Eterna Primarvera: Tenerife and the Endless Spring

Tenerife isn’t just warm in winter – it’s genuinely good all year. But while the rest of Europe battles grey skies and rain, Tenerife serves up blue skies, warm afternoons, and sunsets over the Atlantic. 

It’s close enough for a short flight, far enough to feel like an escape, it’s an island packed with everything from volcanoes and black sand beaches to lush forests and star-filled skies. Whether you want to cycle, hike, swim, stargaze or just sit by the pool and not think about the weather, this island does it better than almost anywhere else.

We stayed at the Jardín Tropical in Costa Adeje. Palm trees, a sea view, and a breakfast buffet that got serious attention after long rides. We hired a car so we could explore the island, which I’d highly recommend. 

This, sadly, was not the car we hired…

Having wheels gave us access to parts of Tenerife that are harder to reach otherwise, and as Jess isn’t a cyclist we were able to see the incredible landscape together.

A particular highlight was the drive to Masca, a village hidden deep in the Teno mountains. The road winds up and down through impossibly steep switchbacks – barely wide enough for two cars so be warned, it’s tight – with the cliffs dropping straight down into the valleys below. It feels more like Peru than Spain. 

The village itself is tiny, perched on a ridge, surrounded by towering rock formations. You can stop for coffee with a view straight out to sea, and it's hard to believe people actually live there.

We also made time to visit Teide National Park, once by day and the other by night to see the stars. In the daylight, it's a lunar landscape: lava flows, jagged peaks, and roads that seem to vanish into the clouds. At night, it's something else entirely.

We parked up, turned off the headlights, and just looked up. Zero light pollution. The clearest night sky I’ve ever seen – constellations, planets, even the Milky Way if you’re lucky stretching from one horizon to the other.

And then, completely different but just as fun, was a stop at Monkey Park near Los Cristianos. It’s a small conservation zoo where you can feed lemurs and squirrel monkeys by hand. Slightly chaotic, slightly brilliant.

Tenerife really lives up to its name – la isla de la eterna primavera. Whether you're here to ride, relax, or do a bit of both, it delivers year-round