Surf camps in Tenerife

Tenerife surfs in the south-west, at Playa de las Américas, and almost nobody sleeps there. The camps are up the hill and in the neighbouring towns, and a van does the fifteen minutes to the water, at whatever hour the tide sets. The beach has reef around it: schools work it on the small days, and that is where you will learn, with an instructor beside you. In January, its best month, expect three properly clean days in a week. Since the surf is the same for nearly all of them, pick the house.

On the Costa Adeje there are three addresses a few minutes apart. Endless Summer, in San Eugenio, is a real hostel: curtained dorm bunks, divers and backpackers passing through, no meals, and the cheapest five-lesson week on the island, from €360 in the low season and €455 in winter. Surf Life is a school that puts its students up at La Tortuga hostel in Fañabé, two villas with a pool, six students at most per instructor and a barbecue every Wednesday, from €449 each in a double room. Vibes Surfhouse, also in Fañabé, is a house for eight guests at most, with a host who organises everything, breakfast and group dinners, €520 for a winter week in a dorm; it closes from mid-June to mid-August. If you are travelling alone and want someone to take charge, this is the one.

Three houses sit outside town. Twin Fin is a finca in the hills of Adeje, at Tijoco Bajo: a pool facing the sea, as much yoga as surf, a dorm, private rooms or a glamping tent, breakfast, €539 for the week in a dorm. There is no bar within walking distance, and evenings stay on the hill. Blackstone, at Marazul near Callao Salvaje, is the villa of a school that has taught at Las Américas since 2009: a garden and a pool facing La Gomera, the morning shuttle, two lessons a day on the full package and lunch on the seafront in between. You pay by the night, from €75 in a shared room with one lesson a day, three nights minimum. Single Fin is a hostel in Las Galletas, the fishing village at the southern tip, halfway between Las Américas and El Médano: the school picks the beach that suits your level each morning, breakfast is included, and a week of five lessons in a four-bed dorm costs €499.

The last two sell the week without the surf. WAVE CULTURE runs a white house in La Mareta, five minutes from El Médano on the kitesurfing coast: a garden, a roof terrace, breakfast and three yoga classes, from €385 in a dorm, then €250 for five days of lessons. There is no shuttle, so you need a car. PURE is the only camp in the north, a villa with a pool and a sea view in Tacoronte, on the coast that takes the trade wind and the winter swell. The week starts at €469, and five days of lessons add €399. It suits someone who already surfs and would rather have a villa than a resort.

The season is winter. The south coast stays clean in the mornings while the exposed islands are blown out, and the water drops to 18 °C in February and climbs back to 23 °C from August to October. In summer La Izquierda is flat most days and the schools make do with the beach's small waves. Tenerife keeps its reefs for surfers who already stand up: a first week here works well, as long as you accept it happens in the whitewater.