Santa Cruz de Tenerife is the largest of the four municipalities in the Metropolitan Area of Tenerife. It is also home to the capital of the island, the namesake city which, in addition, is the most important port of Tenerife, where all the boats operated by the sea line companies transporting passengers to and from Tenerife haul ashore, making it possible for all tourists accommodated in Santa Cruz to seriously consider island hopping as ideal alternative of spending time in Tenerife. Santa Cruz is also located close to Los Rodeos, which enhances even more the tourist appeal of this municipality.

Santa Cruz is replete with car rental opportunities. Yet, in order to get around in Santa Cruz and, in fact, in the entire Metropolitan Area, tourists should know besides car rental and various mainstream means of transport (buses, taxis), they can also resort to the metropolitan tramway, which covers the distance between Santa Cruz and La Laguna.

Besides its infrastructural importance, Santa Cruz is an ideal destination in terms of nightlife and shopping. The nighttime leisure is yielded by a plethora of bars and clubs, culminating in the presence of Casino de Santa Cruz, whereas shopping is, by far, at its ultimate height in Santa Cruz, with plenty of shopping centers and commercial areas to be explored by people with a penchant for shopping sprees.

There are several notable beaches in Santa Cruz, such as Las Teresitas, El Roque and Las Gaviotas, but tourists should also keep in mind nature attractions are available even in the Metropolitan Area. We speak of the Anaga Rural Park, a huge protected area which, if duly explored, offers even the possibility to stumble upon picturesque traditional villages full of Canarian character.

But whatever might their chief activity be in Santa Cruz, tourists should strive not to overlook the Garcia Sanabria Park, an exquisite combination of nature and art everyone should appreciate for what it really is. Santa Cruz also excels in museums and galleries, with several notable edifices of this kind clustered in the capital of Tenerife. Thus, the impressive Museum of Nature and Man and the Regional Military Museum should be mentioned in this respect, though neither the Municipal Museum of Fine Arts nor the Center of Photography or the Leyendecker Gallery should be overlooked.

In terms of sports, horse riding is available in the nearby municipalities of El Rosario and La Laguna, and tennis and cycling too constitute excellent alternatives of diversifying one’s stay in Santa Cruz. Furthermore, Santa Cruz is an ideal starting point for sailing trips, given its statute of main port of Tenerife.

Rural tourism should also be mentioned as alternative to the mainstream tourism in the surroundings of Santa Cruz, that is, in El Rosario and La Laguna. Two tourist information offices can be spotted in the capital of Tenerife, one in Plaza de Espana and one on Calle Elias Serra Rafols.

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