Tenerife Holidays

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Holidays in Tenerife

Holidays in Tenerife or the fortunate isles as they were known by the Victorians have been growing in popularity for the last one hundred years or so. The first tourists to take so called holidays in Tenerife were more usually the wealthy British travelling to the north of Tenerife to enjoy the warm winter climate often on their doctor's recommendation. There was even a tuberculosis clinic up in the mountains of southern Tenerife at Vilaflor, on the site of the newly opened rural hotel there. This was all in the days prior to the modern advent of travel via cheap flights to Tenerife, travelling in those days meant a leisurely cruise on one of the many steamships that regularly sailed to and from Tenerife. Many of the beautiful hotels with their spacious gardens, built especially for this trade, are still in existence in and around Puerto de la Cruz (in the north of Tenerife) today.

The opening of Reina Sofia airport in the south of Tenerife has meant that travel times to the south have been cut and there has been an explosion in the development of hotels and apartments in Tenerife. As in many countries not all of this development has been executed or even planned with much long term vision. However as in most things people do learn by their mistakes and the current property in Tenerife being built for holiday accommodation is of a better quality with more space being provided for essential services, travel and infrastructure.

The authorities here have taken the conscious decision to actively encourage rural tourism with the conservation of old houses and in some cases transforming old buildings into rural hotels. This policy actually brings more money into the local community than giant holiday companies who pay much reduced fees to the hoteliers and then spend the bulk of the fees charged to holiday makers on marketing outside Tenerife. Tourists who travel to rural hotels or "casas rural" will normally use a local car hire company, buy their fuel locally, shop in the village shops and are usually more interested in trying something from Tenerife rather than staying within the confines of their hotel or heading for the nearest British bar or restaurant.

Another decision taken relatively recently is the encouragement of the construction of golf courses and its attendant golf property in Tenerife. I believe that this is a good decision, the average golfer spends more money per day than the sun, sea and sand brigade, will generally select a higher quality hotel or property in Tenerife to rent, is usually better behaved and also by spreading the tourists around it relieves the pressure on the major tourist centres. There has been some objection by the green parties that golf courses use a lot of water, they actually use less per square metre than the banana plantations that the greens would like to retain, were there the same objections when the banana plantations replaced the old fincas in Tenerife?

Enjoy your holidays in Tenerife wherever you spend them and travel safely.