Fiat Panda
5 seats · Manual · Economy
€16per day, cheapest in this class right now
✶ West coast, 30 minutes from TFS
Costa Adeje.
Start the week
further west.
Adeje is where most of the island's hotel beds are, and it is also the best place on Tenerife to be holding car keys: the west coast, the Teno hills and the road over the top all begin within half an hour of the strip.
✶ Live availability in Costa Adeje
28 cars from €16 a day on these dates
Pick-up and drop-off
Dates
Free cancellation on many carsThe deposit is on the car, before you book itPrices in euros, the figure you see is the figure you pay
Pick-up
Dates
The headland at Playa del DuqueWhy people collect here instead of at the terminal
There is one honest reason and it is money. If you are in Adeje for a week and your first two days are the pool and the beach, a car sitting in the hotel garage for forty-eight hours is forty-eight hours you paid for. Collecting on day three from an office along the strip removes that, and the transfer from Tenerife South airport car rental costs you the same whether the car exists yet or not.
The counter-argument is just as honest. The drive down from the airport is thirty minutes of coast road, and with a car you can turn off it. Without one you arrive at the hotel and stay there. Which of those matters more depends entirely on the shape of your trip, and anybody who tells you there is a single right answer is selling something.
What does not change either way is what you need in your hand: the physical licence, a credit card in the driver's own name, and a booking whose deposit you already know. The resort offices apply the same rental conditions as the airport desks, because they are the same suppliers.
Adeje is a better base than it looks on a map
The strip reads as a wall of hotels, and it is, but it sits at the hinge of the island. Head north on the TF-1 and the coast turns to cliff at Los Gigantes inside half an hour. Head inland and you are at Vilaflor, the highest village in Spain, in under thirty minutes, with the pine belt and then the crater above it. Head south and the resorts thin out into the arid plain around the airport.
That is the practical case for a car here. Everything interesting on this island is between twenty minutes and an hour away, and the bus network is built for commuting rather than for visiting. The one road you should treat with respect is the TF-436 to the cliff town and on to Masca: it is sealed and any small car manages it, but it is narrow, it has blind bends, and it takes far longer than the distance suggests.
| Where | Time | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| Playa de las Américas | 8 min | 6 km |
| Los Cristianos | 13 min | 8 km |
| Los Gigantes | 27 min | 26 km |
| Masca | 29 min | 34 km |
| Tenerife South | 30 min | 22 km |
| Teide, Parador de Las Cañadas | 52 min | 50 km |
| Garachico | 50 min | 50 km |
| Puerto de la Cruz | 1 h 09 | 72 km |
What to book, from here
Small and manual is the default and it is the right default: the roads you will enjoy are narrow, and parking behind the strip is tight. Two things are worth paying up for. The first is an automatic if you are not comfortable holding a clutch on a one-in-eight gradient, and why the automatics go first is not a sales line, it is what the winter list actually does. The second is a boot that fits your luggage, which is the thing people misjudge most: a supermini takes two cabin bags and one large case, not three.
If you are travelling as a family of five or more, look at seven seats and the luggage that goes with them before you assume a large estate will do. Spanish law puts children of 135 cm and under in the rear in an approved restraint, and in a seven seater the third row counts as the rear, which changes where the seats can go.
Toyota Yaris
5 seats · Automatic · Compact
€21per day, cheapest in this class right now
Hyundai i20
5 seats · Automatic · Compact
€21per day, cheapest in this class right now
SEAT Ibiza
5 seats · Automatic · Compact
€23per day, cheapest in this class right now
✶ Before you book
What people
ask about Adeje.
Is it worth collecting here rather than at the airport?
It is, if you are staying here the whole week and do not need the car on arrival day. Collecting at the resort saves you the airport queue and the first night or two of hire, and the transfer down costs the same either way. It stops being worth it the moment you want to stop somewhere on the drive from the terminal, because without a car you cannot.
Where do the Adeje suppliers hand the car over?
Usually from a small office along the resort strip, and with some suppliers at the hotel itself. The voucher names the point. Adeje is compact and the strip is walkable end to end, so a pickup office here is rarely more than a few minutes from your door.
What is parking like around the hotels?
The standard Spanish system, which is simpler than it looks: blue lines are metered bays with a time limit, unmarked white bays are free, and yellow means do not. Most of the larger hotels have underground parking and charge nightly for it. The free bays on the streets behind the strip fill up early in the evening, so a car makes life easier by day and slightly harder at ten at night.
Can I drop the car at the airport instead of back here?
Often, yes. Choose the drop-off tab in the search above and pick Tenerife South. Where a supplier allows the route, the one-way fee is inside the price you are shown rather than added afterwards. It suits a late flight particularly well, since you drive to the terminal on your own schedule instead of waiting on a transfer.
✶ Adeje in high season
Book it while there is choice.
This is the busiest stretch of coast on the island and its rental stock is not deep. Many cars cancel free, so booking early costs nothing and holding out for a better price usually costs something.