Canary Islands' Congenial Places - Vineyard Visits, Winery Restaurants, and Shopping & Hotels In Tenerife and La Palma

Lovely Little La Palma - And Past Volcanic Peril

La Palma is the little island with active volcano videos. The environment offers all kinds of excitement, both for the active and for the anxious who prefer to watch from a distance.

My husband and I were joining our annual hiking holiday group. Our destination was La Palma, where you can go hiking and see recordings of the most recently active volcano, lasting 85 days in 2021. A  great museum about volcanoes shows videos taken every day during the last months-long overflowing of red hot lava.

La Palma Hotels

The Parador

A remote inland hotel is a parador hotel, part of the popular parador network established by the government to promote regional culture, food and tourism. This parador has an outdoor pool open to residents in the daytime (closing one hour earlier off-season) and a beautiful botanical garden. 

The hotel will give you a picnic lunch if you tell them you are leaving before breakfast for a ferry or hike. 

La Palma Vinery Visits

Bodegas Teneguia, La Palma

A large co-operative, with a huge courtyard entrance, and enormous numbers of  Big vats or wooden casks and small barrels. Friendly like a family business. You look down on the working area below. Despite its size, we found it friendly, like a family business. Nikolas gave our hiking group a great tour.

Malvasia Grape

Book and buy the package of the tour of the Teneguia vineyard and learn about Malvasia, which was the sweet wine exported to England in William Shakespeare's time and praised in his plays featuring King Henry IV, Falstaff and the lady of the night who gets drunk on the wine. (You can find online on Youtube a video of the Royal Shakespeare Company performing this in 1990.)  

La Palma is a great outdoors place with challenging hikes in the strong Westerly winds. Our group hiked down to the lighthouse, but the wind was so strong trying to walk back up that my husband, Trevor, had to hitch a lift from a passing car, and could hardly hold the door open against the wind to get in the vehicles .

Museum

But for non hikers see that fantastic museum on the recent volcanic eruption. Afterwards we drove to the nearby village for a light lunch in a small cafe.

From London our most convenient and affordable international flights were from Stansted into Tenerife where we stayed before and afterwards, catching a ferry to and from little La Palma with the car we had hired on Tenerife. 

Shopping Options on La Palma

Down on the front, near the replica of the big boat of Christopher Columbus, was the El 99 shop. A huge section of underwear and separates. At first it looked cheap stuff. But helpful staff found me the cotton options. I was pleased with my purchases. 

Along the road behind the waterfront cafes were small shops, boutiques selling new clothes as well as a great selection of second hand individual items, attractive, fashionable, colourful and original. Such a pity that our space in luggage was limited, although we had paid extra to Ryanair for a checked in bag. I could have bought and gone home wearing multiple layers.

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TERRIFIC TENERIFE And Mount Teide

Tenerife is larger. It has two airports, north and south. We flew to the north airport from Stansted.

Tenerife - large island with Mount Teide, massive triangular mountain, more or less in the middle but you seem to see it from everywhere. A cable car takes you to the top if you are prepared to pay the price. 

Tenerife Hotels

The Parador - Parador Las Canadas Del Tiede

The 3 star parador hotel is isolated at the base with a secured car park for overnight residents, because the public parks are notorious for the thefts of belongings in cars and even the parts of the car such as the tyres. Next door to the parador is a handy shop and cafeteria. 

The indoor pool in a side building closes early, and you have to take your towel back to the hotel's reception. For security most of the outer doors are locked, so I ended carrying a heavy wet towel, plus my costume and bag, up and down stairs and around long corridors. A whole nuisance.

However, as Shakespeare said, all's well that ends well. The hotel helpfully gives you a picnic lunch if you tell them you are leaving before breakfast for a ferry or hike.  I didn't want ham, or any processed meat, nor pork. The parador had offered fish. When I said I was allergic to shellfish, I was offered chicken, and smoked salmon. That was a lovely choice. I took one of each. Great service.

The Melia Hotel

The group has more than one Melia hotel on Tenerife. The one we stayed at was near the beach, on the seafront.

It has an outdoor pool. We were given a voucher for the spa, for a 45 minute session in the pools with water jets. Very nice. Any longer would have cost a fee. You don't get a voucher per day, but once per person as an introduction to the spa. We were out and about so much no time to use it more.

We paid for an upgrade, for a sea view room. I signed up for the loyalty programme. We had the use of the Level, a ground floor private dining area. Less food than the buffet in the main room, but cooked breakfast main dish option, and longer hours so you could eat or snack earlier or later. I was happy with the benefit of help yourself to a glass or two of free sparkling wine for lunch and dinner as well as breakfast.

The Gran Hotel Taoro 

A big hotel, which we stayed at because my husband was invited to a conference, The Island Wines Summit.

The Island Wines Summit hat given to Trevor Sharot. Photo by Angela Lansbury.

Swimming pool with sloping entrance for wheelchairs and those who don't like vertical ladders into pools. 

Inconveniently, the courtyard entrance is completely pedestrianised, so many people in a hurry end up dragging their own suitcases on wheel to the front entrance from the open gate entrance with the staff who check you in and out.

The packed breakfast was satisfactory. But we had to choose between pork and vegetarian.

Vineyard Visits

The bigger island of Tenerife has five wine areas, each having different soil - colour and consistency, climate - sun and wind, height, grapes and grape blends and so important and distinctive that it has its own protected name of origin. 

Big Free Museum

Casa Del Vino

The name means house of wine. Lots to see for free. Exhibits about the old farm building, growing and bottling wines. And a honey museum. So, something for all the family.

There's also a restaurant in one corner of the quadrangle, under separate management, with an indoor area beside an attractive outdoor terrace. 

You will probably be tempted to pay for a wine tasting which includes food, at the entrance to a shop selling wines. They offer a kiddie tasting option.

Useful Websites For Tenerife and La Palma

Parador Hotels

www.parador.es

https://paradores.es/en/parador-de-la-palma

Museum & Tasting

www.casadelvinotenerife.com

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Economies and Expenses to Budget For When Travelling

Hiking - cheap or expensive?

Is hiking a cheap holiday? It can be. 

But, to be safe, you might need outdoor clothing, food, drink, maps, phone and charger. 

Plus the climbing or hiking clothes, and gear such as poles, ropes, boots, torches, maps, GPS devices.

The big cost can be flights and connecting flights. Within Europe you have Ryanair. For example, from Stansted.

Also, budget for the cost of taking a car into a National Park (not a car park, but a tree and wildlife park).

Sticks - cost, design and check-in 

A stick for climbing rough grounds has a tip, which must be covered on aircraft. 

A walking stick for city walking has a flat rubber base, which may be allowed on some planes, or can be packed if it folds. You may need to buy a stick with points, or a pair of sticks, at the destination.

UK costs: driving

Toll on the bridge into Wales.

Parking costs at hotels, and visiting museums.

If no parking in city centre restaurant areas, you may need to budget for taxis. 

If drinking or wine tasting, you may need a taxi back to your hotel.

Europe - driving

Toll roads in France.

USA Parks and vehicles

In the USA and many countries, entry costs at entrances of national parks for pedestrians and vehicles.

ASIA - costs

India required my family, who were holders of British passports, to buy visas. 

Nepal cost cutters

A cheap country such as Nepal has cheap food. 

However, you may have to pay a hefty fee for the permit to climb e.g. Everest. Also the cost of a guide. And porters to take tents and cooking equipment and food for the entire trip. Allow not only the time of the climb but any hike to base camp, and time to acclimatize. 

Camping Costs - Research, Money, Time, Planning, Experience

 Our son practised camping by putting up a tent in our garden. 

Some people run in their shoes or boots. 

My husband spent more than the cost of a night in a hotel, and a taxi to a hotel, on buying a tent, and a  on a sleeping bag, bag liner, hiking boots, torch and most of the contents of the camping shop website.

Home Swap Advantages

We did a home swap with a family in the Channel Islands. We saved on accommodation.

Home Swap Challenges

We had to pay our fare to get there and back, plus our foods and entertainment at the destination. But we saved on accommodation.

Packing for a holiday takes time. But clearing your house for a family of four to move in takes longer.  You must clear space.

You need to pack away valuables. We had to leave new matching crockery in sets of four.

Hotel Extra Charges

Parking

You might have to pay for car parking outside the hotel, Or pay for use of the hotel's garage. Or pay for valet parking.

Some airports have introduced drop-off charges.

Extras At Hotels & Restaurants

A five star hotel might also charge for service, taxes.

Incidental extras might be phone calls. 

Watch out for cover charges. Service charges. tourist taxes. State taxes vary around the USA, and are added when items are posted from one state to another.

Drinks - Extras

Also drinks, water. Also watch out for the mini bar contents. 

Drinks Included

Many buffets have free sparkling wine, Italian Prosecco, Spanish Cava, or French Champagne, at either breakfast, or evening dinner, or both. But they might not tell you. Have a look or ask if it is included.

Find out the cost of an upgrade to a room whose cost entitles you to use of a Club Lounge or private breakfast room with a fancy name. If they run all day or intermittent food and drink, this could save you paying extra for water and wine with meals. Or for coffee and tea and cakes mid-morning and tea time. Apart from the cost, it is a time saver.

Spas, Saunas - Time and Money

The indoor pool might be within a spa which charges residents as well as outside non-resident guests.

Hotel Extras Included

Some hotels have free swimming pools with spar baths, or complete spa centres with saunas, and steam rooms.

In the Canary Islands we had a free indoor pool at the Parador in Tenerife. They closed early, 6 pm. The same applied to the outdoor pool at the Parador hotel on La Palma, which closed at 5 pm in their off-season June 2026, although later the next month.

On Tenerife the outdoor pool was free, included in our room and breakfast package. We were given one free session in the indoor spa which had lovely massaging pools and water jets. We were there two days, but did not get a free session for each day, just one free session to tempt us to make further bookings.

Some ask payment per hour rather than the whole stay free, or paying for one day.

Souvenirs and Supplementary Bags

You may buy souvenir clothing, books or bulky items, or bring back leaflets. You might need to buy another suitcase, and to pay the airline for extra bags or bulky or heavy luggage.

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Pleasures of a Spanish Parador

 Fuente De parador hotel, Picos de Europa, Spain. Forecourt for sociaising and drinking coffee and reading. Photo by Angela Lansbury. Copyright.

We did a round trip of Spanish Paradores and Portuguese pousadas in previous years so we knew we loved the historic or rural decor and regional cuisine. 

This year, 2024, we stayed at a Spanish parador, Fuente De, chosen by a hiking group leader who needed a hotel near the mountains for a week of hiking. The venue for our group had to have enough rooms, about twenty rooms, which we could book in advance for thirty people.

We had a rainy, cloudy day or two. So we scheduled a tour to a winery/distillery at Potes.

Paradores and Plurals

\In the website, look at the word Paradores. 

However, the letters es elsewhere are not the plural, paradores, but the abbreviation for paraador Es, short for Espana (with an accent n the n) which is Spanish for Spain.

English language sites will spell the plural the Brtish way, paradors.

Booking Direct or Booking.com?

 We booked through booking.com. When just two of us book, we use booking.com because we get special rates and cancellation choices if we pay a little extra, because we use the agency such a lot.  If you are a group, sometimes you can do better by neotiating, or booking direct with the hotel.  The hotel did not offer a lower price than booking through the agency.

Useful Websites

www.parador.es

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How I persuaded the 'Russian' ambassador to show me the four-poster bed in the Spanish Parador

I love Spanish Paradores (singular parador), and similar Portuguese Pousadas (singular pousada) renovated hotels, from restored and converted castles and grand historic buildings. Inside they have period and rural furniture. Every hotel is different. The restaurants feature local food, historic characters and connections. You really feel you have 'stepped back in time', another country and as L P Hartley said in his novel, 'the past is another country'.

Visiting them, you usually are allowed to stay only a maximum of three nights. This rule is because they have few bedrooms, and the idea is to bring many tourists into each place, and each tourist to many places. In fact it's ideal if you are driving from north to south. Now I'll tell you about my motet memorable four poster picture.

It happened like this. We arrive at a hilltop hotel in an echoing stone walled building in Jaen.

I arrive at the hotel reception and ask if they have a four-poster bed. My Spanish and their English is not making a great connection on this idea. I am not clear whether they don't have a suite, a four-poster. I go through the brochure. I ask to see pictures of the rooms. Postcards of the hotel?

Eventually I am offered a folder of hotel pictures which includes the room I want. It's beyond our price limit. It had already been reserved by somebody else.

By now, after seeing several hotels around the world, I know the way of getting a room. If the people have not yet checked in, at what time will you release the room? Can I have an upgrade if the other room's occupant does not turn up? Can I pay the difference?

As well as persuading the hotel to help, I have to persuade my driving spouse to hang around whilst I haggle with the receptionist and manager and wait whilst they phone housekeeping.

I must persuade my spouse that we'd be better off having a more expensive room and spending our money on that. I argue that we can depend the same, or not much more, getting a grander room, and  saving by eating out in the city. Thus I get to see and write about two places, a hotel and a restaurant. After all, I'll be trying the hotel bar for a drink, or having breakfast in their dining room tomorrow.

I'm off to my room. A lovely room. Then rushing down to dinner.

We look around the room and speculate as to who is the 'Russian' Ambassador. Not the English couple at the next table - I speak to them.

Not the couple with the two children. The mother is speaking to the children in Spanish or Portuguese. We manage to work out which language they are speaking - but in any case it's not Russian.

Maybe the Russians aren't here.

'Obviously the threesome in the corner not saying anything.'

'Those three men. Why aren't they talking?'

'Because he is the VIP. They are bodyguards. They are not there to amuse him. Their job is to watch the room to be sure he is safe.'

Hotels are very different, depending on the history of the hotel, the staff, and the guests. Some hotels won't let you into a room that's not yours in case you cause any damage. I've heard of hotels where the best man has claimed to be delivering flowers but made an apple pie bed, or held a party in the Jacuzzi and then rushed away leaving the bath overflowing running the room and half the hotel.

Nowadays security for people is much tighter. In those days, perhaps I was naive, focused on my aims and problems, taking a photo of a bed, so I was not expecting any political security for hotels and guests, only the hotel's own desire to protect their property.

 After dinner I go back to the reception. Can I see the room tomorrow? Are the people checking out? If I am in the city until lunchtime, can I see the room after one group check out, before the next group check in?

Either that evening or the next morning, whilst I am again in these long negotiations with another staff threesome, junior receptionist, senior receptionist, hotel manager, another guest arrives at reception.  I apologies for taking so long and explain I am trying to get a suite with a four poster but somebody already has it. I explain I am an English travel writer. The receptionist returns. Full of my own self-importance, I give the receptionist my card, and politely offer a business card to my fellow guest.

He grins. He finds me an amusing diversion.

He graciously accepts my apology. He is the part of the group occupying two of the special bedrooms. He is the 'Russian' ambassador. (Not from the parts of 'Russia' I had visited, but one of the satellite areas which were then part of Russia.) He is happy to show me the room.

My husband appears. He is not one hundred percent happy with the idea of his wife disappearing to a four poster bedroom with a VIP male. Instead of telling me I must do my photo quickly, on my own, he decides he must come with, bringing the tripod, and taking a proper photo of the city from the top floor bedroom window.

Now, finding the young lady is accompanied by a young man, meaning he is outnumbered. the Russian ambassadors points out that he cannot be alone, but must bring his two companions.

We are now a party of five. Photography means we have to keep doing a square dance so nobody appears in the photos. I don't particularly want a photo of a four-poster bedroom showing three men, three well-built men.

They are not offended. They don't want their photos taken.

We seen in agreement on this. The view from the upstairs bedroom window over the city is as delightful as the interior shot. Anybody wanting to book a honeymoon would be delighted by the views. (Any editor, even if they did not have room for all those pictures, would be confident that readers would be thrilled with the destination. Therefore they would buy my article; or look at my pictures, be impressed, ask what other places I have visited, and/or commission me to write about some other destinations.)

If you want to follow my footsteps, you can get a brochure on pousadas and a brochure on paradores, and check them out in websites and plot a route.

Spanishparadores.com