Tenerife Mini Review

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We recently sailed aboard the Legend of the Seas on a transatlantic cruise from Barcelona to Fort Lauderdale. I learned a lot from reading Cruise Critic before we left. However, it was hard to locate specific information about the various port. [Alicante, Malaga, Madeira, and Tenerife] So I am doing a mini review with pictures for each port.

 

If you are interested in the review of the TA, this is the link: http://boards.cruisecritic.com/showthread.php?p=40658244#post40658244

 

Tenerife was our last port of call before 8 sea days

[MVPinBoynton]

When will you be putting some info and photos for Tenerife. We will be doing a cruise there next year and looking forward to a preview.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

When will you be putting some info and photos for Tenerife. We will be doing a cruise there next year and looking forward to a preview.

 

I promise to put some up this evening. This mini review is part of my review of our recent transatlantic. i needed to start each review so I would have the URL to add to the other reviews. but, then I had 6 reviews all going at the same time. :eek: It seemed like an efficient way to do the reviews. LOL what was I thinking:confused:

[MVPinBoynton]

I promise to put some up this evening. This mini review is part of my review of our recent transatlantic. i needed to start each review so I would have the URL to add to the other reviews. but, then I had 6 reviews all going at the same time. :eek: It seemed like an efficient way to do the reviews. LOL what was I thinking:confused:

 

No problem at all. Now I understand your logic and it makes perfectly good sense. I understand how long it takes to do a review, so take your time and enjoy it.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Sorry this has taken me so long to get started.

 

The view Of Santa Cruz Tenerife as we arrived.

 

 

One of our roll call members had arranged a tour of Tenerife. We had two small tour buses, with Patsy as our main guide. We left around 8:45 from the port and drove to La Laguna, the ancient capital and a World Heritage site. This was the first capital of the island [until 1723] and a university town.

 

The University

 

 

 

 

 

The city center:

 

 

The dragon trees take around 22 years for each section of the tree to grow. [where a new section branches off]. This is a very old tree.

 

 

 

Many of the buildings date back to the Age of Exploration

 

We visited a market here, too.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Note the wooden structure at the top of the building. The grill work was designed to allow nuns to get fresh air and not be in public sight.

 

 

Every building seemed to have the most beautifully carved door made of Tenerife pine.

 

 

 

Most of the streets were very narrow.

 

 

 

The buildings had central courtyards.

 

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We were not able to visit the church here because it was a construction zone. the dome had collapsed.

 

 

 

 

More doors and courtyards.

 

 

 

 

 

OK enough of that. :eek:

[DragonOfTheSeas]

I thought these plants growing on the roof tiles was really odd. Our guide, Patsy, said they do not damage the tile.

 

 

Typical Canary island style.

 

 

There were beautiful flowers everywhere.

 

 

We visited the market. It was a Monday so it was not very busy. This square was empty. But the building beside it was full.

 

 

But, there were still many vendors. This one was selling animals.

 

 

A Flower stall

 

[Keith1010]

Thanks for sharing your review and photos.

 

Keith

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Thanks for sharing your review and photos.

 

Keith

 

Thanks for following the review. I still have more than half to go on this one. :D

[MVPinBoynton]

Thanks for posting. What tour guide did you use?

[MVPinBoynton]

I hope the other half includes Mt. Tiede. Does it?

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Thanks for posting. What tour guide did you use?

 

Her name was Patricia H. Little [patricialittle@hotmail.com]. She is an independent operator. She is from Connecticut. We had 2 tour busues and I was in the other bus. So, I did not get all of her commentary. However, when we stopped she did all of the walking tours, etc.

 

I hope the other half includes Mt. Tiede. Does it?

 

Yes, it does. We did not take the cable car to the top. but, we rode through the park and stopped at 2 locations. We were behind in time. I think we would have stopped more in the park. As it was we did not get back to the ship until 4:50. We needed to be back by 5:30 and sail away was 6pm. So, we were well within time. But, we had planned on being back by 3:30.

 

This was not her fault--we started 1/2 hour late and we had some with mobility issues. Everything just took a little longer. :)

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Our next atop was La Oratoavo. It is a very traditional Canarian town. We stopped into the church [of course].

 

 

 

 

It attaches to the Cultural Center.

 

It sits beside the town square:

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Our guides dropped us off in the center of town in La Orotava and we walked up the hill. We saw the modern commercial center and old houses, gardens, and patios.

 

It was a pretty steep climb. Tour buses are not allowed on these narrow streets so we had to walk. [Patsy hired a taxi for a few people that could not make the walk.]

 

 

 

 

 

We walked by the Victorian Garden—but, Patsy said we would visit it from the top later and walk down. It is much easier that way.

 

 

 

 

 

 

There were flowers on all sides of the street.

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

We did a little shopping at the House of the Balconies, a 17th Century mansion built in traditional Canarian style.

 

 

 

 

 

The interior courtyard.

 

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

It is a handicraft center for traditional hand-made embroidery. The items for sale were beautiful—but, very pricey. I looked at a tablecloth that was 185€. I bought 4 hand-made linen ones in Maderia the day before for 15€ each.

 

Traditional costumes [i think they were for sale]:

 

 

 

Coloring a floor cloth:

 

 

 

From the street outside the House of the Balconies we had spectacular views. [the summit of Mt Teide is behind the clouds.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited November 16, 2013 by DragonOfTheSeas

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Then we walked through a beautiful terraced garden. [Victoria Garden] The flowers and views were stunning. There are not enough adjectives to describe this area. So, I will just post some of my pictures.

 

 

 

 

 

 

You can see why it was much easier to start at the top and work down.

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Our next stop was lunch [up the valley] at the restaurant Los Andes. We had a typical menu of :

 

plate of goat cheese starter

water cress soup

chicken in "salmorejo" sauce

potatoes cooked in skins in salt water

"quesillo" a super rich flan desert

bread, wine, water

11€ per person

 

It was delicious and the wine was the best I had on the trip.

Then we visit the Mt Teide National Park [Parquet Nacional de las Canadas del Teide]. Mt Teide [12,200 ft]is a more recent volcano within a 30 mile wide crater. The first snow of the season occurred the day before our visit to Mt Teide.

 

Views from the drive into the park:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Very large mountains make their own weather. One the day of our visit we had clouds around the summit. We did not ride the cable car to the top.

But, there were plenty of other great views.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This formation is known as the Cathedral:

 

This is how it was formed—

 

[DragonOfTheSeas]

More views:

 

 

 

 

 

 

This is the summit of the mountain behind these clouds. You can see it is a mostly clear day--but the clouds were heavy on the mountain.

 

 

 

 

 

 

It was a very arid looking area.

 

Edited November 16, 2013 by DragonOfTheSeas

[MVPinBoynton]

These are great and thank you for the guide info. I will contact her.

[DragonOfTheSeas]

Then it was time to re-board the buses and head for the port.

 

 

 

We arrived back around 4:50pm for our 6pm sail away. We were all tired and happy after a very full day as we sailed away from Tenerife.

 

 

 

This was the sunset.

 

 

I hope you have as good a day in Tenerife as we did. We plan one day to return and see the other things we missed.

[MVPinBoynton]

We are only in port from 7:00AM until 4:00PM, so we won't get to see as much as you did.

[otiscruiser]

We will not be there long either, if you had to pick one area to see, which did you like the best? My mother is not a good walker....

Thanks