Carnaval on Tenerife - La Laguna, La Orotava, Los Cristianos & Los Gigantes

Although the Carnaval spotlight tends to fall on Santa Cruz and Puerto de la Cruz, towns all over Tenerife hold Carnavals. Although in some places you’d never know it. La Laguna has just launched a new tourist website and guess what… no mention of their carnaval. The British Guild of Travel Writers who have just held their AGM on the island would be amazed at the number of ‘tricks missed’ when it comes to promoting events on the island. But gripes aside here are the dates for some other carnavals (I’ll add more if I manage to wheedle them out of an informant up a dark back alley – you think I’m joking?)

La Laguna – The theme is ‘rumoured’ to be Triton, King of the Seas and it will take place from the 13th to the 20th February.

Los Gigantes, Santiago del Teide – Another official ayuntamiento website which has overlooked including its carnaval details despite having main tourist resorts in their municipality. However the carnaval is due to take place in Los Gigantes between 26th February and 1st March.

Los Cristianos, Arona – Hat’s off to Arona Ayuntamiento who have included a full list of events on their website (the Spanish version anyway)

The theme is Viva Mexico and carnaval takes place between the 5th (election of the carnaval queen at 20.00 in the cultural centre) and 14th March 2010 (closing parade at 17.00). There are also open air dances on 13th and 14th as well.

La Orotava – God bless La Orotava. Tenerife’s classiest town knows that a website isn’t just for posting a smug looking photo of the mayor’s boat race (that’s ‘face’ - for anyone out there not au fait with Cockney rhyming slang).

With a Circus theme and a gorgeous poster, La Orotava’s carnaval runs from 13th February until 20th February. The highlights are the closing parade (from 16.30 on 16th February), the funeral procession and burning of…no not a giant sardine this time…St Crispin -don’t know what he did to upset the good people of La Orotava (21.00 on 17th February) and the end of carnaval dance (23.00 on the 20th February).

And don't forget to check out our Real Tenerife Carnaval page for tips on how to get the best out of carnaval