Where you cancollect a carEvery pickup point on the island · and what each one is for
Pick-up & drop-off
Dates
Met in arrivalsno counter queueFree cancellationon most carsNo depositon many carsUnlimited mileageon most carsDeposit and covershown before you bookNo hidden feesprices in EUR
Pick-up
Dates
There are 11 pickup points on this island, and which one you choose changes less about the car rental than people expect: the same suppliers serve most of them, and the car you book is the car you get wherever you pick it up. What it does change is the half hour at either end of your holiday.
That half hour is worth more than it sounds on an island shaped like this one. Tenerife is two coasts with a volcano between them, so the difference between collecting where you land and collecting where you are staying can be an hour of motorway at each end of a fortnight. The list below says what each pickup point is actually for, and how far it is from the southern airport, which is where nearly every flight arrives.
↳ Every pickup point, and what it is forCar hire across Tenerife →
Tenerife South Airport
Where nearly every flight lands, and the deepest choice of cars on the island. One terminal, so collection is straightforward. From Tenerife South: the airport itself.
Tenerife North Airport
Los Rodeos, up on the plateau by La Laguna. The right choice for the north, and the other end of the best one-way route. From Tenerife South: 1h 05.
Costa Adeje
The newer resort strip under the Adeje mountains. Hotel parking is normal here, and often charged for. From Tenerife South: 30 min.
Playa de las Americas
The purpose-built resort next door, laid out in the age of the car and easier to park in than the old towns. From Tenerife South: 30 min.
Los Cristianos
The old harbour town, and the port for the ferries to La Gomera, La Palma and El Hierro. Narrow streets: take a small car. From Tenerife South: 33 min.
Puerto de la Cruz
The north coast under the Orotava valley. Half an hour from Tenerife North, an hour and twenty from the south. From Tenerife South: 1h 20.
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
The working capital. You do not need a car inside it; you want one for the Anaga ridge that starts on the edge of town. From Tenerife South: 59 min.
El Medano
The windsurfing town, and the closest pickup point to the southern airport by some distance. From Tenerife South: 18 min.
Golf del Sur
The golf urbanisation on the south-east coast, twenty minutes from the terminal. Built around the car, so parking is the one thing you do not fight here. From Tenerife South: 22 min.
Los Gigantes
Under the cliffs on the west coast, at the far end of the motorway. From Tenerife South: 50 min.
Paraiso Beach
On the Adeje coast between the resorts, handy if you are staying at that end. From Tenerife South: 30 min.
↳ Airport or resort, in five linesWhat the roads are like →
01 Collect at the airport if the car is for the week
You have it from the moment you have your bags, the choice of cars is deepest at Tenerife South, and you can stop at a supermarket on the way rather than paying resort prices for the first two days.
02 Collect in the resort if the car is for two days
A car parked at a hotel costs you twice, once in the hire and once in the parking. If half your week is the beach, take a transfer down and pick the car up in town for the days you are going somewhere.
03 Fly north if you are staying north
Los Rodeos is twenty-six minutes from Puerto de la Cruz and thirteen from the capital, against eighty-two and fifty-eight from the south airport. When the schedules allow it, that is two hours of motorway saved across a holiday.
04 Use two points if the holiday moves
Landing at one airport and leaving from the other is common here, and driving back across the island to return a car wastes most of a day. A one-way drop is priced into the booking before you commit.
05 The pickup point changes the convenience, not the car
The same suppliers serve most of these points and the car you book is the car you get. What genuinely narrows away from the two airports is choice: fewer cars, and the automatics and larger vehicles go first.
↳ Every pickup point, one searchAll pickup points →
Pick your dates and your pickup point and every car on the island comes back priced for that week, with the deposit and the cover on every car.
Check dates →Live prices for your dates. Free cancellation on most cars.
↳ Choosing between themCheck what is available →
Collect at the airport if you want the car from the moment you land, which is what most people want and what the widest choice supports. Collect in a resort instead when the car is only for part of the week, because a car sitting in a hotel car park is costing you twice: once in the hire and once in the parking. And if you are flying into one airport and out of the other, set the drop-off point in the search rather than planning a drive back across the island. Nearly every car allows the airport pair, and one way car hire in Tenerife is priced into the booking before you commit.
There is one more option that is not a place at all, and it is worth knowing about. Alongside the points above, the booking page offers Tenerife as a single island-wide pickup: choose it and the search returns every car on the island in one list rather than the cars at one point, and each car then tells you where it is collected or whether it is delivered. Search the whole island in one go → It is the widest choice you can put in front of yourself, and it suits an open plan: pick the car first, then let the collection arrangement follow.
One thing does not vary by pickup point, and it is the thing most likely to go wrong: what you have to hand over when you get there. The licence has to be the card itself, not a photograph and not a copy, and the payment card has to be in the main driver's name, usually a physical credit card with raised numbers for the deposit hold. Your voucher says whether a debit card is accepted for your car. That is the same in the capital as it is at the terminal, and it is the single most common reason a pickup fails.
↳ How far apart the pickup points areAnd the crater in the middle →
01 
The southern strip, 8 to 14 min apart
The southern strip, 8 to 14 min apartCosta Adeje, Playa de las Americas and Los Cristianos sit within a quarter of an hour of each other along one coast, so which of the three you choose is about where you are staying rather than about driving.
02 
El Medano to the southern airport, 18 min
El Medano to the southern airport, 18 minThe shortest airport run on the island from any town with a pickup point in it, and the reason the wind town suits a late landing or an early flight home.
03 
Adeje to Los Gigantes, 27 min
Adeje to Los Gigantes, 27 minUp the coast to the far end of the motorway, where the cliffs drop straight into the water. Closer from the resorts than most people assume.
04 The two airports, 64 to 65 min
The two airports, 64 to 65 minSeventy-two kilometres of motorway between them, in either direction, and the deepest one-way route on the island by a distance.
05 
Santa Cruz to Tenerife North, 13 min
Santa Cruz to Tenerife North, 13 minTwelve kilometres, the shortest hop between any two points on this list, which is why the capital and the northern airport are effectively one choice rather than two.
06 
The southern airport to Puerto de la Cruz, 82 min
The southern airport to Puerto de la Cruz, 82 minNinety-seven kilometres, the longest routine drive on the island, and the journey most worth designing out of a holiday with a different pickup or a one-way drop.
Every time on this page is free-flow, measured by routing rather than remembered, so a real journey is that or longer, never shorter.