Digital Nomadry and other awesomeness in Tenerife, Canary Islands

Sup y’all?

It’s been a while…

But digital nomad life never stops: here in Tenerife I’ve been cashing huge passive income checks, working on my tan and cleaning piña coladas and sand out of my keyboard.

(Heh heh… checks. As if.)

Anyway, it’s been quite a week down here.

I came for a mastermind group organized by Olly Richards of I Will Teach You a Language. Olly, as well as being a polyglot superhero, also has a good number of language courses available online.

You can check out his stuff with this affiliate link, which might eventually earn me some money, if you buy something: Fluent Spanish Academy.

Anyway, what happened next will blow your mind…

But I’m not gonna talk too much about it.

Suffice it to say, there were bikini competitions, grammar challenges, and the usual shock and awe of a guy who speaks 2.5 languages suddenly being surrounded by people who speak 9.

Soooo…

Digital nomad life in Tenerife… what’s that like?

The reason we were in Tenerife is because the weather is supposedly nicer than other places, and the rent is cheaper.

Our rented villa, actually, was huge.

(Step 1: become a digital nomad. Step 2: ??? Step 3: Retire to an island villa.)

And after 5 days of great food and exciting business breakthroughs, it was suddenly time to go…

Off to the airport. Morena would be arriving soon.

And arrive she did, smiling and chipper as usual.

We got a taxi to our hotel (the villa, presumably, being occupied by a stag party or something by this point) and quickly learned our first lesson about the real island lifestyle: taxi drivers in Tenerife are insane.

“¡Me cago en su puta madre!” screamed ours, as she navigated a roundabout at breakneck speed.

(I wonder what would have happened if she’d had to deal with a traffic light or some such.)

But soon we were at our hotel – here’s another affiliate link: Sol Arona Tenerife.

“¡Qué bonita pareja! Rubio y morena…” she exclaimed, as we walked off.

Anyway, we ended up on the 12th floor, with views of the mountains, the city AND the bay.

After that, it was time to get acquainted with the island of Tenerife…

What to do on Tenerife?

I have to say I didn’t know much about the island before going.

The volcano Teide is apparently huge – the second largest in the world.

(Don’t worry, it probably won’t erupt while you’re there.)

Other than that, Morena and I were surprised to find it full of British and German tourists – mostly in their “later years”.

I had heard about parts of Spain where Spanish people felt excluded: there are so many Brits on some parts of the coast, for example, that you can’t even speak Spanish in restaurants. But as a digital nomad I thought I was at home anywhere.

Not in Tenerife!

I was soon confronted by the fact that many people on the island didn’t speak either English or Spanish at a high level. Most speak some of both – and presumably some German, French, and Italian also. But the south of the island seems to be a place with abundant tourism, a large “expat” community, and not much local population.

Oh well.

Nice beaches, anyway.

Lots of sun.

Warmer than most places in Europe, I guess (not the week I was there, though).

Pros and cons of being a digital nomad in Tenerife

So…

What are the pros and cons of being a digital nomad in Tenerife?

I’m glad you asked.

First off, a con: the wifi was sort of spotty.

Also: public transportation could be better.

And finally: I’ve never eaten so much British food! I’ve done the digital nomad thing in London, and I’m pretty sure that even that involved only one or two actual British meals.

In Tenerife, Morena and I had three consecutive British meals – the best one being at Empire Modern British Restaurant and Steakhouse (with Morena, for some reason, being less than excited about the name “Empire”).

The pros: the day we went by car to the mountains was awesome!

OMG.

And San Cristobal de la Laguna, a city towards the north of the island, was pretty awesome too.

Another pro: live music everywhere (in Los Cristianos at least). If you’ve ever wanted to hear someone with a very basic level of English sing “Strangers in the Night” you can go to Garibaldi Restaurant. It’s expensive, but pretty good – no discount if you’re under 90.

Otherwise, I’m not sure what to tell you.

The south of Tenerife was filled with German and British tourists, all of whom seemed to be over 60. If you want to see the beach and be near a lot of exciting young people, I feel like you’d be better off in a bigger city like Barcelona or Valencia. Or on one of the other islands… maybe Ibiza?

And if you don’t care about the beach, well, Madrid’s the place for you.

It’s awesome.

(Ask me how I know.)

Anyway, I hope you’ve enjoyed this short travelogue.

More soon.

Beans on toastily yours,

Mr Chorizo (AKA Mr Sausage).

P.S. I’ve done some digital nomad articles from other places too. Check out, for example, my adventures in Gran Canaria. And if you want, here’s my article about why you probably DON’T want to be a digital nomad. Have fun!

P.P.S. I recently did another post about a sort of similar event in Berlin. Check out my report on the Language Influencer Summit for more.