Real Tenerife Island Walks

Whenever we travel to a new country we always buy a guidebook. Some have been good, some have been so-so and some have been written by people who have clearly never set foot in the place. But whatever, I like to wander about with a guidebook in my hand to be able to refer to whenever I want.

The same applies to walking. Where possible I like directions to follow and, as we mention on our walking page of our Real Tenerife website, an AA walking guide to Britain was a perfect example of a great route guide. Not only was it interesting, you could detach individual routes whenever you wanted to use them.

I was reminded of this during one of the first times we went walking on Tenerife. We’d purchased a guidebook and whilst it was thoroughly researched and decently written, it was a real pain trying to get it in and out of my pocket in between checking directions and then I’d have to re-read a number of pages to find the relevant spot as routes weren’t broken down into stages.

Five years down the line we thought about this again when designing Real Tenerife Island Walks. Guidebooks are great to look at, but for the reasons mentioned, I don’t find walking guidebooks always practical, so we decided against printing a book and went for a version which people could print off themselves instead.

We believe there are a number of advantages in this design, the main ones being:

1. That you only ever have to carry the route you’re following.
2. They don’t add extra weight.
3. Routes are broken down into stages, so reference to where you are at any one time is quick and easy.
4. Sometimes up in these hills it does rain, so if your Island Walks gets rain sodden and filthy, you can simply sling it and print off another.
5. They’re really nice to look at (okay we’re biased), so don't take our word for it, see for yourself.