Twenty in Tenerife | Travel

Apologies that I haven't posted in a while - I've been trying to get back in the swing of things starting my third year at university which has been a little challenging. I have a second article going up on Mental Health Today very soon which I was so pleased to be asked to do - follow me on Twitter for updates on everything going on! (@svwords)

A few weeks ago on the 25th August, me and my boyfriend jetted off for our second summer holiday to Tenerife. I've visited briefly once before and have a lot of family and friends that visit too, so it was an easy choice to make for a relaxing week in the sun.
We booked with Jet2 - something I have to admit I was a little sceptical about but the whole holiday was a breeze, so I'd definitely recommend using them. The only problem was that the flights tended to always be afternoon or late-night. We flew from Birmingham airport, grabbing a WHSmith meal deal - something which turned out to be a great idea, as due to a delayed flight we didn't get to our hotel until past 10pm, meaning the restaurant and on-site supermarket was closed. We stayed in Panoramica Heights in Costa Adeje, and chose a half-board option to save us cooking, and the staff had left us a plate of food in our room as we missed dinner which was so nice of them. The hotel wasn't in the centre of Adeje, but at the top of a hill - although walking back up the hill wasn't as bad as we thought it would be whatsoever, like many of the reviews suggest, we did usually get a taxi back because of the humidity. When you first arrive you are asked to pay €20 euros deposit for the TV remote and €20 for the air con remote - you will need the air con so bare this in mind. You also had to pay for the safe in your room but as my suitcase has a lock we decided not to do this as we hadn't budgeted enough.

Our hotel room was a 'One-bedroom apartment' and it was MASSIVE. There was a kitchenette with frying pans, plates, cutlery, a can opener, ladels - you name it. So it was definitely easy to cook for yourself here instead of always eating out - although it did lack an oven, we had a microwave. The balcony was big, with a rack to hang your wet clothes on and even an ashtray. There was a supermarket on-site to buy any basic things you needed, and we bought an 8L bottle of water for 1.50 as the tap water didn't taste too amazing. You will also need to buy your own washing up liquid which is a little annoying as it felt a big waste. Breakfast and dinner were both buffet-style, with a very wide range of things to choose from. Dinner varied theme each night, and the food was so delicious we ended up having 2 servings of both breakfast and dinner almost every day... We took walks into town, sunbathed and swam in the pool everyday. I took many 'siestas' and we ate a LOT. There was a lizard invading our room and climbing up the curtains but this only happened once luckily.
On the 28th I turned 20, so we celebrated by sunbathing (or rather...sunburning) by the pool, swimming, napping and eating a LOT. My boyfriend asked the Jet2 rep that came to the site about any good ways to celebrate, and we were told to visit Playa de las Americas for some good bars. Tiredness and my anxiety wavered over us a little and we decided just to head into Adeje for a drink or two as it was close to home and we hadn't yet been in a taxi there yet... unfortunately we spoke very very little Spanish, and our taxi driver spoke no English, so instead of taking us into Adeje he took us the complete wrong way and we ended up outside the exact bar we had originally planned to go in Playa de Las Americas. If you visit the south of Tenerife you HAVE to go here!

We pulled up outside the Hard Rock, surrounded by tourists (families and children running around made us feel very safe). The buildings were covered in twinkly lights, music played and there was a fountain display right in the middle of it all. We sat in a bar called Harry's, right in the top centre of it all. The drinks were only €8.50 each - but to 2 students who were planning on a cheap night we only had one drink each which were amazing. We strolled along the promenade soaking up the atmosphere and watching the world go by. The only thing that made me a little uncomfortable whilst being in Tenerife were all the people selling sunglasses and braiding hair that would walk along and try and persuade you to buy things from them.
A few days later we decided to go to Siam Park - something we were both extremely excited for. I'd done a lot of research beforehand, and we decided to buy the premium tickets for £48 instead of the regular tickets for £32. This meant we had the use of a towel and locker and tickets for lunch instead of having to take loads of extra cash with us on the day - although we did have to pay a deposit for the locker key and towels so be sure to bare that in mind. A taxi ride to here only cost us around €6 and we already knew this from visiting Siam Mall which is right next to it. We bought fast passes for the afternoon (2-6pm) as soon as we got there, which only cost €15 each and is HIGHLY recommended.
We queued for a few rides in the morning and went around the lazy river - which also has its own little ride on if you 'queue' for it, where you end up in a tube through a tank of sharks (this turned out to be our favourite ride in the whole park and we went round it a LOT). For lunch we headed to the main restaurant area with our tickets - they were both for €15 euros worth of food and drink each, which meant altogether we got 2 hot dogs, 2 packets of fries, 2 cans of 7up, 2 cans of kopparberg, 2 chocolate bars and a packet of crisps and ended up taking the majority of it home because we were so full. Our online tickets also allowed us a free burger but as it was valid for 365 days we decided to save it if we go back next year as it seemed a waste of food. Then the fast passes started - we started with the smaller, less popular rides first with our fast passes and skipped the majority of the queues that were now over 40 minutes long. By 3-4pm we had finished these rides and decided to go on the bigger ones - Singha, The Volcano, The Dragon etc. and basically skipped the entire queue immediately so if you do go definitely consider getting them so you don't waste the whole day in a line. The passes allow you to go on each ride once and a spare for an extra ride, so when we had done them all we went round the lazy river a few times and changed to go home and buy souvenirs. At the end of the day I felt extremely uneasy from all the being-thrown-about-many-feet-in-the-air-surrounded-by-gushing-water so we rushed out to a taxi and got home (meaning my boyfriend accidentally bought a child's size baseball cap...).

Siam Mall

We liked walking into Adeje and strolling along the seafront going rockpooling. The town has a nice breeze to it so you never get too hot, although it is extremely humid so it's not difficult to get a bit sweaty. We visited the SuperDino supermarkets for cheap vodka (around €7 for a good quality litre of vodka) and fresh milka doughnuts and muffins. I also found the two new loves of my life - Strawberry Fanta and Risketo's Crisps.
On our last day we had to check out at 11am, meaning a 7 hour wait until our coach came to pick us up to take us to the airport where our flight wasn't until 9pm. This meant it was a really long day that felt lost as we couldn't really go swimming or go to far so that's definitely something to keep in mind. We took a walk along the hills near our hotel, past all the mansions and lizard spotting galore. When we got back we realised there was also a Games Room on-site so we played pool (which I succesfully beat my boyfriend at and will never let him live down) and air hockey. Luckily there was a room in the hotel full of recliner sofa chairs and a TV playing Antiques Roadshow so we were able to sit in there charging our phones. We bought lunch from the restaurant downstairs which was cheap and good quality and bided our times until we were picked up.

I already can't wait to go back.