there enough taxis for hire at the port?

Thank you for your answer.

[LondonTowner]

Personally, I would hire a car in Tenerife. Car hire is cheap you have CICAR and Hertz at the port and they tend to have new cars. Petrol is also reasonably priced as the Canaries are a Duty Free area. I don't think you need a guide to go up to Teide as really the visit is to admire the scenery and beauty. The roads are good, quiet and easy to drive and there shouldn't be any problem parking. Just do some research on the internet and/or get a decent guide book.

 

By having a car you can easily go to other worthwhile places like Masca, La Oratava, tacoronte, Puerto de la Cruz, Icod de los Vinos, Garachico, La Laguna etc.

 

For me it would have to be a car every time.

[MVPinBoynton]

Sugarlover,

Thanks for your info. We have never hired a guide/taxi at the dock. We always try to find guides with good reputations well before our cruise. You were very lucky to find a great taxi driver. We have rented cars at ports before; but I much prefer someone else to drive that knows the ropes.