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tropikey
31-12-2012, 11:10
Hello,

this's my first post here, so I would like to say "Hi!" to everyone here :hello:

We're coming to Tenerife in February. It'll be our second visit to this island, but for the first time we'll spend holiday here during the Carnival. Unfortunately (from the Carnival point of view), our accommodation is in Puerto de Santiago, which is quite away from main events. Could you answer couple of questions regarding coming to Santa Cruz in this specific time of the year? Not all of them are transport related, but I don't want to create second thread in other part of forum.

My first question is, where to park car after arrival to Santa Cruz or its outskirts? I assume that there're crowds of people coming to Santa Cruz to watch Carnival events and many of them go there by car, so it might be hard to find parking areas, particularly in the center of city? Therefore, isn't it better to leave a car somewhere outside the city, close to bus stop and to reach the center with public transport? Could you suggest any such place to park the car? Alternatively, are there any special parking areas organised only for the Carnival period?

The second thing is choosing the best area of the city to watch parades. concerts or fireworks. What are your favourite spots in Santa Cruz during Carnival?

Considering the distance from Puerto de Santiago to Santa Cruz, I think we'll have to choose maximum 2 or 3 days, when we'll come to Santa Cruz. Which of the Carnival days are the most spectacular?

The last question regards Puerto de Santiago. Do you know, if any Carnival events are available there too?

I'll be grateful for your help.

Best regards, Bartek

junglejim
31-12-2012, 12:31
Welcome to Forum !
The access to Santa Cruz will be via motorway into City centre , there are plenty of parking places but they may be very busy .
I normally go by bus from Las Americas . cost is about €6 each journey with BONO Card , that takes you right into centre at front where main Parade walks by .
Depending on which day you go the first Parade can be seen on 8th February up at Plaza Weyler in the evening , the final Parade 12th February is during the day and is best seen on the main dual carriageway in front of the port starting at about 16:30 .
In the old part of town there are many presentations during the day in some of the parks and the fairground and fireworks are on the seafront just along from Bus Station .
The buses are very busy on way back - beware of pickpockets during the crushing!

http://www.todotenerife.es/en/article/show/3176/carnaval-2012-santa-cruz

http://www.carnavaltenerife.es/

http://www.facebook.com/carnaval.scdetenerife?ref=ts&fref=ts

All the competitions can be seen on Spanish Canarias TV as well as the final Parade .
There will be others who will add info! Enjoy !

tropikey
01-01-2013, 20:19
thanks a lot for quick response and helpful links :-)

As we arrive to Tenerife on the 12th and go back on the 26th of February, there's a lot of events which fit our calendar. Unfortunately, we arrive there at 1.30 p.m. and first thing we'd like to do will be going straight to hotel, so I don't think we'll be able to see the main parade on this day. However, there're still other interesting points in Carnival schedule to choose from.

I'll consider the bus from Playa de las Americas to Santa Cruz, however I think we'll use our car, particularly that we're a group of three and cost of 3 return tickets will be much higher than cost of fuel.

As regards place to leave the car, I wonder if it's good idea to go to one of commercial centers just before Santa Cruz, for example the one with Media Markt, to park the car there and to use public transport to reach the center of the city?
The other idea is to go as close to the city center as possible, leave my wife and daughter there and then to search for parking lot. If I'm lucky, I might find it somewhere close to city center, for example at TITSA interchange parking or on big parking close to Auditorio. What do you think about it? At what time should we come to Santa Cruz in order to find such parking place?

Best regards, Bartek