Boats in Tenerife

They’re called self drive, and they’re the most fun you can have at Puerto Colón for under a hundred euros. Engine within the legal limit: no licence, no experience, just a ten-minute briefing and then the wheel is yours.

Only your group goes aboard. You agree the route on the morning itself, you stop where the water looks good, and the person at the wheel does that stretch of sea every single day. It’s the right way to do a birthday, a stag do, or simply a day you’ll remember.

Hundreds of pilot whales and dolphins live permanently between Tenerife and La Gomera. It isn’t luck, and it’s why sightings work here 365 days a year: this is their home, not a migration route.

The catamaran is the boat that doesn’t rock: two hulls, plenty of space, and a net at the bow where you lie right above the water. It’s the right call with kids, with anyone who gets seasick, or when you simply want a comfortable day rather than an adventure.

For when the boat has to be one thing only: yours. Crewed yachts, sunset sailings, private parties in the middle of the ocean. The day gets built around what you want — time, route, what you eat, what you drink — instead of a programme someone else decided.

It’s the marina almost all of south Tenerife’s sea life leaves from: self drive, catamarans, whale watching, private yachts. It sits between Playa de las Américas and Costa Adeje, it’s ten minutes from most hotels in the area, and once you’re inside boarding takes minutes.