Tenerife on the Canary Islands offers perfect golf conditions all year round. Join 'Golf Passport' and explore the best golf courses and sights-to-see on this wonderful island retreat.

 Seeking the perfect year-round golf temperature? Look no further than the Canary Islands.

Abama really is the top class outfit on Tenerife. I don’t think they’d mind me saying - it is probably the best, certainly the most challenging track of all the 9 courses on the island.  I was glad it was the professionals that were playing off the back tees, as it’s long and often quite tight. But the entire golf experience is wonderful. 

The course climbs for the first few holes and you certainly need a golf cart. I would think it’s near impossible to walk – although I did manage to jog one evening all the way up to the 5th and back again. Quite easy for an athlete of my caliber!

The course cascades down to the 9th then at the 10th it offers one of the most magnificent views of all. The terra cotta Moorish-style hotel is surely one of the most striking in Europe – and, might I add equally impressive from the inside.

All in All, The Abama Golf & Spa Resort is a rare, tropical oasis that you definitely must include in your travel plans.

Adeje

Golf Costa Adeje is the nearest to Abama – a 15-minute drive (if that) and it too is a hugely interesting track, unusual in that it was built upon a banana plantation, the south facing terraces now the provence of immaculate fairways and greens.

Wonderful Ocean views also backdrop many of the holes – with little it would seem between the greens and the wide Atlantic Ocean.

Adeje is a sterling test that any level of handicap player will thoroughly enjoy.

Tecina

With all these tantalising glimpses of the island of La Gomera just south of Tenerife, you’ll be delighted to learn there’s a wonderful golf course on the island and it’s perfectly feasible to go there for the day by ferry and come back for the evening, or stay longer if you feel inclined. While Tenerife offers views of La Gomera, La Gomera let’s you appreciate just how stunning the silhouette of Tenerife is.

Tecina Golf is another of Tenerife’s unusual tracks, starting out high and rolling seamlessly back to the clubhouse in one long, delicious cascade.  And the surrounding views and vegetation are to die for. It’s like walking in some heavenly garden with high definition panoramas of pure delight.

The same dramatic topography surrounds this course. There are few more beautiful courses in the world, with the added bonus of the peace and quiet you find at Tecina. Maybe next time we’ll come back for a week.

Golf Las Americas

Getting back to the mainland – if you can call an island the mainland… Golf Las Americas offers masses of beautiful flowers, gorgeous water features, generous fairways and super-smooth greens, it will challenge but not beat you up. Something of a classic layout with two par fives and two par threes on each nine, the course measures a little over 6600 yards off the back tees and is plenty long enough with only one very long par four going out and another one coming home.

Although walking is a very appealing option that enables you properly to ‘smell the flowers’, of which there are thousands, the buggies are fitted with the latest GPS systems and knowing the precise yardage is hugely helpful on a course that is sprinkled with so many water hazards. In fact, no fewer than eight holes contain a water feature of some description and the lakes, ponds and streams certainly contribute to a stunningly pretty parkland layout that is fairly forgiving but certainly no pushover. Ducks, geese and swans add to the delightful atmosphere but, somewhat sadly, the resident ostrich was thrown off the course recently and into a bird sanctuary for repeatedly nicking golf balls. Now canaries wouldn’t do that! 

Golf Del Sur

Meanwhile, if you want to take on a course that grooves to a completely different beat –you must try one of my favourites, the remarkable 27-holes of Golf Del Sur. This is a course with ‘wow’ factor. With vivid black sand bunkers deep, cavernous barankos - and Mount Teide almost always in view, Golf Del Sur is as exciting as I can just about handle.

One thing you’ll notice about the courses in Tenerife – there’s always a bird or two hanging about. It must be the climate…

Amarilla

Right next door is lovely Amarilla Golf Course – another visual stunner – well, certainly the seaside holes. Amiarilla is a more of a humble track though, great fun for families or folks looking for a relaxed round. It does offer one or two challenging holes though – again especially those down by the water. The fabulous fifth – a shortish par three across the sea – is the unmistakeable signature hole that will test your nerve as well as your aim.

Mount Teide

Now if you can tear yourself away from all this golf for a moment, Tenerife offers some aspirational asides – and there’s none loftier than Mount Teide – the world’s third largest volcano. Don’t worry, it’s more than 40 years since the last eruption and none of the volcanoes on the Canaries is thought to pose any imminent threat.

A trip up Mount Teide should however be top of your to-do list for the weird and wonderful landscape that surrounds the main peak and perhaps a ride on the cable car that will take you close to the top. Here you can really appreciate an impressive palette of colours and volcanic shapes you won't find anywhere else in the world. The views are spectacular but dress appropriately as there is a remarkable drop in temperature high up that hill.  

Tenerife is often referred to as the Island of Eternal Spring. The combination of ideal weather and suitable topography goes some way to explaining why nine quality courses have sprung up on the island, mostly on the south and south-western coasts.

Buenavista

If you are in the mood for adventure, that the road across the mountains to the northwest of the island and Buenavista Golf Club, one of Seve Ballesteros’s wonderful legacies. Buenavista certainly features in the top 3 Tenerife courses so it’s infinitely worth the excursion. You can take the motorway from Los Cristianos but if you have the time – and the nerve – take the mountain route.

Buenavista is an amazing track, the two nines vastly different and indeed each hole on the course totally unique. It inhabits a wild and windy coast so wind and weather are important considerations.