Driving In Tenerife
If you are not familiar with driving on the right hand side of the road in Europe, then take care when you take to the roads in Tenerife. There are lots of hire cars being driven by people who are on holiday and have little or no experience of driving on the right hand side of the road, so it isn’t unusual to see cars on the wrong side of the road.
Road junctions are often unmarked, especially in areas that are considered relatively quiet, semi rural or rural, which is a danger in itself as many drivers don’t slow down.
Roundabouts are notoriously dangerous if you don’t know what you are doing; most drivers will stay in the outside lane rather than risk missing their turn-off.
All things considered though, once you get used to driving in Tenerife it is a much more pleasant experience than the UK. Traffic jams are virtually non-existent, unless something un-toward has happened, and even then the police do a good job of keeping the flow of traffic going.
Certain areas are more prone to queues at certain times of the day than others and once you know, you can avoid those areas if possible. You will realise that quite often you have to go out of your way to get to where you want to go, this is normal. If you take a wrong turn, it can be difficult to turn round and you may have to drive much further than you wanted to before you can turn back to get to where you wanted to go.
Parking can be a problem, there are plenty of car parking spaces, but finding an empty one is another story. If you can’t find a parking space outdoors try the underground car parks, there are usually quite a few spaces available, but you might have to pay.