Police
Force.
Comprise 3 main groups Policia Local - Guardia Civil -
Policia National. The overlap between their activities is
somewhat blurred. Local Police take care of local
citizens, patrolling beaches, streets, control traffic and
handle minor offences, complaints and lost and found.
National Police man the emergency telephone numbers. When
accidents, fires or robbery occur they send the
appropriate force for the job. Guardia Civil investigate
crimes and are responsible for drug enforcement and
controls, murder investigations etc. The emergency police
telephone number is 091
Radio
Stations
There are several English speaking radio stations, Radio
Oasis101 MHz - Power FM 91.2 MHz- Waves FM 96.8 MHz.
Schools
For an island of this
size, schooling choices are wide. English, German and
Spanish schools predominate. The Spanish State schools are
mostly free, the rest being privately operated. Many
Spanish and German parents prefer to send their children
to the English private schools.
North
Airport.
(Los Rodeos)
Tenerife North airport is used primarily for domestic
flights between Spain and the other Canary islands. Most
Spanish National Airline (Iberia) flights use the North
airport - so if you are visiting and staying in the South
Tenerife, it would generally be advisable to try and
arrange a flight that arrives at the Tenerife South
airport (Reina Sofia).
South
Airport
(Reina Sofia, TFS) By
far the busiest Tenerife airport - Reina Sofia takes most
of the incoming international tourist traffic. It has a
very long main runway and plans for a second runway,
running parallel with the existing runways, have been
agreed.
Port and Marinas
Almost all sea traffic,
mainland and inter-island ferries, cruise ships and cargo
vessels use the island's northern port at Santa Cruz de
Tenerife. Most imports to Tenerife must arrive at these
docks and be cleared by handling agents before
distribution. There are several other smaller ports
distributed round the island - Los Cristianos for example
is used by conventional ferry services between Tenerife
and the nearby island of Gomera. There are a large number
of Marinas all round the coast, from which most of the
privately owned boats and yachts operate.
Guide
to driving and roads
To hire cars in Tenerife, you must be 24 years or more,
with 2 years driving experience. Generally, car hire is
cheap in Tenerife, except for Convertibles, Cabriolet's,
Jeep, etc. If you park illegally and get towed away,
you will probably have the pay the recovery costs and the
towing charges. Many people worry about driving abroad,
however if you follow the rules there is no problem.
Driving is on the right in Tenerife not a problem for most
nationalities, but British drivers should initially take a
little extra care - for them, they will be on 'wrong side
of the road'. All road signs are international. Petrol
stations tend to be on the Motorways rather than in towns.
If you are thinking of bringing your car to Tenerife for
your holiday you are perfectly able to without bothering
to stop at customs. You should keep you ferry tickets to
show the date of entry. If you feel you may stay longer
than you thought you will have to ask the local town hall
to grant you permission to drive you foreign plated car in
the area as a tourist car. If you are intending to bring
your car to Tenerife and get Tenerife plates put on it,
you have two months in which to start this procedure from
the time of entry. You must have all original documents.
This is a very complicated procedure. I advise you to use
someone who will do this for you and charge a modest fee
for their work.
Health, Accidents and Injury
guide
If you are unfortunate enough to become ill on
holiday - go to a Farmacia (Chemist/Pharmacy/Drugstore).
Describe your symptoms and they will prescribe the
appropriate remedy. Antibiotics can be purchased over the
counter, a chemist may prescribe these for you, he will
ask you if you are allergic to anything before he sells
these to you. You can ask the chemist for an alternative.
Most chemists in tourist towns speak several languages. If
you have a more serious problem then you should go to one
of many privately run Centro Medicos, or centro de Salud.
All these centres will have multi-linguist staff and
translators on hand. They are well versed in contacting
you travel insurance company to discuss treatment. For a
list of medical centres in your area see services. If
involved in a road accident and someone is injured an
ambulance will be called, this will come from either,
private medical centre, or Spanish centro de Salud, they
will attend any urgent treatment then transfer injured to
hospital or clinic depending on injury or the closest
available unit, again they are well versed in talking to
your insurance companies. If you have hired a car and are
involved in any road accident, you must always contact
your car hire company and report what has happened. They
will advise you on what to do depending on what has
occurred.
Mail
Will take approximately. 7-14 days to reach mainland
Europe. Stamps can be bought from Post Offices (Correos)
or if purchasing postcards from shop where you purchase
cards. Post boxes are yellow in colour and be found on
many major street corners. Post Offices are open 08.30 -
14.30 Mon-Fri. and 09.30 - 14.00 Sat. If cashing money
orders etc you should attend Post Office at least 1 hour
before closing time.
Telephones.
When phoning home there are several options.
Standard street telephone kiosks, instructions for use are
displayed on telephone. Telefonica booths situated on main
fareways of tourist populated towns. The assistant will
help you and tell you the cost of the calls when you have
done. You may pay by credit card. These booths found in
most central resort locations. Hotel/Resort receptions.
Calling from Hotels can be costly as you will normally be
charged at whatever the hotel's rate is, not at the
national 'Telefonica' rate. The international code from
Tenerife is 07, followed by the country code, (example UK
is 44, USA is 1, etc) and then the area code and number
for the person you are trying to contact. Note that when
phoning the UK, you will need to drop the first 0 of the
area code,. For example, if the normal UK telephone number
you are trying to contact is 01604 675588, then from
Tenerife, you will dial 07 44 1604 675588 From street
payphones, you normally need to insert money before
dialling. Allow a minimum of 400 - 500 pts, (in 100 pts
coins) for calls to countries in Europe, and more for
countries outside the EC. Charge cards can be difficult to
use in Tenerife, you cannot always get an international
operator from payphones.
Fax.
Many offices, travel agencies, etc, will have a fax
service available.
Internet Cafe.
One is available in Los Cristianos, from a local ISP
Newspapers.
All well known international newspapers can
be bought on the island. Also there are many FREE local
publications, both English and German language. Foreign
newspapers and magazines are more expensive than in the
country of origin.
Foreign
Consulate Telephone Numbers
British 00 34 922 286863
German 00 34 922 284812
Finnish 00 34 922 280964
Swedish 00 34 922 277850
Irish 00 34 922 245671
Belgian 00 34 922 241193
Norwegian 00 34 922 287251
