PLAYA DE LAS TERESITAS

Playa de las Teresitas is labelled “Tenerife’s most beautiful beach”. While beauty is highly subjective, I appreciated the trash cans and easy access with the kids. Beauty? Meh.

A local saved our day today. For context to this story: I prioritized pool toys in the suitcase instead of buckets and spades for the beach. On beach day, much to my husband’s chagrin, I packed our bag with bowls and wooden spoons from the kitchen. Kids don’t care, right?! As long as it digs and pours, they don’t mind!

Shortly after arriving, we met a local that spoke no English. But we could communicate well enough to understand that he had grandchildren in the States that he didn’t get to see much AND he had a bunch of juguetes we could use! Oh thank goodness! Poor Joe wouldn’t have to be embarrassed on a beach he would never return to, in front of a bunch of people he would never see again, because his kids were playing in the sand with kitchen utensils.

Come to think of it, we were saved by kind locals several times on this trip. Tenerife is currently experiencing an anti-tourist movement — not as strong as Mallorca, but similar. However, we experienced nothing but kind and friendly (and helpful!) locals. A man outside Siam Park flagged us down and ushered us into his parking spot (If you could have seen the chaos of parking at Siam, you would understand how this positively changed the trajectory of our entire day! It was insane.). The small bakery where we ordered a cake for T3’s birthday was operated by a woman who spoke no English. The cake was pre-paid, so I only walked in there with a €10 note and no credit card. When I found a bunch of delicious looking treats and my total was higher, I butchered an attempt at “I’ll be right back with more money,” in Spanish, but she waved me off. Told me to enjoy the cumpleaños. (I returned with the money, just so you know.)

I digress. We scored some much-appreciated beach toys and much-more-appreciated inexpensive cocktails! And while I was trying to get all Instagram-y with my 10:00am beach mojito, I realized my littlest guy was already escaping toward the ocean!