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€17per day, cheapest in this class right now
✶ Los Rodeos, TFN
Tenerife North.
The small airport,
the green side.
Los Rodeos sits at six hundred metres on the northern slope, handles a fraction of the island's traffic, and puts you within half an hour of the coast, the capital and the road up to the crater. If your flight uses it, you have the easier arrival.
✶ Live availability at TFN
117 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
Inter-island traffic, which is most of what lands hereTo Santa Cruz13 minTwelve kilometres down the hill to the capital.
To Puerto de la Cruz26 minThirty kilometres west along the north coast.
To Teide, El Portillo46 minUp through the valley to the northern park entrance.
To Tenerife South64 minSeventy-two kilometres, the length of the island.
The airport most visitors never see
Los Rodeos was the island's only airport until the south one opened, and the reason it stopped being the only one is sitting in the air above it most mornings. At six hundred metres on the windward slope, it collects the cloud that the trade winds push up against the island, and low cloud at an airport is a problem. So the big charter traffic moved south to the dry corner, and the north kept the mainland routes, the inter-island hops and a growing list of European services.
For anyone arriving that is good news. The building is small, the walk from gate to landside is short, and the rental desks are not fighting a wave of three hundred people off a single wide-body. If your itinerary lets you choose between the two airports and you are staying anywhere north of the ridge, choose this one.
What is within half an hour
A great deal, and this is the argument for the north airport in one table. The capital is thirteen minutes. La Laguna, the old university town and the island's first capital, is nine. The north coast townis twenty-six. Las Teresitas, the city's own beach, is twenty-seven. From the south airport every one of those is an hour and a half.
| Where | Time | Distance |
|---|---|---|
| La Laguna | 9 min | 5 km |
| Santa Cruz | 13 min | 12 km |
| Candelaria | 22 min | 25 km |
| La Orotava | 24 min | 29 km |
| Puerto de la Cruz | 26 min | 30 km |
| Las Teresitas | 27 min | 21 km |
| Taganana (Anaga) | 36 min | 30 km |
| Icod de los Vinos | 45 min | 50 km |
| Teide, El Portillo | 46 min | 43 km |
| Costa Adeje | 1 h 01 | 85 km |
| Teide, Parador de Las Cañadas | 1 h 01 | 57 km |
| Tenerife South | 1 h 04 | 72 km |
The one long number in that table is the south coast, at just over an hour. That is the length of the island on the motorway and it is a straightforward drive, but it is worth knowing before you book a north-airport flight and a Costa Adeje hotel in the same afternoon.
Collecting here, in practice
Same paperwork as anywhere on the island, because the suppliers are the same companies. The physical driving licence, in Latin script; a real credit card in the name of the person who will drive; and a booking whose deposit you already saw. Photographs of a licence and app-based digital licences are refused, which is worth repeating because it catches somebody every week.
There are fewer cars here than at the south airport and more than at any resort point, and it holds a reasonable share of the island's automatics. If you are collecting in winter and want one, booking an automatic early is the difference between having one and driving a manual up the TF-21.
And if you are flying home from the other end of the island, dropping the car at the other airport is the deepest one-way route on Tenerife rather than an exotic request.
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✶ Asked about Los Rodeos
The cloud,
and the queue.
Which flights actually use Tenerife North?
Mainland Spanish routes and the inter-island network, plus a growing number of European services. Most northern European charter and low-cost traffic lands in the south instead. If your ticket says TFN, this is Los Rodeos: a considerably smaller and calmer building than the one most visitors to this island pass through.
Why is it so often in cloud when the south is clear?
Because it sits at around six hundred metres on the northern slope, exactly where the trade-wind cloud piles against the island. Low cloud at Los Rodeos is normal rather than remarkable, and it is the reason the south airport was built in the first place. In practice it affects the visibility on the approach roads for the first few minutes of your drive and nothing else.
Is the collection any different from the south?
The conditions are identical, because these are the same suppliers working to the same rental agreement: the physical licence in Latin script, a credit card in the main driver's name, and the deposit that was on the listing when you booked. What differs is the queue. Los Rodeos handles a fraction of the traffic, so the desks here are quieter at almost any hour of the day.
Can I collect here and drop at Tenerife South?
Yes, and the airport pair is comfortably the deepest one-way route on this island. 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 produced at the desk.
✶ The quieter arrival
Fewer people, fewer cars.
Los Rodeos has shorter queues than the south terminal and fewer cars to go with them. Booking ahead matters more here, not less, and many cars cancel free.