Santa Cruz de Tenerife Visitor/New Resident Notes/Tips

So, you’ve likely decided to either visit or pulled the trigger on moving to Santa Cruz de Tenerife, awesome! Before you travel or move to Santa Cruz de Tenerife, I figured it would be good for me to share more ideas than what I listed in previous blogs. These tips or notes are just sort of things to know whilst venturing around Santa Cruz de Tenerife as a tourist or an outsider.

I’d consider myself to be an outsider as I wasn’t born in Santa Cruz de Tenerife and I haven’t lived here for multiple years, but I’m lucky enough to have moved past the tourist stage when seeking to become a true local as I have been here for almost 8 months now. Just to clarify, while I say I’m not a tourist, that is really my opinion and I’m grateful to be here and just because I say that I’m not a tourist anymore, that doesn’t mean that I think there’s nothing new left for me to experience, I’m sure that even locals get to have great experiences every day as it seems there is always something fun going on in the city. Anyways, later, if I think of more important information or important points, I’ll return to this blog to update it.

1.) Crosswalks and Road Signs

This is an extremely important topic to understand when visiting Europe, and specifically Santa Cruz de Tenerife because the road signs are different in multiple ways from America. Examples of this include speed signs and crosswalk signs.

Unlike places that I’ve visited in America, Santa Cruz de Tenerife has a few crosswalk signs in busy areas with an image of a green walking stick figure man and the seconds when it is okay to cross (In America a lot of times the stick figure man on the sign stands still, instead of walking). Also, instead of a red hand, like we have in America, there is a red stick figure when it isn’t safe to cross and seconds counting down until it is safe.

Now that that element of this topic has been discussed, it is time to move on to my next important note about road signs, which if you have only lived in America, is understanding the conversion between miles per hour and kilometers per hour. Currently, I don’t have a vehicle here, (I use the public transportation, which are buses and the metro), but for people who travel here and decide to rent cars, this is just something to think about. I mean, I’m sure most cars here have a speedometer with kilometers per hour, but maybe some vehicles have miles per hour if they were sent on a boat to Santa Cruz de Tenerife from America.

2.) Tortillas

Tortillas in Spain are different than what you might be used to in North America and other parts of the world. In Spain, a tortilla is basically an omelet or egg casserole, often just with onions and potatoes inside, but other ingredients may be used as well, so if you see an item just listed as being a tortilla on a restaurant menu, this is what it means. However, if you go to a restaurant with Mexican cuisine in Spain, you can still get food with flour or corn tortillas.

3.) Expiration Dates/Food Storage

This next point is a small point, but it is just something interesting that I thought I’d mention if you go grocery shopping while you are in Santa Cruz de Tenerife. Anyways, some types of fruit juices and milk aren’t refrigerated, but they are good in terms of quality/safe to consume (Don’t worry, hahaha) because the products don’t expire fast (The expiration dates are still listed as being months or weeks in the future, typically the products have Best-By dates) Maybe this is because the food is prepared differently. However, it’s likely not overly processed food because almost everything here is healthy, but I haven’t really done extensive research on this topic of why certain products are left on the shelves in the open-air of the stores, instead of the refrigerator.

4.) Terms/Phrases of Recognition/Reference/Endearment/Greeting

“Mi Niño/Mi Niña” - This phrase literally means, “My boy”/“My girl”. The reason I bring this up is because when in conversation with someone, (Typically when that person is older than you), it’s not someone saying or implying that they think you’re immature or a child if you are a man/woman/general adult. This phrase is often just a casual greeting, which, as I mentioned already, is reserved for actually young or younger-looking men/women/adults in Spanish-speaking countries. Even though I sort of have been repeating myself, this phrase is never really used in a negative context from what I’ve observed and experienced while hanging out with locals and being part of discussions they have, so there’s no need to be angry/get offended if you are called/referred to/addressed with this phrase.

5.) Clothing (Returns and What to Consider While Shopping for Yourself or Buying Gifts for Your Friends)

When shopping in Santa Cruz de Tenerife for shirts, jackets, shoes, sweaters, and sweatpants, it is important to consider sizing. In Santa Cruz de Tenerife, you will see size differences listed on the products in terms of the number, and there will be measurement conversions listed for different regions of the world for shoes, which is super helpful and similar to what happens in America.

However, in Santa Cruz de Tenerife, not always, but often, if you normally wear a medium-sized t-shirt, you wear a small-sized t-shirt here, for example. What I mean by this is that, in America, when you buy a shirt in whatever size fits you, it works out great, but here, if you are buying clothes, the shirt size that you normally wear in America might be a little bit larger, meaning that one size lower here than what you normally wear fits good as well in some cases. This isn’t a bad thing, and it isn’t something that I dislike here, I don’t have a problem with it, this notion is just something to keep in mind if you end up needing clothes here.

Another thing to note is that return policies for a good amount of the clothing stores is 15 days, so you have plenty of time to decide when to go back to the store to return clothes (You’ll need your receipts, of course) that you’ve purchased if you try them on and the clothes don’t fit or aren’t your usual style after you’ve left the store. I’ve never needed to do this, but this is just something to think about in case you find yourself in the situation of needing to return clothes.

Thank you for reading this blog! I’m excited to share the next one soon :)