Car hire in Tenerife

On the Costa Adeje seafront you can manage without one. The promenade runs flat from Los Cristianos to La Caleta, Bahía del Duque faces Playa del Duque across it, and Corales Beach has La Caleta's fish restaurants 300 metres from the door. Everywhere else the car does the work. Royal River and Royal Garden Villas sit on the Golf Costa Adeje hillside, a 19 and a 28-minute walk above La Caleta with a climb back; Abama and Palacio de Isora are west-coast resorts with little beyond the gate; and the four northern hotels are day-trip country, with Teide, La Orotava, Teno and Masca all drives.

TITSA's buses are cheap and good along the coast. Line 40 runs from Costa Adeje to Tenerife South in about 40 minutes, the 363 links Puerto de la Cruz, Garachico and Buenavista about every half hour on weekdays, and the 473 stops at Abama. The mountains get far less: one bus a day each way to Teide from each coast, the 342 from Costa Adeje at 09:25, starting back from El Portillo at 15:15, and the 348 from Puerto de la Cruz at 09:30, starting back from the Parador at 16:00. For the odd trip, taxis run on the Canary interurban meter: €3.85 for the first 1.5 km, then €1.35 a km by day.

Pick up where you land, and land at the airport nearest the hotel. Tenerife South (TFS) serves Costa Adeje, Golf Costa Adeje and the Guía de Isora coast; Tenerife North (TFN) serves Puerto de la Cruz, Garachico and Buenavista del Norte. The wrong one adds over 40 minutes: Gran Hotel Taoro is 27 minutes off-peak from North and 71 from South.

Aena lists seven firms with desks at Tenerife South, AutoReisen, Cicar, Europcar, Goldcar, Hertz, Record Go and TopCar, and six in the terminal at Tenerife North: Cicar, Europcar, Goldcar-InterRent, Hertz, Sixt and TopCar. Comparison sites add firms that work from depots off the airport. On 10 October 2026 Expedia showed 227 offers for a June week at Tenerife South, 136 with the desk in the terminal and 91 reached by free shuttle bus; at Tenerife North it was 115 and 60 of 175. With a shuttle, allow for the ride at both ends.

At the desk you need each driver's licence, a passport or national identity card and a physical credit card in the main driver's name; many firms want one there whatever you paid the booking with. Hire firms are required by law to register your passport details.

On 10 October 2026 Expedia's cheapest seven-day hire at Tenerife South was €84 manual and €112 automatic for 8 to 15 June 2027, and €123 and €166 over the February 2027 half-term. Tenerife North's June week started at €92 and €122, all with taxes, basic damage cover with an excess and free cancellation.

The excess is your share of any damage, and many firms also block a deposit on a credit card in the main driver's name: Sixt's Spanish terms set it for a compact (category CDMR) at the rental amount plus €300. The firm's own desk cover cuts the excess and can waive the deposit. Excess cover bought in advance often costs much less, says ECC Ireland, but generally does not stop the deposit being blocked and usually pays out only if the firm keeps some of it. Choose full to full: on full to empty, unused fuel is not refunded. Young-driver surcharges belong in the price at booking; extra drivers and child seats are extras.

Two Canarian firms sell direct, outside Expedia. Cicar's Canary price includes cover with no excess, a free extra driver and free child seats, with a deposit for the fuel in the tank; AutoReisen's includes zero-excess damage and theft cover, a second driver and non-ISOFIX child seats, and takes no deposit or card pre-authorisation.

A UK photocard licence needs no International Driving Permit in Spain, says gov.uk, though you should check whether the hire firm wants one; a paper licence needs updating or an IDP. EU and EEA licences are valid while in date. The legal driving age is 18, but hire firms set their own: Cicar's minimum is 21, AutoReisen's 23, and Sixt charges extra under 23.

The alcohol limit is 0.5 g/l in blood or 0.25 mg/l in breath, and 0.3 and 0.15 in your first two years of driving. Phones are banned at the wheel, earpieces included, unless fully hands-free. Children up to 135 cm tall need an approved child seat, in the back unless it will not fit, other child seats fill the back or there is none. Car limits are 120 km/h on motorways such as the TF-1 and TF-5, 90 on other roads and 50, 30 or 20 in towns, unless signs say lower.

Since 1 January 2026 Spanish-registered cars must carry a connected V-16 beacon, which has replaced warning triangles as the only legal way to signal a stopped car. The DGT makes the vehicle's registered holder responsible for supplying it, so ask at the desk whether your hire car carries one. Carry your licence and passport, and keep the rental agreement in the car.

The TF-1 motorway links Tenerife South with Costa Adeje, and the TF-5 runs from Tenerife North along the north coast. Off-peak, Playa del Duque to Puerto de la Cruz is 69 minutes.

Teide is reached by the TF-21 from La Orotava or Vilaflor, the TF-24 from La Esperanza and the TF-38 from Chío. Off-peak, the cable car base station is 56 minutes from Playa del Duque and 50 from Puerto de la Cruz, and the Parador by Roques de García five minutes on. The cable car park is free; the operator suggests arriving after 13:00. Since May 2026 badly parked cars on the park's TF-21 can be fined and towed, and the Cabildo plans access controls at the main entrances towards the end of 2026, with 500 bookable spaces that visitors will pay for. Winter snow and ice can close the Teide roads.

Masca, down the narrow, winding TF-436, is 21 minutes off-peak from Hacienda del Conde and 33 from Bahía del Duque. Under a Cabildo rule of July 2026, a declared alert, such as for forest fires, can close the road to hire and other visitors' cars from 09:00 to 16:00; buses still run. The TF-445 to Punta de Teno is closed to private cars. Anaga's Cruz del Carmen, on the TF-12, is 33 minutes off-peak from Hotel Botánico.

Four of our hotels park you free: Bahía del Duque, Royal River, Royal Garden Villas, in a private underground garage, and Abama, where self-parking and valet are both complimentary. At Corales Beach the street parking nearby is free, and the indoor car park is listed as charged on Barceló's UK site and free on its US one, with no price on either. Gran Hotel Taoro charges €20 a day for supervised parking, reserved on request. Hotel Botánico has outdoor parking with electric charging, Hacienda del Conde has parking on site, and Palacio de Isora lists free and paid options and sells reserved spaces at an unpublished price, so ask when you book. Hotel San Roque has no car park: a drop-off bay at the door, then the street or a free public car park 30 metres away on the old football pitch.

Away from the hotels, the Teide cable car's car park is free. The Masca gorge walk asks you to leave the car behind: book the walk on its official site, park at the cemetery car park in Santiago del Teide, walk about 10 minutes to the bus stop and take TITSA's 355 to Masca, which the trail's rules make compulsory. The path ends at the sea, where a pre-booked boat takes you to Los Gigantes.

Only if the rental terms allow it, so read them before you book a ferry. Sixt's Spanish conditions forbid moving the car between islands, or putting it on any ship, without its written authorisation. TopCar allows crossings to the islands where it has offices, Gran Canaria, La Palma, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote, if you take its Super Cover plus a Multi-Island Cover sold at the counter for €50; the car must come back to the island it was hired on, La Gomera is not among those islands, and without the package nothing that happens off the island of hire is covered. AutoReisen's cars may not leave the island without its written authorisation, and any repair, towing or breakdown cost off the island falls to the customer.

Fred. Olsen's fast ferry runs from Los Cristianos, 14 minutes off-peak by road from Playa del Duque, to San Sebastián de La Gomera in 50 minutes and carries cars; with a hire car you book with Rental as make and model and update the plate once you have it. A one-way ticket for a passenger who is not a Canary resident starts at €44.03; a car costs extra, at a price that depends on the date and availability. The alternative is to cross on foot and hire a second car on the other island.