Guide to Tenerife - Los Cristianos

Los Cristianos still retains a hint of the original fishing village and is the second largest holiday resort in the south of Tenerife, the largest being its next door neighbour Playa de Las Américas. One of the main differences you will notice is that in Los Cristianos, unlike in Las Américas, the town has a history pre-dating its transformation into a tourist resort. Before undergoing major development in recent years, Los Cristianos existed as a small fishing village. It has an old town centre, complete with Catholic Church, stretching from the port up to the main shopping street Avenida de Suecia.

The centre is entirely pedestrianised, which is good news for tourists and a welcome change from vehicles in Las Américas. This older area consists of houses in which much of the town's local Canarian population still lives. Los Cristianos meets Playa de las Americas at the headland, accessible by bus or on foot, it has a lovely beach and rocky shore, plenty of restaurants, a scattering of bars and one or two discos. Journey time from Reina Sofia airport is approximately 20 minutes by coach. It also has a leisure port, good selection of shops, and pretty pavement cafes on its long pedestrian promenade.

Los Cristianos' port also has the ferry and hydrofoil that depart daily to the islands of La Gomera, La Palma and El Hierro - the three islands which, together with Tenerife, make up the autonomous Spanish province of Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Los Cristianos and Las Américas is difficult to determine where one begins and one finishes, especially around the seafront area known as San Telmo. Part of Los Cristianos, while the neighbouring Compostela Beach area, only a short walk away along the seafront, is in Playa de Las Américas. It is because Las Américas keeps expanding eastwards until it reached Los Cristianos and could not go any further!

Los Cristianos brags of expanse of beaches along its whole seafront; the aforementioned Playa Vistas, which was completed in 1997 using sand imported from the Sahara, is the best in town. Next to the port, right amid the hustle and bustle of the town centre, is another good and popular stretch of beach with many bars, restaurants and shops all around. Los Cristianos is a match for Las Américas in the superiority and diversity of restaurants. Everything you could desire is here somewhere - Chinese, Indian, Mexican, Spanish and Canarian of course. Thanks to the relaxed licensing laws over here, you will never be stuck for somewhere to taste the local brew, day or night, whenever the fancy takes you.  Los Cristianos is a fairly small town with an energetic town centre but with airy and relaxed 'suburbs', it has some fine beaches, typically good weather, an international clientele, every shops and restaurants you could hope for. Los Cristianos is in some ways more charming, perhaps even more 'exclusive' than Las Américas but lacks the night time 'edge' of Las Américas, and some, particularly families and older visitors, may see as a good thing.