Playa de las Américas
Guide to Playa de las Américas
The island's original purpose-built resort and still its nightlife centre, sitting on the coast between Los Cristianos and Costa Adeje.
Playa de las Americas is what Tenerife built when it decided to become a package destination. It went up from the late 1960s on empty ground between the fishing…Playa de las Americas is what Tenerife built when it decided to become a package destination. It went up from the late 1960s on empty ground between the fishing town of Los Cristianos and what is now Costa Adeje, and it belongs to two municipalities at once, Arona and Adeje, which is why its edges are hard to find on a map.
The beaches are the reason it is here: Playa de Troya, Playa Honda and the rest, pale sand behind breakwaters with calm water and everything you might need within a few metres. The seafront promenade runs unbroken into Costa Adeje one way and towards Los Cristianos the other.
It is also the island's nightlife centre, and that is concentrated rather than spread: the bar and club strips fill after midnight and run until dawn, while streets a few minutes away stay quiet. The resort is where the paragliders land, having launched from the ridges above, and where most of the coach excursions pick up.
What it offers is convenience and price. What it does not offer is much sense of Spain, which is a reasonable trade for some visitors and the wrong holiday entirely for others. The north of the island is an hour and a half away and worth the day.
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Nearby places in Tenerife
Other places around the bay, sorted by distance.
Costa Adeje
The island's newest and most expensive resort strip, with the best of the southern beaches and the marina for whale boats.
Los Cristianos
A working fishing town that grew into a resort, with the ferry port for the western islands and a long winter season.
Tenerife South Airport
The island's holiday airport, twenty to thirty minutes from the southern resorts and where most of the car hire is.
El Médano
The island's wind and surf town, with the longest natural sand beach on Tenerife and no large hotels at all.
Los Gigantes
A small west-coast town under cliffs that fall six hundred metres into the sea, with a marina and black sand beaches.
Teide National Park
The crater floor at two thousand metres and the highest mountain in Spain, a UNESCO site reached by road from four directions.