Tenerife airport transfers: taxi, bus, shuttle or hire car

You have four ways to get from the airport to your hotel: a white taxi from the rank, a TITSA bus, a pre-booked transfer (shared or private) and a hire car. There's no train or tram. And neither GetYourGuide nor Tiqets currently sells an airport transfer in Tenerife, so we're not nudging you to book anything here: we're just telling you what each option costs.

In short: from Tenerife South to the southern resorts, bus 40 is a genuine option and a taxi comes to about €30. With small children, a group of five or a flight that lands in the small hours, look at a private transfer first. If you land in the north and your hotel is in the south, do the maths before you get into a taxi.

Tenerife South or Tenerife North: check which one you're landing at

Tenerife South (TFS), at Granadilla de Abona beside the TF-1 motorway, handles nearly all international flights; many people still call it "Reina Sofía". Tenerife North–Ciudad de La Laguna (TFN), the old "Los Rodeos", mainly handles inter-island flights and flights from mainland Spain. From TFS, Costa Adeje, Las Américas and Los Cristianos are about 19 km away; from TFN, about 83 km and an hour on the motorway. The other way round, Santa Cruz and Puerto de la Cruz are 12 and 31 km from TFN, and 62 and 95 km from TFS.

Taxi: how the fare works and what it costs

Tenerife has no fixed-price table for airport runs. Every airport–hotel journey counts as interurban and is charged on the meter at the Canary Islands' regional T3 rate, set by the Order of 14 March 2023:

On 24 and 31 December and 5 January from 22:00, the flag fall rises to €6.54. The tariff has no supplement for luggage or per passenger, and you don't pay for the empty taxi's return trip. If anyone mentions a "luggage charge", it isn't in the official tariff.

Those figures give the approximate prices in the table above. From Tenerife South: about €30 to Los Cristianos, Las Américas or Costa Adeje (about €33 at night), about €63 to Los Gigantes, about €88 to Santa Cruz and about €132 to Puerto de la Cruz. From Tenerife North: about €20 to Santa Cruz, about €46 to Puerto de la Cruz and about €116 to the south. They're worked out from distance alone: the meter adds time in traffic, so read them as "from" prices.

Getting one the right way. At Tenerife South the rank is on floor 0, in Arrivals. AENA asks you to use only the signposted rank, make sure the meter is running from the start, and ask for a receipt; taxi information: 922 397 074. Most taxis take four passengers at most, children included: a family of five needs a minivan, which you have to request, or two taxis. And they almost never carry a child seat: we explain what to do in Tenerife with kids.

The bus from Tenerife South: the lines that actually stop at the terminal

TITSA buses (locally called "guaguas") are green and charge by distance. Five lines stop at the TFS terminal: 10, 40, 343, 415 and 711. Line 111 only stops at the motorway junction, outside the airport, and line 450 doesn't go past it at all.

Line 40 takes about 40 minutes and line 10 takes 55 minutes to the Intercambiador (bus station) in Santa Cruz; you board at the "Aeropuerto Tenerife Sur" stop (code 7571). Los Gigantes (line 40 to Costa Adeje, then change to the 473 or 477) and El Médano (line 415 to San Isidro, then change to the 408) have no direct service. Line 343 runs to a different timetable at weekends: check it on titsa.com on the day.

The bus from Tenerife North

At TFN the stop is right by the terminal exit. Line 20 runs to La Laguna and Santa Cruz every 25 minutes from 05:45 to 00:45, taking about 20 minutes and costing €2.65 (€2.25 with Ten+). Line 30 gets you to Puerto de la Cruz in half an hour for €4.75 (€3.40 with Ten+), with departures from 07:30 on weekdays.

If you're staying in the south, the 343 costs €12.40 to Costa Adeje, but it only runs four times a day. If the times don't suit you, take the 20 to the Intercambiador in Santa Cruz and change there to the 110, which goes direct to Costa Adeje in 55 minutes for €9.45. Don't take the 111: it costs the same and takes an hour and a half, stopping at every junction.

How to pay

You can pay for a single ticket in cash or by contactless card without a PIN, at the same price. The Ten+ card costs €2, is topped up from €5 and gives you the lowest fare; it can also be shared by people travelling together, unlike the tourist passes at €10 (one day) or €50 (seven days). For a couple who only need to get to the hotel, one shared Ten+ is the cheapest option. They're sold from machines at both airports. Under-5s travel free, and each suitcase can measure up to 100 × 60 × 25 cm. More detail in our TITSA review.

Tenerife transfers: shared shuttle or private transfer

Pre-booked transfers are sold through intermediaries such as Hoppa, HolidayTaxis or Suntransfers, which don't run vehicles of their own: they assign you a local company, whose name appears on your voucher.

• Shared shuttle: priced per person. Hoppa advertises it from about £8 per person from Tenerife South to Costa Adeje, Las Américas or Los Cristianos, and warns that you may wait up to 45 minutes before it leaves. HolidayTaxis' "Shuttle" makes up to 8 stops and its "Speedy Shuttle" up to 4. They don't go to private addresses or villas, only to hotels or the nearest accessible point.
• Private transfer: priced per vehicle. Hoppa quotes from about £42 for a car and about £73 for a people carrier to the same areas. The driver tracks your flight and waits 60 minutes free of charge after landing; with Hoppa, the first child seat is included.
• Cancellation: free up to 24 hours before for both (with Hoppa, for vehicles of up to 7 seats).

Our view: from Tenerife South to the southern resorts, a shared shuttle only pays off if you're travelling alone or as a couple and aren't in a hurry; four seats at £8 come close to a €30 taxi, with waiting and stops thrown in. For families, arrivals at night or on a Sunday (when the per-km rate goes up by 15%) and long journeys such as TFS–Puerto de la Cruz, a private transfer at a fixed price is the sensible choice. Bear in mind: if you don't turn up within the free waiting time, you pay in full, and the intermediary's rating reflects its booking process and customer service, not the local company that actually drives you. We compare them in our transfers review.

Uber, Cabify and Bolt in Tenerife

Don't count on them. Uber arrived in the south with "Uber Taxi", which books licensed taxis through the app, but at the moment none of the three holds VTC (private-hire) licences in the Canary Islands, and Cabify and Bolt don't operate in Tenerife. The rules are before the courts and could change: if you want to try, open the app when you land and keep the taxi rank as plan B.

Hire car

If you plan to get around the island, pick up a car at the airport and skip the transfer altogether. Cicar, a Canarian company, has desks at TFS, TFN and the Santa Cruz cruise port, plus offices in Costa Adeje, Los Cristianos, Puerto de la Cruz and Los Gigantes. Its price includes fully comprehensive insurance with no excess, unlimited mileage, an additional driver and child seats. There are other local firms (TopCar, Autoreisen, Oasis, Autos Plaza…); whichever you choose, ask about the minimum age, the deposit and the fuel policy before booking.

A car makes sense if you're staying in Los Gigantes, in the north or in a villa far from a bus route. In Costa Adeje or Los Cristianos, with excursions that pick you up from your hotel, you can manage without one.

What to choose for your situation

What to book first once you've arrived

Once you're at your hotel, excursions with pick-up included save you hiring a car. The whale-watching trip from Puerto de la Cruz includes the transfer, but it's new and has no reviews yet. More in our Teide guide and in island tours.

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