Tenerife cruise port, Spain
Mount Teide stands 3,715 metres over the island, the highest point in Spain and, measured from its base on the sea floor, the third largest volcano on earth. Nelson attacked Santa Cruz in 1797, lost, and lost his right arm doing it.
Worth knowing. The ground up in Teide's crater is so like Mars that engineers have taken rovers there to practise. If a machine can drive on that, it can drive on the real thing.
What to do in Tenerife for free
The port runs a bus into the middle of Santa Cruz for nothing, and it is about twenty minutes on foot if you would rather walk. The Auditorio, the white wave of a concert hall, is on that walk. The municipal park at the end of it is shade and tropical planting and costs nothing to sit in.
What costs money
The ship's own excursions usually cost more than booking the same trip yourself. Two things come with the price. The ship waits for its own excursions and does not wait for you. And if the port is missed, P&O refunds its own without you asking. A trip you booked yourself is a claim on your travel insurance, so check what your policy covers. The ship sells its own trips to all of these, and the desk is open on board if you would rather do it that way.
Mount Teide. The road up crosses a lava field and then comes out above the cloud, which is the part nobody tells you about. It is a long way inland and a coach the whole day.
The Anaga mountains. Laurel forest in the north east that has been growing since before the ice ages, and a biosphere reserve now. The roads up are narrow and the cloud sits in the trees most days.
Which ship calls at Tenerife, and when
Every call here between 15 August and 28 November 2026, with the hours ashore P&O published. These times are a guide, not a promise: the captain gives the real ones the day before.
| Ship | Sails | Day | Ashore |
|---|---|---|---|
| Iona | 3 October 2026, 14 nights | Day 6 | 09:30 to 21:00 |
| Arvia | 23 October 2026, 14 nights | Day 5 | 09:00 to 19:00 |
| Arvia | 23 October 2026, 15 nights | Day 5 | 09:00 to 19:00 |
| Arvia | 23 October 2026, 22 nights | Day 5 | 09:00 to 19:00 |
| Iona | 7 November 2026, 14 nights | Day 6 | 09:30 to 21:00 |
| Iona | 21 November 2026, 14 nights | Day 6 | 09:30 to 21:00 |
| Iona | 5 December 2026, 14 nights | Day 5 | 07:00 to 00:00 |
| Iona | 5 December 2026, 14 nights | Day 6 | 00:00 to 22:00 |
| Iona | 19 December 2026, 16 nights | Day 6 | 09:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 4 January 2027, 35 nights | Day 6 | 08:00 to 18:00 |
| Iona | 27 February 2027, 14 nights | Day 6 | 09:30 to 21:00 |
| Arvia | 6 March 2027, 22 nights | Day 18 | 07:00 to 17:00 |
| Arvia | 12 March 2027, 16 nights | Day 12 | 07:00 to 17:00 |
| Iona | 13 March 2027, 14 nights | Day 6 | 09:30 to 21:00 |
| Arvia | 13 March 2027, 15 nights | Day 11 | 07:00 to 17:00 |
| Iona | 2 October 2027, 14 nights | Day 6 | 08:00 to 21:00 |
| Arvia | 22 October 2027, 14 nights | Day 5 | 09:00 to 19:00 |
| Arvia | 22 October 2027, 15 nights | Day 5 | 09:00 to 19:00 |
| Arvia | 22 October 2027, 17 nights | Day 5 | 09:00 to 19:00 |
| Arvia | 22 October 2027, 22 nights | Day 5 | 09:00 to 19:00 |
| Iona | 30 October 2027, 14 nights | Day 5 | 09:00 to 19:00 |
| Iona | 30 October 2027, 16 nights | Day 5 | 09:00 to 19:00 |
| Iona | 30 October 2027, 21 nights | Day 5 | 09:00 to 19:00 |
| Iona | 30 October 2027, 13 nights | Day 5 | 09:00 to 19:00 |
| Arvia | 28 February 2028, 27 nights | Day 23 | 07:00 to 17:00 |
| Arvia | 4 March 2028, 22 nights | Day 18 | 07:00 to 17:00 |
| Iona | 6 March 2028, 26 nights | Day 22 | 07:00 to 17:00 |
| Arvia | 10 March 2028, 16 nights | Day 12 | 07:00 to 17:00 |
| Iona | 11 March 2028, 21 nights | Day 17 | 07:00 to 17:00 |
| Arvia | 11 March 2028, 15 nights | Day 11 | 07:00 to 17:00 |
| Iona | 17 March 2028, 15 nights | Day 11 | 07:00 to 17:00 |
| Iona | 18 March 2028, 14 nights | Day 10 | 07:00 to 17:00 |
| Iona | 30 September 2028, 14 nights | Day 6 | 08:00 to 21:00 |
How long you get ashore in Tenerife
The published times give you between about 9 and 22 hours alongside, depending on the sailing. Take off the time it takes a few thousand people to get off, and the time you need to be back on board before the ship leaves, and that is your day. P&O give the real hours the day before, and the all-aboard time is earlier than the departure time.
The other stops on these cruises
Every one of these is on at least one of the sailings that calls at Tenerife.
- AntiguaNelson's Dockyard at English Harbour is a working Georgian naval yard that never fell down: Horatio Nelson was based here from 1784, hated it, and called it a vile hole.
- Arrecife de LanzaroteBetween 1730 and 1736 the ground opened and buried a quarter of the island under lava; the Timanfaya field is still hot enough a metre down to cook on.
- BasseterreSt Kitts was England's first colony in the Caribbean, in 1624, and the French took the other end of the island the same decade.
- BridgetownEnglish from 1627 and never changed hands, which is why the island kept its parliament, its cricket and its place names.
- Cadiz (tours to Seville)Probably the oldest continuously lived-in city in western Europe: the Phoenicians founded Gadir here around 1100 BC.
- CastriesBritain and France exchanged this island fourteen times, which is why the towns are French and the law is English.
- DominicaThe Nature Island, and the mountains are the reason: rainforest over most of it, and Morne Trois Pitons inland, a World Heritage site with the second largest hot lake in the world steaming in the middle of it.
- Fort de FranceIn May 1902 Mount Pelee destroyed Saint-Pierre, then the island's main city, killing about thirty thousand people in minutes; a prisoner in a thick-walled cell was among the very few to live.
- FuerteventuraThe oldest of the Canaries and the flattest, a hundred kilometres off Africa and made mostly of wind, sand and goats.
- Gran CanariaColumbus put in at Las Palmas in 1492 to mend a rudder on his way west, and the house he is said to have stayed in is now a museum about him.
- GrenadaSt George's sits inside a drowned volcanic crater, which is what makes the harbour that shape.
- La CorunaThe Spanish Armada sailed from this harbour in 1588, and it is still guarded by the Tower of Hercules, a Roman lighthouse from about the year 100 which has never stopped working: the oldest one on earth still doing its job.
- LisbonOn All Saints' Day 1755 an earthquake, then a tsunami up the Tagus, then three days of fire destroyed most of the city and shook Europe's confidence in a benign universe.
- MadeiraPortuguese sailors found it uninhabited in 1419 and set the forest alight to clear it; the fire is said to have burned for years, and the island is named for the wood.
- OranjestadDutch since 1636 and dry as a bone.
- St MaartenThe island has been split between the Dutch and the French since the Treaty of Concordia in 1648, which makes it the smallest piece of land in the world shared by two nations, and there is no border to speak of.
- TortolaRoad Town has been the seat of these islands since the British took them from the Dutch in 1672.
- VigoEurope's biggest fishing port by weight landed, and it smells honestly of it near the market.
Money and language in Spain
Euro (EUR, €). Cards are normal, though a small market stall or a taxi may want coins. The Canary Islands are Spain and use the euro too. Onboard is always charged in sterling, so this only matters ashore.
English is common in the ports and thinner a street back.
| English | Spanish | Say it |
|---|---|---|
| Hello | Hola | OH-la |
| Goodbye | Adiós | ah-DYOSS |
| How much? | ¿Cuánto cuesta? | KWAN-toh KWESS-ta |
| Thank you | Gracias | GRA-syass, and GRA-thyass on the mainland if you want to blend in |
| Please | Por favor | por fa-VOR |
Free, and it works with no internet. Give it the dates you sail and it works out your own stops and saves the street map for each one. It shows you round the ship too.
All the ports written up so far, the things to do before you sail, or the ship pages for Iona and Arvia.