Tenerife location: Atlantic, about 300 km off Africa

Where is Tenerife on the world map?

Tenerife lies in the Atlantic Ocean off the north-west coast of Africa. It belongs to Spain as part of the Autonomous Community of the Canary Islands, and all details apply as of Monday 2 November 2026.

According to the Spanish and English Wikipedia, the coordinates are about 28°16′ north and 16°36′ west. One description places the island between 28 and 29 degrees north and between 16 and 17 degrees west.

That puts it slightly north of the Tropic of Cancer. The degree figures come from descriptions based on the Wikipedia entries, and our research found no confirmation from an official body.

The seven inhabited islands make up the Canaries, and Tenerife sits in the middle, close to Gran Canaria, La Gomera and La Palma, says the Spanish Wikipedia. The tour operator Alpitour places the island in the central group of the archipelago, between La Gomera and Gran Canaria.

To the Italian search question “dove si trova Tenerife”, Italian travel sites all give the same answer: in the Atlantic, about 300 kilometres off Morocco, on Spanish territory. The pages we reviewed do not say which stretch of the Moroccan coast they mean.

How far is Tenerife from Africa and from mainland Spain?

The Spanish Wikipedia gives the distance to the African coast as “algo más de 300 km”, a little over 300 kilometres. The English Wikipedia says about 300 kilometres, or 186 miles.

Alpitour writes “circa 320 km”. The figures we found therefore range from about 300 to 320 kilometres.

Both Wikipedia versions put the Spanish mainland about 1,000 kilometres away. The Canaries are therefore much closer to Africa than to the country they belong to politically.

A few pages give very different values that contradict the other sources, so we do not use them. One Italian travel firm cites 3,000 kilometres to the Spanish mainland and 1,300 to Africa, and a German site gives 4,145 to Africa.

From Italy, the flight takes four to five hours depending on the departure airport, according to the travel sites alpitour.it and in3giorni.com. One site puts it at about 4 hours 39 minutes from Rome and roughly 5.5 hours from Milan.

These are commercial figures, not data from airlines or the airport operator AENA. Flight times from Germany, Austria and Switzerland are not available.

How big is Tenerife and what belongs to the island?

At 2,034.38 square kilometres, Tenerife is the largest of the Canary Islands, according to the Spanish and English Wikipedia. After Mallorca, it is also Spain's second-largest island, says the Spanish Wikipedia.

Both pages give the coastline as 342 kilometres. Wikivoyage in German rounds the area to “approx. 2,000 km²”.

Tenerife has 31 municipalities, according to the Spanish Wikipedia. The capital is Santa Cruz de Tenerife, which has 212,080 residents according to that page.

The city is also the capital of the province of the same name. We deliberately give no figure for the total population because the sources differ (see box).

Wikivoyage in German divides the island into three zones for travellers: the north-east around Santa Cruz and La Laguna, and the north coast around Puerto de la Cruz and Icod. The third zone is the resorts of the south-west around Playa de las Américas and Costa Adeje.

According to Wikipedia, the coast is semi-arid to arid, while higher ground has a subtropical-Mediterranean climate. Wikivoyage in German puts the water temperature between 18 degrees in February and March and 23 degrees in August and September.

We did not review AEMET climate data. For current readings and warnings, see CITA weather (cita.news/de/wetter.html) and AEMET, the state weather agency.

How high is Teide and what does the national park protect?

At 3,715 metres, Teide is the highest mountain in Spain and on the Atlantic islands. That height comes from the Spanish tourism portal Spain.info, the Canarian government (Gobierno de Canarias) and the environment ministry MITECO.

Some pages, including Wikivoyage in German, still list 3,718 metres, the older value. According to MITECO and the Gobierno de Canarias, Teide National Park runs from the Canary pine forests at about 1,600 metres to the summit.

It includes the Las Cañadas caldera. The park was founded in 1954, according to Wikipedia, and became a UNESCO World Heritage Site on 28 June 2007.

The park covers about 190 square kilometres, or roughly 19,000 hectares. One source says it is home to 168 higher plant species, 58 of them endemic to the Canaries.

The park is described as the most visited sight in the Canaries, with up to 4 million visitors a year. That visitor figure is not confirmed.

What rules apply to Teide hikes in 2026?

The Cabildo (island government) requires advance booking on the Tenerife ON platform for several Teide trails, report RTVC and Diario de Avisos. Hikers must carry the permit, printed or digital, and official ID.

Trail 10, Telesforo Bravo to the summit, is capped at 300 people a day. It costs 15 euros for visitors from outside the Canaries.

One source gives 19 January 2026 as the start date. Whether prices have changed since then is not confirmed.

Trail 7, Montaña Blanca–Rambleta, costs non-residents 6 euros on weekdays and 10 euros at weekends and on public holidays. Three more trails are free but need a reservation, with 225 places a day between them.

They are Pico Viejo–Narices del Teide with 95 places, Regatones Negros with 65 and Chafarí with 65. You can book up to 56 days ahead, and new dates open every Monday at 07:00.

Entering without a permit risks fines of up to 600 euros. Rangers can refuse entry despite a valid booking if the required kit is missing.

The kit includes long trousers, warm clothing, walking boots, a charged phone, a rescue blanket, water, a hat, gloves and a torch. Without a permit, the cable car remains an option, but check prices and access with the operator.

There is no price from an official source, though one ticket site lists 42 euros for adults and 21 euros for children. Whether the upper station requires a permit is not confirmed.

How do you get to Tenerife and what else is worth knowing?

Tenerife has two airports: Tenerife Sur (Reina Sofía, code TFS) and Tenerife Norte (TFN). According to Wikivoyage in German, the south takes most charter flights and the north mainly inter-island flights.

This split has not been checked with the airport operator AENA. No details on Binter or ferries are available.

Tenerife observes Western European Time, which is UTC+0 in winter and UTC+1 in summer, according to the Spanish Wikipedia. That is one hour behind mainland Spain, and from it follows the difference to Central Europe, which the sources do not document separately.

The tourism institute Promotur and RTVC report average daily spending of 182.15 euros per tourist on Tenerife in 2025, over a stay of 8.9 days. The figure for the whole Canaries was 178.16 euros a day.

In July 2026, 600,339 tourists arrived, according to an ISTAC figure, about four in ten of all arrivals in the Canaries. Historically, Tenerife was the last island to fall under Castilian rule.

According to wandernundmehr.at, a secondary source, Castile conquered the archipelago between 1402 and 1496. Tenerife followed from about 1494 to 1496 under Alonso Fernández de Lugo.

The decisive victory came in 1496 at La Laguna. The native people were of Berber origin, and “Guanches” refers only to the inhabitants of Tenerife.