Living in Tenerife

Health in Tenerife
Tenerife Forums and Blogs
Christmas in Tenerife
Expats on Holiday
Social Security Tenerife
How Integrated Are You?
Tenerife Expats Relax
Changes in Tenerife
Death of an Expat in Tenerife
State Schools in Tenerife - application documentation
Raising Kids in Spain

Speaking Spanish

Test Your Spanish Level
Spanish Funny Sayings
Spanish Horoscope
Spanish Grammar
Spanish Word of the Day

Special Holidays

Christmas Season
Christmas Recipes
Christas Eve
Christmas Day
Expat Christmas Celebrations
Dia De Los Santos Innocentes
Carnaval

Business Tenerife

Bars and Restaurants
Hair and Beauty Salon
Internet and Web Design
Recommended Web Designer
Working in Tenerife
School-leaver Job Opportunities
Tenerife Entertainers

Out and About in Tenerife

Bars in Costa Del Silencio
Costa Del Silencio Area
Costa Del Silencio Map
Bars in Las Americas
Bars in Los Cristianos

Holiday Locations

Costa Del Silencio
Holidays in Puerto de la Cruz
Holiday in Los Gigantes
Tenerife to Lanzarote

Moving to Tenerife

Household Shipment FAQ
Retiring to Tenerife
10 Reasons to Move to Tenerife
10 Tips About Moving to TenerifeEstate Agents in Tenerife
Tenerife Property Tips

Tenerife Property

We’re all going on a … summer holiday.

Hang on a minute. We’re already on one – or so visitors from the UK think.
Three friends put the myth to bed at the Mare Nostrum Resort

Elizabeth Dewing, Head Rep, The Flight Center
Originally from Leeds, moved to Tenerife four years ago leaving a job as a nursery nurse. Lives in La Camella.

Amanda Jane Hogarth, Manager, Property Management Company S.L.T.
Born in Lancashire, moved to Tenerife four years ago leaving a job as a medical secretary. Lives in Callao Salvaje with husband John.

Hannah Garrat, Owns Stunning Images Picture Gallery
Originally from Salisbury, managed her father’s picture framing business before moving to Tenerife five years ago. Lives in Amarilla Golf with husband Geoff.

Where did you go on your last holiday and why did you choose that particular destination?

Amanda: We went to London to see some shows and do a bit of shopping. I wouldn’t want to live there but it’s fantastic to visit. We did manage to spend a couple of days in Lancashire with the family too.

Hannah: I went back to the UK to see my parents. The thing about going to England is that the money you earn here doesn’t go very far in the UK. You feel a bit cheated because you start thinking; I’m not buying that, I can get that for half the price in Tenerife.

Elizabeth: I’ve had two holidays this year. In April I went to Turkey for 12 days. That wasn’t bad but I wouldn’t go back. It found it a bit dirty and I didn’t really like the food.

Hannah: Did you do the local thing or the tourist thing?

Elizabeth: We did the tourist thing. Even though I work in the tourism sector, I prefer those kinds of holidays because you don’t have to worry about planning where to go and what to see.

Hannah: Was it hot?

Elizabeth: No, actually it was pouring down. But I’ve just come back from another holiday where it was really hot. I went to the Costa Brava where my mum lives. It’s a really beautiful place.

Hannah: My nan used to live in Marbella. If she still lived there, I’d probably go and visit her there, but as it is I find mainland Spain too similar to Tenerife. I’d want to go somewhere completely different, with a different language, different food …

Amanda: I’m the same. I like Cyprus, it’s beautiful.

Hannah: My aunt lives in Cyprus. I’d really love to go and visit her. My Mum grew up there so I’d be able to see all the different parts where she lived and where she went to school. She’s actually Maltese, which is another place I want to go! I want to take Geoff there so he can see where my family’s from.

Elizabeth: Family is very important in Malta, isn’t it?

Hannah: Yes. They’re really family-oriented. Even if you go as a tourist, you still get taken into people’s houses, and fed and taken around. Everyone wants to do everything for you. And they love the British.

Amanda: That’s unusual!

Hannah: They’ve also got a 10-screen cinema that shows films in original languages.

Amanda: Fantastic. We should go and live there!

Hannah: I know. Even Tenerife hasn’t got that. It’s really strange, especially since Malta is so much smaller than Tenerife.

Where are you planning on going for your next holiday?

Elizabeth: I don’t know. I’m very last minute.

Amanda: Our next holiday is for John’s 40th. He likes city breaks so we’re thinking of going to New York. I prefer a sunbathing holiday though. The next one after New York is definitely going to be a sunbathing holiday.

Hannah: The thing is, you don’t really get to enjoy the sun here when you’re constantly working. In fact, you get to hate the heat. When you’ve got time to lie by the pool it’s different of course.

When your friends or family visit from the UK do they tend to forget you’re not on holiday?

All: Definitely.

Elizabeth: You have to be out till two o’clock in the morning. They forget you’ve got to get up in the morning.

Hannah: My family actually expects me not to work. They ask if I can take a few days off. It’s really difficult because they’ve given up their time and paid a lot of money. The reason they come out here is to see me.

Elizabeth: But they think because they’re on holiday, so are you. Quite a few friends have come out in the past seven months, it’s left me exhausted.

Hannah: And they say, ‘lets go out for a meal.’ But they don’t worry about their money on holiday. They’ll stay out and drink all night and we’ll be having a great time but it’s costing a fortune. This is money we need for other things.

Elizabeth: Like saving for your own holiday.

Hannah: Exactly!

Amanda: But the more they come over, the more they do realise this.

Elizabeth: What drives me a bit insane is when they come on holiday alone. Then you have to be with them 24-7.

Hannah: I’m really glad my brother came out with his friends this time. When he came out on his own, he stays with us in Amarilla Golf. We have to drive him everywhere, which we don’t really mind doing but sometimes it’s difficult because we work so much.

Elizabeth: The last time my parents were here I forced myself to drive all the time. That way, I didn’t drink and the next day when I went to work I was just a bit tired.

How do you spend your days off?

Hannah: We own two businesses and work seven days a week. We’ve just started taking Mondays off so we just sit around the house and do nothing but it gets to about seven o’clock at night and I think that’s my day off gone! I’d like to be able to lie by the pool and relax but I’d have to have more than a week to really do that.

Elizabeth: I don’t like to spend my day off just sitting in the house. But because I have to do the washing and all those normal things, I wouldn’t necessarily be able to plan to spend my whole day off on the beach.

Amanda: Don’t you find that you don’t really appreciate living here, the weather etc?

Hannah: Definitely. My mum always asks, ‘when you finish work, don’t you go for a dip in the pool?’ I haven’t been swimming in my pool for ages.

Elizabeth: I know. That’s why I don’t bother about living in an apartment complex with a pool. There’s just no point paying all those community fees if you never even use it.

Amanda: I think also sometimes you need a change of scenery.

Hannah: A lot of people say you should go to the north and spend your day off there because it’s completely different. It’s so green, like being on a different island.

Elizabeth: A lot of people who come here really don’t get to experience the whole of the island.

Amanda: No, they don’t. They ignore it.

Hannah: My brother’s over at the moment for two weeks. He’s 18 and he’s here with three boys and three girls. I really thought he was going to do the ‘lad’ thing - drink all night and sleep on the beach all day. But he’s booked loads of excursions. I thought it was a bit weird but he said, ‘this is my two-week holiday, I’m in a foreign country and I actually want to see the island.’ I thought that was really good.

Elizabeth: Those are the best holidays. You can book yourself a really cheap holiday as long as you’ve got lots of cash to enjoy yourself. There’s no point worrying about money on your holiday.

How do you usually book your holiday? Through an English travel agent or a Spanish one?

Elizabeth: We flew back to the UK to get a joint flight to Turkey because we booked an English holiday. But when I went to mainland Spain I flew direct from here.

Amanda: It depends on where you’re going and it’s the language barrier really.

Hannah: If something went wrong and I needed to complain, I wouldn’t know how to go about it.

Elizabeth: I agree. When it’s something as important as your holiday, you don’t want to mess it up.

Has what you need from a holiday changed since you moved here?

Amanda: I think in England you put all your energies into planning your holiday, whereas here I don’t think your need for a holiday is the same.

Hannah: I agree. In England, you’re obsessed about your one holiday a year and then you get that feeling of depression when you go back home.

Amanda: I think 80 per cent of people in England hate their jobs.

Elizabeth: That’s why they look forward so much to going on holiday. It’s the only freedom you’ve got in England. You get up, go to work, come back, have dinner, a bath and go to bed.

Amanda: And it’s the same the next day.

Elizabeth: It’s such a routine. Here you may not feel like you’re on holiday but you do have a better social life.

Amanda: And it’s still daylight when you finish work. In England you get home and it’s raining so you shut your door, watch some telly and go to bed. And you can’t plan a barbecue in England.

Hannah: While here in evenings for example, you can sit outside and have a drink just like we’re doing now. It’s so nice.

This article has been supplied by kind permission of Living Tenerife Magazine. Read more articles like this on Island Life, Golf and Property Tenerife.

-Tours in Germany - Shirt Printing - Christian Marketing-


Copyright (c) 2000 - 2006. All rights reserved.
Costa Del Silencio, Arona, 38630,
Tenerife, Canary Islands, Spain
Tel: 922 733 583
Email: info@etenerife.com