Scuba Diving in Tenerife

As a diving fanatic, I thought my dreams had come true when I heard about the tropical island of Tenerife. It has been gaining in popularity in recent years, but isn’t crowded like many of the other popular dive sites you’ve read about. Tenerife offers world-class diving conditions all year long, featuring warm water, clear visibility, a diverse population of marine life, and a wide variety of unusual dive sites to explore.

Located 400 km off the coast of western Africa, Tenerife is the largest island in the Canary Island chain. The best beaches and diving sites are on the south side of the island, so you’ll want to book one of the many flights to Tenerife South – also known as Reina Sofia – near Los Cristianos. You can then opt to rent a car, or there are buses running to most of the popular destinations. Taxis are also widely available and reasonably priced.

Tenerife is a volcanic island, which has created some amazing underwater terrain with incredibly deep water. The volcanic activity has created huge underwater cliff walls with sheer drops of more than 30 meters, and there are several giant caves to explore if you’re up for that. In these areas you can also experience drift diving – it’s exhilarating to simply glide along in the current and enjoy the view – with visibility up to 50 meters! The harbour wall in Puerto de la Cruz has some of the most fantastic dive sites with amazing volcanic rock formations. Poris has a huge volcanic rock wall, Fonsalia has a maze of lava flows to explore, Mar Azul has some amazing volcanic arches to swim through, and some tour operators offer deep dives in Punta Prieta to explore the cave there.

If you love exploring wrecks, you won’t be disappointed with Tenerife. Shipwrecks litter the coastline, and provide the perfect conditions to encounter large fish species, including stingrays, several types of sharks, barracuda, and sunfish. You’ll find old, steel merchant ships that sank accidentally, along with large schooners that were intentionally sunk to encourage reef growth. Most of the wrecks are within 20 and 30 meters deep. Likely the most popular site is El Raton, which is the wreck of a decommissioned tug boat. Divers can swim through the engine room and bridge, and there are a lot of fish around to photograph. Two other popular wreck sites are the Meridian in South Tenerife, and the Estornia near the Las Galletas Harbor.

For reef addicts, the volcanic rock formations have created a remarkable underwater environment for the abundant flora and fauna around Tenerife. There are just so many amazing opportunities to photograph this aquatic paradise. You won’t want to miss a dive to Paraiso Floral, El Puertito, Alcala, and San Juan, where you’re likely to encounter not only fish, but large sea turtles, eels, and manta rays. If you’ve dreamed of encountering a dolphin on a dive, check out Roncardores de Palm Mar. The local fish farms are simply too enticing, and pods of dolphins visit this area regularly.

Pick up a Tenerife travel guide when you arrive to find dive operators that will take you where you want to go. Tenerife is also the perfect place to continue your dive education, owing to the wide variety of dive sites available. I personally can’t wait to get back to explore more of the sites Tenerife has to offer.