Eating Well on a Tenerife Holiday as You Get Older
Food is one of the great pleasures of being on holiday in Tenerife.
Breakfast outside. Coffee overlooking the sea. A long lunch that somehow lasts until four o’clock. Fresh fish beside the coast. An ice cream because you’re on holiday and therefore apparently operating under different rules.
But eating on holiday can also become strangely exhausting.
Three large restaurant meals every day might sound wonderful when you’re booking the trip. After several days, many older visitors discover they’d actually quite like a piece of toast.
Eating well in Tenerife doesn’t have to mean eating enormously. In fact, one of the nicest ways to enjoy the island is to make food part of the day rather than turning every meal into a major production.
Breakfast doesn’t need to defeat you
Hotel breakfast buffets are dangerous places.
You go downstairs intending to have coffee and toast and somehow return carrying eggs, bacon, fruit, pastries, yoghurt and something involving potatoes that you don’t remember choosing.
There is nothing wrong with enjoying a big breakfast occasionally.
But you don’t have to extract maximum financial value from the buffet every morning.
If you’re planning a substantial lunch, a lighter breakfast may leave you feeling much better for the rest of the day.
And if you’re staying somewhere with cafés nearby, wandering out for coffee and breakfast can itself become a pleasant part of the morning.
Lunch can be the main event
Tenerife suits long lunches beautifully.
Rather than spending the middle of every day rushing between attractions, choose somewhere pleasant, sit down and take your time.
This works particularly well for older travellers because lunch becomes both a meal and a proper rest.
You might spend the morning exploring a little, have lunch for an hour or two and then decide whether you actually want to do anything afterwards.
Often you won’t.
That’s fine.
A relaxed lunch beside the Atlantic is not the interruption between two holiday activities. It can quite happily be the activity.
Try some Canarian food while you’re here
Tenerife’s resort areas offer food from all over the world, so nobody needs to spend a fortnight eating unfamiliar dishes.
But it would be a shame to visit without trying at least a little Canarian food.
One of the best-known dishes is papas arrugadas — small potatoes traditionally cooked in heavily salted water and commonly served with mojo sauces.
Fresh and locally caught fish is another obvious choice, particularly in coastal communities, while dishes such as grilled cheese with mojo, Canarian stews and gofio reflect different parts of the islands’ food culture.
The official Tenerife tourism gastronomy guide is a useful introduction to traditional island food and local produce if you’d like to know what to look for on menus.
You don’t need to order an entire Canarian banquet. Try a dish here and there and see what you enjoy.
Don’t assume the seafront is the only place to eat
There is something undeniably lovely about having lunch while looking at the ocean.
But Tenerife’s food scene doesn’t end at the promenade.
Moving even a short distance away from the most tourist-focused areas can produce a very different selection of restaurants.
And if you have a car or are happy taking a taxi, eating somewhere can become a simple reason to explore another part of the island.
Instead of organising a complicated sightseeing day, you might visit Playa San Juan, La Caleta or another coastal community largely because you’ve found somewhere appealing for lunch.
Have a little wander before or afterwards and you’ve created a very easy day out.
Consider the walk home before ordering dinner
This is one of those Tenerife lessons that tends to arrive slightly too late.
The restaurant was only ten minutes away on the way there.
Unfortunately, that was downhill.
For anybody with limited mobility, the location of a restaurant matters almost as much as the menu.
Before setting off, consider:
- 🚶 how far the walk actually is
- ⛰ whether there is a hill involved
- 🪜 whether the restaurant has steps
- 🚕 whether a taxi can conveniently collect you afterwards
- 🪑 whether comfortable seating is available
And don’t be reluctant to take a taxi for what appears to be a short distance.
Using your energy to enjoy dinner rather than saving it for the uphill journey afterwards seems a perfectly sensible arrangement.
You don’t have to eat three restaurant meals every day
This can feel almost rebellious on holiday.
You are allowed to have a sandwich.
You are allowed to buy fruit, yoghurt and bread from a supermarket.
You are even allowed to look at the hotel buffet one evening and decide that what you really want is tea and toast.
After several days of eating out, a simple meal can be surprisingly welcome.
This can be especially useful for visitors staying for several weeks rather than a conventional seven-night holiday. Eating every meal as though it’s a special occasion becomes tiring as well as expensive.
A mixture of restaurants, cafés and simple food at your accommodation often feels much more natural.
Hot days can change your appetite
Tenerife’s climate varies according to location, season and altitude, but warm sunny days can naturally change how much you feel like eating.
You may prefer a lighter lunch, eat later than you would at home or simply find that a large hot meal isn’t particularly appealing in the middle of the afternoon.
Listen to your appetite rather than your normal routine.
Staying properly hydrated matters too, particularly when spending more time outdoors than you normally would.
Carry water when you’re out and make drinking regularly part of the day rather than waiting until you’re noticeably thirsty.
Anyone who has been given individual medical or dietary advice should, of course, continue following the guidance of their own healthcare professional rather than changing it because they’re on holiday.
Dietary requirements are worth explaining clearly
If you have an allergy, intolerance or another important dietary requirement, don’t rely on pointing vaguely at the menu and hoping for the best.
Explain it clearly.
For visitors who don’t speak Spanish, having the relevant requirement written down can be useful, particularly outside heavily tourist-focused areas.
A translation app can help with straightforward communication, but genuinely important allergy information deserves more care than an improvised guess at vocabulary.
Tenerife Carers provides translation services in Tenerife when visitors need more substantial help communicating in Spanish.
Food shopping can become more important on a longer stay
For a one-week holiday, you might happily eat out almost every day.
Stay for a month and your priorities usually change.
Suddenly the location of the supermarket matters.
If you’re booking self-catering accommodation for a longer winter stay, check how easy it will actually be to buy groceries.
A supermarket 700 metres away may sound conveniently close until you discover that carrying several bags back involves a significant hill.
For somebody with limited mobility, delivery services, taxis or occasional practical help can make everyday shopping much easier.
Tenerife Carers can provide practical domestic support for residents and visitors who need assistance with everyday tasks during their stay.
Eating alone doesn’t have to feel awkward
Solo travel becomes increasingly common later in life, whether through choice or changing circumstances.
Eating alone is often one of the things people worry about before their first solo holiday.
In Tenerife’s resort areas, it is really nothing unusual.
Choose somewhere you feel comfortable. Sit outside. Take a book if you like. Order what you want and stay for as long or as little as you please.
Lunch can sometimes feel easier than dinner if you’re getting used to eating alone because restaurants and terraces naturally have a more informal daytime atmosphere.
And there are advantages.
Nobody can object when you decide you’d rather have dessert than a starter.
Food can also provide structure to a quiet day
Not every holiday day needs an excursion.
If someone has limited energy or mobility, meals can provide gentle anchors around which the day develops.
Perhaps you have coffee somewhere in the morning, spend a couple of hours relaxing, take a taxi somewhere nice for lunch and return to the hotel for the afternoon.
Then head somewhere nearby for a light evening meal if you feel like it.
You’ve been out. You’ve enjoyed Tenerife. You’ve had a change of scenery.
There was simply no need to march around an attraction for four hours in between.
This gentler approach is one reason companionship support can sometimes be useful for older visitors. Help doesn’t have to mean intensive care. It might simply mean having someone accompany you for shopping, lunch or an outing when doing it alone would be difficult.
Let meals fit the holiday, not dominate it
One of the pleasures of Tenerife is that eating can be wonderfully informal.
A coffee can become breakfast. Lunch can stretch halfway through the afternoon. Dinner can be substantial or barely more than a snack.
You don’t have to reproduce your routine from home and you certainly don’t have to treat every meal as a challenge to consume as much holiday food as possible.
Try something Canarian. Find a favourite café. Have fish beside the sea. Return to the same restaurant twice because you liked it the first time.
And if, after five days of restaurant meals, what you genuinely fancy is beans on toast?
Well, you’re still on holiday.
If an older visitor needs practical support with shopping, food preparation or everyday routines during a longer Tenerife stay, you can contact Tenerife Carers about arranging support around their individual needs.