Why Slower Holidays Work So Well in Tenerife
There is a particular kind of holiday itinerary that looks fantastic before you leave home.
Breakfast at eight. Excursion at nine. Sightseeing before lunch. Another attraction in the afternoon. Back to the hotel, shower, change and straight out again for dinner.
By day three, you need a holiday from your holiday.
Tenerife really doesn’t have to be like that.
For older visitors in particular, one of the nicest ways to enjoy the island is often to slow everything down. Stay somewhere comfortable, choose one main plan for the day and leave enough empty space to actually enjoy being here.
Fortunately, Tenerife is very good at that sort of holiday.
The weather encourages you to take your time
A large part of Tenerife’s appeal is simply being outdoors.
You don’t necessarily need an attraction, excursion or organised activity. Sitting outside with a coffee in the morning can be part of the holiday rather than the gap before the holiday begins.
The island’s climate varies considerably according to altitude and location, but the established southern resorts are particularly popular for winter sunshine. That makes outdoor cafés, terraces, promenades and seafront restaurants part of everyday holiday life for much of the year.
The official Tenerife tourism website is useful for checking destinations, beaches, attractions and current ideas around the island before deciding where you actually want to spend your time.
And there is nothing wrong with deciding that today’s big plan is lunch somewhere lovely.
A promenade can be the whole afternoon
Los Cristianos, Playa de las Américas and the coastal parts of Costa Adeje are full of places where you can wander a little, stop a little and then wander again.
You might walk along the seafront for ten minutes, stop for a drink, browse a few shops, sit overlooking the beach and eventually find somewhere for lunch.
Three hours have disappeared and you haven’t really been “sightseeing” at all.
That’s rather the point.
Los Cristianos is particularly popular with older visitors because much of the central resort is relatively level and everyday holiday facilities are concentrated into a manageable area. Our guide to Costa Adeje or Los Cristianos for elderly travellers compares two of the south’s most popular bases.
If you prefer Costa Adeje, choosing the precise location of your accommodation becomes more important because some parts of the resort climb considerably away from the coast. We’ve looked at that separately in our guide to where to stay in Costa Adeje for older travellers.
You don’t need to see all of Tenerife
Tenerife is far more varied than many first-time visitors expect.
There are volcanic landscapes, forests, historic towns, mountain villages, beaches, traditional Canarian communities and busy modern resorts.
You could spend weeks exploring and still leave things unseen.
So don’t try.
One of the easiest ways to make a holiday unnecessarily tiring is to treat Tenerife like a checklist.
- 🌋 You don’t have to visit Teide and another attraction on the same day.
- 🏖 You don’t need to visit six beaches when you’ve already found one you love.
- 🚗 You don’t have to drive around the whole island just because it’s possible.
- 🍽 You don’t need an evening plan after an enjoyable day out.
Pick the things that genuinely interest you and give them enough time.
One good thing a day is often plenty
This is a surprisingly useful rule for a relaxed Tenerife holiday.
Choose one main thing.
Today might be a drive through Teide National Park. Tomorrow might be lunch in La Caleta. Another day might be a gentle wander around Los Cristianos followed by an afternoon beside the pool.
If you have the energy and enthusiasm to do something else afterwards, great.
If you don’t, you’ve still had a good day.
This approach can be particularly helpful when someone tires easily or has limited mobility. Our guide to accessible days out in Tenerife for elderly visitors has ideas for outings that can be adapted to a gentler pace.
Build sitting down into the plan
If walking or standing for long periods has become uncomfortable, don’t treat sitting down as something that happens when things go wrong.
Make it part of the day.
A good outing might deliberately include:
- ☕ a coffee stop after arriving
- 🪑 somewhere comfortable to sit midway through the outing
- 🍴 a leisurely lunch rather than food on the move
- 🚕 a taxi back instead of repeating the walk
- 🌴 enough time afterwards to relax at the hotel
That can make the difference between returning from an outing pleasantly tired and returning completely exhausted.
If walking distance itself is becoming an issue, our guide to Tenerife travel advice for elderly visitors covers some of the practical decisions that can make a trip easier.
Leave room for the unexpected
There is another advantage to not filling every hour.
You notice things.
You might find a little restaurant you want to try later. You might discover that the beach near your hotel is nicer in the late afternoon. You might get chatting to somebody at the next table or decide that the café you’ve stopped at is far too pleasant to leave just because your imaginary itinerary says you should.
Some of the nicest holiday moments are the ones nobody planned.
A slower schedule actually leaves room for them.
Rest days don’t have to mean staying indoors
A rest day in Tenerife can still feel very much like a holiday.
You can have breakfast outside, spend an hour beside the pool, wander out for lunch, read in the shade and perhaps have a drink overlooking the sea before dinner.
That’s quite a full day when you think about it.
For someone who normally lives somewhere colder, simply being able to spend much of the day outdoors can be one of the pleasures of visiting the Canary Islands.
You don’t need to justify a quiet day by sandwiching an attraction into the middle of it.
Slowing down can help couples enjoy the holiday together
Different levels of mobility or energy can sometimes make holidays surprisingly difficult for couples.
One person wants to keep exploring. The other worries about slowing them down.
Planning a gentler holiday from the beginning can remove some of that pressure.
You can also split the occasional day without making a big issue of it. One person might go on a longer walk or excursion while the other enjoys the hotel, seafront or local area.
For families and couples where somebody would be more comfortable with company or a little practical assistance, Tenerife Carers also offers companionship services in Tenerife.
Sometimes a few hours of support can give everybody a little more freedom without turning the holiday into something that revolves around care.
You can always come back
Perhaps the best argument against trying to see everything is that Tenerife has an enormous number of repeat visitors.
And repeat holidays are different.
Once you’ve stopped worrying about seeing every famous attraction, you can start developing favourite restaurants, favourite stretches of promenade and favourite places to sit with a coffee.
The holiday becomes less about “doing Tenerife” and more about enjoying being in Tenerife.
For many older travellers, that’s when the island really starts to work.
A good holiday isn’t measured in kilometres
There is no minimum amount of sightseeing required to qualify as having had a proper holiday.
You don’t get extra points for returning home exhausted.
If your perfect Tenerife day consists of breakfast in the sunshine, a gentle trip somewhere interesting, a long lunch, an afternoon rest and sunset beside the sea, you’ve done rather well.
Slow the holiday down enough and something rather nice happens.
You stop trying to fit Tenerife into the holiday and start having time to enjoy Tenerife instead.
If you or somebody travelling with you would enjoy Tenerife more with occasional companionship or practical assistance, you can tell Tenerife Carers what support would help. It can be arranged around the holiday rather than the other way round.