Tenerife beaches by water quality: where the grade has never dropped, and where it slips now

Tenerife has 49 beaches in the bathing water register, with 61 sampling points. In 2025, 56 of the 61 were graded excellent. A poor grade has been given once in 36 seasons: Castillo-Bajamar (San Juan) in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, 1990. At 38 beaches, no point has ever had a grade below excellent. The grade is about bacteria in the water; it says nothing about sand, crowds or the view.

That is 92 % of points excellent, close to the figure for Spain as a whole: 91 %. Among the 7 Canary Islands, Tenerife has the lowest share: it has 5 points below excellent, the other 6 islands 3 between them. El Hierro, La Gomera and La Palma had every point excellent.

How the grade is made

Every official bathing point in the EU is sampled through the season and tested for two kinds of gut bacteria: intestinal enterococci and E. coli. A season's grade is worked out from its own samples together with the three seasons before. So it moves slowly: one bad week barely shows, while a run of bad samples keeps a point down for years. The EU bathing water directive.

There are four grades. Excellent, good and sufficient all meet the standard. Poor does not: with that grade the authorities must warn people, and may ban bathing or advise against it. The European Environment Agency on bathing water.

The one poor grade: Castillo-Bajamar (San Juan), 1990

The island's only poor grade went to Castillo-Bajamar (San Juan) in San Cristóbal de La Laguna, in 1990, the first season on record. Water was then checked under older rules: the Spanish series has no grade of «good» before 2011. Here is the point's whole record: poor 1990, sufficient 1991, excellent 1992–1999, sufficient 2000, excellent 2001–2002, no grade 2003, excellent 2004–2011, good 2012–2014, excellent 2015–2025.

Within 1 km of it the register has 2 more points, at natural pools. They have been graded since 2014, and every season has been excellent.

5 points below excellent in 2025

In 2025, 5 points on 4 beaches fell short of excellent: 4 good, 1 sufficient. Below, each point's full record, in spans from its first season to 2025.

• Jardin (Puerto de la Cruz), the point graded since 1995: sufficient 1995, excellent 1996–2022, good 2023–2025.
• Jardin (Puerto de la Cruz), the point graded since 2008: excellent 2008–2020, good 2021–2022, sufficient 2023–2025.
• Playa Candelaria: excellent 2008–2011, no grade 2012–2015, excellent 2016–2022, good 2023, excellent 2024, good 2025.
• Los Cristianos (Arona), the point graded since 2008: excellent 2008–2011, good 2012, excellent 2013–2017, good 2018–2021, excellent 2022–2024, good 2025.
• Puertito de Guimar La Charcada-Muelle (Güímar): excellent 1990–1994, no grade 1995, excellent 1996–2002, no grade 2003, excellent 2004–2024, good 2025.

On 2 of these beaches the points disagree. Jardin has 3 points: good at the one graded since 1995, sufficient at the one graded since 2008, excellent at the one graded since 2025. Los Cristianos has 2 points: excellent at the one graded since 1995, good at the one graded since 2008. A grade belongs to the spot where the samples are taken, not to the whole beach. The newest point has 1 season on record: the start of a history, not a history.

The grade does not say why a point slipped. It reports what the samples found, not where it came from.

Slipped, then back to excellent

6 more beaches have had seasons below excellent, yet every one of their points was excellent again in 2025:

• San Telmo (Puerto de la Cruz): sufficient 1995; good 2022–2024; excellent again in 2025.
• Punta Larga (Candelaria): good 2021–2023; excellent without a break since 2024.
• Poris de Abona (Arico): good 2021; excellent without a break since 2022.
• El Pris (Tacoronte): good 2020; excellent without a break since 2021.
• Troya I Americas I (Adeje): good 2016–2017, 2019; excellent without a break since 2020.
• El Cabezo (Granadilla de Abona): sufficient 2008; excellent without a break since 2009.

Never below excellent

At 38 of the 49 beaches, no point has ever been graded below excellent. That carries different weight from one to the next: some have been tested since 1990, others for a few seasons. So they are grouped below by the decade of their first grade.

• First graded in the 1990s (18): El Cabezo-Paseo de las Palmeras (Güímar), 1990; El Socorro (Los Realejos), 1990; La Arena (Santiago del Teide), 1990; La Arena (Mesa del Mar), Tacoronte, 1990; La Tejita (Granadilla de Abona), 1990; Las Caletillas (Candelaria), 1990; Las Gaviotas (Santa Cruz de Tenerife), 1990; Las Teresitas (Santa Cruz de Tenerife), 1990; Abades (Los Abriguitos), Arico, 1995; El Camison (Arona), 1995; El Medano-Leocadio Machado (Granadilla de Abona), 1995; El Arenisco - Piscina Natural Punta Hidalgo (San Cristóbal de La Laguna), 1996; El Medano-Chica (Granadilla de Abona), 1996; El Duque (Adeje), 1999; Fanabe (Adeje), 1999; La Jaquita (Granadilla de Abona), 1999; Las Vistas (Arona), 1999; San Juan (Guía de Isora), 1999.
• First graded in the 2000s (9): El Bobo (Adeje), 2008; El Medano (Granadilla de Abona), 2008; Guios-Los Gigantes (Argel), Santiago del Teide, 2008; La Pinta (San Eugenio), Adeje, 2008; Las Galletas (Arona), 2008; Martianez (Puerto de la Cruz), 2008; San Marcos (Icod de los Vinos), 2008; Torviscas (Adeje), 2008; Troya II Americas II (Adeje), 2008.
• First graded in the 2010s (10): La Nea (El Rosario), 2012; Piscinas Naturales de Bajamar (San Cristóbal de La Laguna), 2014; Ajabo (Adeje), 2016; La Enramada (Adeje), 2016; Piscina Natural de Jover (San Cristóbal de La Laguna), 2016; Valleseco (Santa Cruz de Tenerife), 2016; Playa y Calas de la Jaquita (Guía de Isora), 2016; El Bollullo (La Orotava), 2019; El Muelle - Garachico (Garachico), 2019; Piscinas Naturales de el Caleton (Garachico), 2019.
• First graded in the 2020s (1): Valleseco - El Bloque (Santa Cruz de Tenerife), 2025.

9 of these beaches have seasons with no grade at all. A gap is not a bad grade and is not held against a beach here; it does mean the register has nothing on the water for that year. El Bollullo, El Muelle - Garachico, Piscinas Naturales de el Caleton and Valleseco - El Bloque have fewer than 10 seasons on record: in so few years a bad one may simply not have come up.

Natural pools are graded too

5 of the island's points are at natural pools: seawater pools on the rocky shore, which the register grades just like beaches. They are in San Cristóbal de La Laguna and Garachico. None has ever been graded below excellent; their first grades date from 1996, 2014, 2016 and 2019.

Near our 3 places

Our base has 3 places on Tenerife. For each: the beaches in its municipality, and the nearest point below excellent in 2025, in a straight line from the centre our base uses for the place.

• Santa Cruz de Tenerife: 7 points on 4 beaches, all excellent in 2025. The nearest point below excellent is Playa Candelaria, 17 km away.
• Adeje: 11 points on 9 beaches, all excellent in 2025. The nearest point below excellent is Los Cristianos (Arona), 5 km away.
• Puerto de la Cruz: 5 points on 3 beaches, 3 of 5 excellent in 2025. The nearest point below excellent is in the municipality itself: Jardin, 1.2 km.

Each place's beaches, with the distance from the centre, are on its own page: Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Adeje, Puerto de la Cruz.

The sea around Tenerife, month by month

Near our places the sea is almost the same: in no month do they differ by more than 0.2 °C. The water is coldest in March, at 19.4–19.5 °C, and warmest in September, at 24–24.2 °C. It is at 20 °C or warmer 10 months a year; only February and March fall below.

These are 2015–2024 averages from NOAA satellite data. Each figure is a cell a quarter of a degree across, centred 8.7–15.6 km from the place: open water off the island, not a reading at any one beach. Primary source.

The «January» column is how much of the cafés, hotels and shops trade in January against the year's peak, by social security data for 2025. At all three places it is 99–100 %: nothing here shuts for the winter.

All 49 beaches on Tenerife

At the top: beaches graded excellent in 2025 with no season below it, longest record first. «Seasons below excellent» counts the years in which any point on the beach was graded lower.

Further

All our places on the island, with prices, winter and population, are on the Tenerife coast page. Where the island sits relative to Spain and Africa, and how it compares with its neighbours, is in our piece on where the Canary Islands are.

The beaches with the longest excellent record across the country are in our piece on Spain's cleanest beaches; water at every place in our base is in our dataset; the sea by month at every place is in the sea temperature dataset.

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