Los Cristianos is the only resort on Tenerife's southern strip that existed as a town before the hotels arrived, and it still behaves like one. It was a fishing village, then a port, and the port is what separates it from everything else on this coast: ferries leave here for La Gomera, La Palma and El Hierro, and they leave from nowhere else in the south.
That gives the town a different rhythm. The seafront is flat and walkable, the demographic skews older and more family-weighted than its neighbour, and two of the best things to do cost nothing at all: an 850m beach and a 428m volcanic dome you can walk up from the edge of town.
The ferry port is what makes this town worth basing in
This is the practical fact most guides bury. Los Cristianos is the high-speed gateway to the three western Canary Islands, and those routes do not run from Santa Cruz in the north. If a second island is on your list, staying here removes a 90-minute drive from the front of every crossing.
Three destinations, two operators, and roughly 15 sailings a day across the whole port:
| Route | Crossing | Operators |
|---|---|---|
| San Sebastián de La Gomera | ~50 min | Fred Olsen Express, Naviera Armas |
| Valverde, El Hierro | ~2h 20 | Fred Olsen Express |
| Santa Cruz de La Palma | ~2h 30 | Fred Olsen Express, Naviera Armas |
La Gomera is the only one of the three that genuinely works as a day trip. At 50 minutes each way you can be walking in the Garajonay laurel forest by mid-morning and back for dinner. La Palma and El Hierro at two and a half hours each way are overnight propositions, and treating them as day trips wastes both.
Two beaches, and they are not interchangeable
Playa de las Vistas is the big one, sitting between Los Cristianos and Playa de las Américas. The official Tenerife tourism board gives it 850m of pale sand and a full facility list: toilets, showers, municipal cleaning, tourist information, bars and restaurants, and sun loungers and parasols for hire. Access has been adapted for reduced mobility.
It carries a Blue Flag on the official 2026–2027 ADEAC list – one of only 11 on the island this round, and the only one in the whole municipality of Arona, after the harbour beach below lost its own flag this year.
Playa de los Cristianos, in front of the old town, is the other proposition entirely: smaller, shelved off the harbour, and sheltered by the port wall. It is calmer water and a shorter walk from the bars, which is why it fills with families and older visitors while Las Vistas takes the volume.
The rest of the coastal picture, including why the sand changes colour completely on the other side of the island, is in the best beaches in Tenerife guide.
Montaña de Guaza: the free half-day directly above the town
Behind Los Cristianos sits a volcanic dome of about 428m, and it is the single most underused thing in the area. The Monumento Natural de la Montaña de Guaza protects roughly 725.7 hectares of the dome and the lava flows that ran from it to the sea, forming the low cliffs and the flat Mesas de Guaza.
The standard circular route from the edge of town runs about 9km with roughly 430m of ascent, and takes three to three and a half hours. It is a dirt trail rather than a scramble. On the way up it passes caves, fossil beds, old huts and Guanche burial sites, and on a clear day the top gives you La Gomera across the water.
Two warnings, because this is the south. There is effectively no shade and no water on the route, and the rock reflects heat badly in summer. Start early, carry more water than feels sensible, and do not attempt it in the middle of an August afternoon.
The market, and the free version of the town
The Los Cristianos market runs Tuesdays and Sundays, 09:00 to 14:00, on Avenida Juan Carlos I, a short walk from Las Vistas. It is a tourist market rather than a produce market: clothing, bags, sunglasses, souvenirs, aloe vera products. Go for the browse and the prices, not for a farmers' market experience.
The other free asset is the promenade. The seafront path runs continuously from the old harbour past Las Vistas and on into the neighbouring resort, which makes the walk between the two towns about half an hour rather than a taxi fare.
The old town behind the harbour is worth the twenty minutes it takes. It is low-rise, still partly residential, and the fishing boats pulled up beside the ferry terminal are a reminder of what the place was doing before 1970.
The water: whales, dolphins and turtles all leave from here
The single strongest activity argument for Los Cristianos is that the boats go from the town itself. The waters off this coast hold a resident, year-round population of short-finned pilot whales, so the sightings are not seasonal, and the short trips depart from this harbour rather than from Los Gigantes as most guides assume.
Our whale watching guide covers which port each trip actually uses, how long each option runs and how to tell a licensed boat from an illegal one, which matters more here than anywhere else on the island.
If sitting on a deck is not the appeal, the green turtles feed on seagrass meadows starting close to Las Vistas and running south. The kayak and snorkelling guide covers where the sightings are densest and what a trip actually includes.
Los Cristianos or the resort next door?
The two towns share a beach and a promenade and almost nothing else. Los Cristianos is flatter, older, quieter after midnight and built around a working port. Its neighbour is purpose-built, louder, and organised around a nightlife strip.
Pick this one if you want to walk everywhere, sleep before 01:00, take a ferry to another island, or travel with small children or older parents. Pick the other if the evening is the point, and read the Playa de las Américas guide before you decide.
For the wider question of which coast suits your trip at all, the where to stay in Tenerife guide sets out the weather difference between north and south, and the things to do in Tenerife guide covers the island attractions each base puts within reach.
FAQ – visiting Los Cristianos
Featured image: Mike Peel / Wikimedia Commons / CC BY-SA 4.0
