Cicar is the cheapest / easiest car rental agency. You can email me xaviercobos at gmail

I’ve written a couple of things about Tenerife in this thread: What’s the best place to stay in the Canaries?

I’ve been living in Tenerife since October of last year but in the Capitol of Santa Cruz. Since I was here to work remotely but also reclaim my Spanish citizenship, I opted to sign a rental contract, which runs 1/3 the cost of an Airbnb.

If you plan to stay more than 3 months, I would strongly recommend that. Any leasing office can help you and their fee (one month) is easily saved with the hugely reduced rent. All you need is a passport.

I do not particularly enjoy living in Santa Cruz. It’s more of a pueblo than a true city – although it doesn’t look like it. The locals in Santa Cruz don’t have as much interaction with foreigners as in other parts of the island and so they can be a bit reserved and stand-offish. Though they are warm on first meeting, it’s hard to get to know them or break into their circles.

Few locals go out in the evenings, and entertain at home instead. This is very different from other parts of Spain. After 7pm it’s pretty dead except for a few streets with shops or bars. This is true throughout most of the island with the exception of the South.

No matter where you live, get involved with some kind of local activity to meet people. To say the people here have “island mentality”) as in Hawaii would be a polite way of putting it. I’ve had rocks thrown at me while surfing, and had a guy punch me in the face just walking down the street. But this was all in the Bajamar area which is notoriously redneck. Visit but beware. Haha.

I’ve only spent a few days in Puerto de la Cruz, and while it’s pretty, it’s also pretty freaking dead most of the year. This was once the hot spot for travelers but no more. If you don’t speak German, you won’t be able to interact with most visitors. And further, most visitors there are old and dying. That being said, there is a co-working space there that you linked to, but every time I went it was completely empty. For the price they ask, I’d suggest you check it out first. If you’re gonna be alone you can save the loot and work from home.

As stated by someone else, car rentals are cheap. You can actually rent a car monthly for 300 euros, which is a screaming deal. This includes full insurance and they’ll even take cash, so there’s no need to let them have your card on file. You can then take that car on the ferry to other islands, which is a great way to explore.

There is also a great bus network that covers the whole island which is super cheap. Not sure what the other poster was talking about…sounds like they only explored taxis. These buses have pretty much 24-7 service along major routes and you can cross the island for about 3 euros. It’s a great way to get around, comfortable and air conditioned.

Tenerife is full of awesome hiking, fishing, surfing. If you like nature, you’ll love it. If you want a more cosmopolitan experience with lots of digital nomads, definitely go to Gran Canaria instead. With only 40 miles between them, these islands are world’s apart. I’d suggest visiting both before locking anything down in terms of housing.

In closing, just don’t expect to “experience Spain” while here in the Canaries. The islands are mostly full of Venezuelans and Cubans. This means people are even more “tranquilo” than in Spain. Plans made are never firm, and expect things that should happen quickly to take a long time.

The food is not Spanish by any means and rather bland. But I’m from California and eat like a Mexican, so maybe it’s just my taste. Not saying it’s bad, just not very good either. If you’ve been to Colombia, the food experience is similar, but the locals aren’t as friendly.

I’d rate it a B- compared to other places I’ve been. But you can live insanely cheap and the weather is great.

I’m leaving to live in Madrid Aug 15 so if you wanna meet up when you arrive let me know.

Hello!

I was in tenerife last month, in Puerto de La Cruz (My brother lives there with his family).

I was in an AirBNB really close to the beach and with an awesome WIFI (20mb, constants) and location (Av Venezuela, near Surf Beach and restaurants. I also found some very nice café to work).

The public transportation is expensive there, so I’d recomment to rent a car for a day if you pretend to go tour to the south part of the island or to La Laguna - Santa Cruz, it cost around 25€ a day and it’s waaaay cheaper than any taxi.

Tho I never went there, I was planning to, so I asked for a coworking space and everyone told me this one was nice: http://www.coworkinginthesun.com/

I hope it helps!

Hi !

I’ll be moving to Tenerife at the end of October (and stay there for about 4 months). I know people there, and La Laguna has been recommended to me a lot, probably the worst weather in Tenerife for the winter, but still a super nice weather for a european winter. Santa Cruz is another option, bigger city, but also less beautiful. Anyway Santa Cruz and La Laguna are super close.

Hi, Gaby! I use Simyo all across EU actually, it's one of the best deals in Europe :) For more information, please see this wiki prepaid-data-sim-card.fandom.com/wiki/Spain -- it's the best resource on prepaid data sims anywhere in the world. The only catch is if you're a resident you can get much better deals using contract subscription.

https://www.idealista.com/
https://www.fotocasa.es/es/

Use the pages Idealista and Fotocasa, the spanish used them!

thanks for your replies! Housesitting is not really an option unfortunately - I prefer to rent a flat for a few weeks/months.

Ruzafa seems like a nice neighborhood. I am also asking for airbnb alternatives because airbnb prices for full apartments are quite high. I am a bit surprised but maybe that’s normal rental prices in Valencia and I am just very late. Or authorities started targeting airbnb, so that there are increased costs for landlords and less competition.

Aw! Valencia was my first nomad home! I got my accommodation with Airbnb so can’t help with alternatives. But I lived in the Rusafa area and can highly recommend this. It’s an arty neighbourhood with a few nice cafes to work in and a short walk into the centre.

If you don’t mind some responsibility you could give housesitting a chance. There are many offers in Spain and if you are lucky you could get quite a big house with all amenities. Most sits also come with pets, however. I’d say TrustedHousesitters.com and MindMyHouse.com are the best sites. If you don’t want to spend much money, try MindMyHouse first, it’s only about 20$.

Edit: If you sign up, I’d love to give you my referral link.

Not exactly in Barcelona but south in the Valencia region: www.sun-and-co.com A community of around 15 digital nomads under one roof