El Médano

El Medano sits on the southeast corner of the island, ten minutes from the southern airport, and it is unlike every other resort on Tenerife because of the wind…El Medano sits on the southeast corner of the island, ten minutes from the southern airport, and it is unlike every other resort on Tenerife because of the wind. The trade winds accelerate between the mountains and arrive across the bay reliably enough that the town has grown into one of Europe's serious windsurfing and kitesurfing bases rather than a beach resort.

That has shaped everything about it. There are no tower hotels: the buildings are low, the accommodation is apartments, small hotels and surf hostels, and the seafront is a promenade of surf shops, board repair, casual restaurants and bars where the crowd is mostly here to be on the water.

The beach is the longest stretch of natural sand on the island, golden rather than the imported pale sand of the resorts or the black sand of the north. Montana Roja, a protected red volcanic cone, closes the southern end and can be walked in half an hour for the view back along the coast. The reef break at El Cabezo, past the town, is where the more experienced sailors go.

The honest warning is the same as the attraction: it is windy, most days, most of the year. If you want to lie still on a beach this is the wrong town, and Los Cristianos is twenty minutes away.