Friday January 16th, 2026 Queen Anne, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain

A short overnight sail has brought the Queen Anne to the port of Santa Cruz on the island of Tenerife which is governed by Spain. On previous visits the Santa Cruz we did not find much of interest in the town and so today we are taking a ship’s excursion to the north coast of the island.

After leaving the port our bus headed up into the hills; driving narrow, winding, one lane, precipice-edged roads would be a feature of this trip. Our first stop was at Playa de Las Teresitas a beautiful golden sanded beach bordered on one end by a prominent headland. Almost all of the beaches on Tenerife are black volcanic sand, the golden sands of Playa de Las Teresitas were created by shipping in huge volumes of sand from the Sahara Desert, also bring the unwanted red ants and scorpions which our guide assured us were eradicated long ago. It was a nice warm day with a gentle breeze and blue skies, such a change from our first week away from home.

Back on the bus and back into the hills our guide regaled us with the scourge of the rental car business on the island; pre-covid there were practically no rental cars but after the pandemic people did not want to share space on a coach and so through a series of shady and corrupt deals the rental cars invaded the island. We experienced the result of the swarm of rental cars as we headed for our next destination; the area is so steeply mountainous that the roads are constantly twisting and turning with a hairpin turn every few minutes and we constantly met small rental cars coming towards us – this resulted in the car backing up to a suitable turnout allowing the bus to pass. Progress was slow.

As we approached the town of Taganana we could see beautiful sweeping views of the sea to the north and the east with spiky peaks and lush rain forest vegetation. Back down close to sea level we stopped at a bar / restaurant called Xiomara – it was a bit ramshackle, but the views were spectacular. Everyone from the bus piled into the restaurant where we were served a slice of dry bread topped with a tiny piece of goat cheese – what a treat! The lavish meal was accompanied by an excellent red wine from the Rough As A Badger’s Arse winery. Twice I tried to order the special coffee that our guide had touted as being a specialty of the area and both times was told to go and wait at the table for a waiter to come and take my order; I’m still waiting.

More twisty roads and rental car encounters before we arrived at the Cruz del Carmen rest stop in the Rural Anaga Park. Our guide advised taking a short walk into the rain forest, this turned out to be a mud track overhung with trees – quite dark and damp, but without our hiking boots at hand we decided to back out and head for a nearby café for an excellent cappuccino.

Having descended from the mountains we entered the town of La Laguna for our last stop which consisted of a quick look around the substantial San Cristobel church with its spectacular golden alter and a jaunt around the adjacent market. The market was very nicely run with all locals doing their daily shopping: meat, vegetables, baked goods, fish and pastries. Potatoes are a big thing here; Tenerife was the gateway to Spain for new and exotic fruit and veg coming from the new world – I saw a huge variety of potatoes all neatly stacked ready for purchase. We bought a variety of nuts from the La Isla stall to sustain us over the many sea days ahead.

Back at the port we caught a glimpse of the impressive opera house, reminiscent of a giant scorpion.