Choosing Tenerife is the easy part. Deciding what you want your holiday to look like once you arrive can be a little more complicated.
The island can be energetic or wonderfully slow, packed with family adventures or built around long lunches and afternoons overlooking the Atlantic. You can spend your days exploring volcanic landscapes, stay close to the ocean or simply find somewhere that gives you enough reasons not to leave the resort at all.
And that is why where you stay matters.
On Tenerife’s west coast, Landmar Hotels offers two very different interpretations of an island holiday. Landmar Playa La Arena is shaped around the ocean, relaxation and experiences for couples and adults, while Landmar Costa Los Gigantes embraces the energy – and practical realities – of travelling as a family.
Two hotels, one stretch of coastline and two completely different ways to experience Tenerife.
First, choose your Tenerife
Before looking at room categories or restaurant menus, it is worth asking a more useful question: what do you actually want from the trip?
For some travellers, Tenerife means waking up slowly, seeing the Atlantic from the hotel and having nowhere in particular to be. For others, a successful holiday means children having plenty to do, parents being able to relax and the whole family finding spaces and activities they can enjoy together.
That distinction can make searching for hotels in Tenerife considerably easier. Rather than starting with a long list of properties, start with the kind of holiday you want to have.
On the west coast, these two approaches can be found only a short distance apart.
Landmar Playa La Arena: when the ocean sets the pace
At Landmar Playa La Arena, the Atlantic is not simply something you glimpse during the holiday. It is part of the experience.
Located in Puerto de Santiago and close to the black volcanic sands of Playa de la Arena, the hotel has evolved around an Oceanfront concept. Sea views, open-air spaces and the west coast’s sunsets create a setting that naturally suits travellers who want to slow things down.
This is the choice for mornings without an alarm, time by the pool and evenings that can begin with a drink overlooking the ocean rather than another item on the sightseeing list.
The hotel is particularly oriented towards couples and adults, with gastronomy and wellness playing an important role in the stay. Its outdoor wellness area offers another way to switch off, while different dining experiences allow the hotel to become part of the holiday rather than simply somewhere to return to at night.
There is also the Platinum experience for guests aged 16 and over. Exclusive spaces include an infinity pool facing the Atlantic, a VIP lounge and dedicated areas and services that create a more private atmosphere within the hotel.
Playa La Arena makes most sense when the goal is not to see how much can fit into a week, but how much can be enjoyed without rushing through it.
Landmar Costa Los Gigantes: Tenerife through a child’s eyes
A few minutes away, the holiday takes on a completely different character.
Landmar Costa Los Gigantes is designed as a Family Resort, and that distinction matters. Travelling with children changes what you need from a hotel: entertainment has to work for different ages, downtime matters to parents just as much as activities matter to younger guests, and convenience can make the difference between a good family trip and an exhausting one.
Here, pools and water slides are only the beginning. There is a Mini Club for younger guests, a Teens Club for those who have outgrown it and a Multiaventura area for children looking for something more active.
The idea is not that families need to spend every minute together. Quite the opposite. Children can have experiences of their own while parents have room to enjoy the holiday too.
And then there is Landi.
The resort’s character has grown into a wider experience for children, particularly through Landi Village and Landi Town. Families staying in Landi Village gain access to a dedicated world with services designed around travelling with younger guests, from child-friendly amenities to play spaces and practical equipment that means parents can pack a little lighter.
It is a small detail, perhaps, but anyone who has travelled with a baby knows just how much that can matter.
Same island, different holiday
What makes these two hotels interesting is not simply that they cater to different guests. It is that they demonstrate how dramatically the accommodation you choose can shape the same destination.
Stay at Playa La Arena and Tenerife can become about the Atlantic, long afternoons, food and uninterrupted time together. Stay at Costa Los Gigantes and the same coastline becomes the backdrop to water slides, adventures and the sort of holiday memories children will probably describe very differently from their parents.
Neither experience requires staying inside the resort.
The cliffs of Los Gigantes are nearby, Mount Teide provides an obvious reason to head inland, and Tenerife’s volcanic beaches and landscapes make it easy to add days of exploring between slower days at the hotel.
That flexibility is perhaps the point. A Tenerife holiday does not have to follow a standard formula.
Which Tenerife are you looking for?
The best trips often begin by deciding how you want to feel while you are away, rather than how many places you want to tick off a list.
If that means ocean views, quieter moments and time as a couple, Landmar Playa La Arena offers one interpretation of Tenerife’s west coast. If it means watching the children race towards the water slides, finding activities everyone can enjoy and making family life easier for a few days, Landmar Costa Los Gigantes offers another.
The distance between the two is small. The experiences are deliberately different.
And perhaps that is one of Tenerife’s greatest strengths: you do not have to experience the island in the same way as everyone else.
