A day for lunch on the beach

Although it is about seven kilometers from the city center, Las Teresitas is the most visited beach in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. It has several reasons to be so: it is well connected and parking -that big problem of our days- is free and, almost every month of the year, quite easy. Its more than one kilometer of sand and its calm waters have turned this sandy area not only into a meeting place for families or friends, but also into an authentic open-air pavilion, where hundreds of people come early in the morning to swim, run or ride their bicycles for hours. Las Teresitas, as we see it today, was “born” in the 1970s, when the area was transformed and the characteristic yellow sand of the Sahara was placed. More recently it has undergone other changes that have managed to add reasons to visit this place: one is undoubtedly the renovation of the beach kiosks, which expanded its gastronomic offerings.

People who come to the beach have several places where they can have breakfast, lunch or dinner. The offer is varied in all the kiosks (or ‘beach clubs’, if we use the terminology that predominates today) that are located on the sand of the beach. Its clients emphasize the goodness of the place: fine sand, pleasant temperatures, a clean sky and a crystalline ocean that with simple swimming goggles offers you the possibility, with luck, to see abundant species here and endangered elsewhere, such as angel sharks. It will be easier to do it early or at sunset, but above all, if you see it, do not bother it!…. In short, the place is unbeatable, but we return to the The heart of the matter: what do we have to eat?

With slight variations between them and depending on the season, the beach establishments are open from 10:00 am to 9:00 pm. All of them offer a modern and varied menu with the always popular hamburgers, sandwiches or snacks, which can solve a beach day with ease. But there is also space and a desire to invite the customer to sit down and eat in peace and quiet and it shows in the offer of different types of salads and basic dishes of Spanish cuisine, such as croquettes, meats, gazpachos, almogrotes and, of course, paellas, fresh proposals that we associate with eating a few meters from the sea.

But this international environment does not forget where it is, in the limits of the Anaga Rural Park, a maritime-terrestrial area declared a Biosphere Reserve. And some of the ingredients of the dishes offered at Las Teresitas come from Anaga: potatoes with mojo, one of the most typical dishes of the Canary Islands, served with fresh fish from the area, cheeses from the Anaga massif or the famous almogrote, originally from La Gomera, are some of the island dishes that can be tasted here, in an environment that invites you to eat and stay to enjoy the sunset with a cocktail.