If you can, ditch the hotel transfer. Picking up a car at the airport will probably get you to your accommodation a lot faster.

Go for Autoreisen, which I can recommend personally, or Cicar, which seems a favourite with Trip Advisor members. Reserve in advance online. Both have desks in the airport and the cars are a short walk away.

Now, parking in Los Gigantes can be a challenge, unless your accommodation includes it. If you're prepared to walk for ten to fifteen minutes to your destination, you should find somewhere on the street (i.e. free). There's virtually never any parking anywhere near the marina, so try further inland (= uphill - yes, it's a bit steep).

P.S. I should add, do NOT be tempted by Goldcar with its low headline rates. Trading also as Rhodium, Interrent and Europcar, its reputation is awful; there's been yet more critical articles recently in the UK press.

Edited by FP on 08/08/2019 at 19:27

Thanks for all the helpful comments. We got a VW POLO TSI looks like a 3 cylendar. Seens to have just about enough power. It's a bit sluggish setting off but ok when up to speed (not hugely different to my Mrs ecoboost Ford Focus). Economy seems pretty good on 47 mpge include lots of up and down so far.

Got it at a local place (cicar) via broker (doyoupain) which together gave a good price which included excess so probably not much more than the airport price, and I didn't need to waste 1/2 day getting there.

The roads are good. Potholes free which is a bonus compared to the UK. The main roads are very good. We took the road to the mountain (masca valley) and it was hairpin central! But great fun. The Polo handheld ok.

Overall good fun so far.

Thanks again for all the helpful tips. Our VW Polo was fine and averaged 47 mpg which I thought was pretty good for a petrol and considering the terrain, it is indeed a hilly volcanic island. Car returned with no problems.

The main roads and motorways are very good with a 120kph limit on a lot of it, so around 75 mph similar roads in UK might be 50 mph zones due to junctions being close together but it felt fine to me.

Side roads and B roads are also in good condition, the only speed bumps are for zebra crossing onky. That makes a great and pleasant change fron UK driving. The driving experience is overall a lot more relaxed. Maybe being on holiday is a factor but people seem a lot more relaxed behind the wheel. I had a good time and as a fellow backroomer mentioned the trip to Masca was hilarious, with 1st gear hairpins every 30 seconds or so.

Thanks again for all the advice.