The resort of Los Cristianos was once little more than a small residential fishing village in the municipal district of Arona on the south west coast of Tenerife.

However, the last 40 years of continued all year round tourism, has seen the village grow, along with nearby resort of Playa de las Americas, into what has now become the largest tourist development on the island.

However, despite this rapid growth to satisfy the insatiable demand for tourist beds in the town, Los Cristianos has still to this day managed to retain a strong sense of its Canarian heritage, with many locals still choosing to live here.

Having flown into the Reina Sofia International Airport, which is some 15km away to the east, on many occasions, the harbour at Los Cristianos has always been the first recognisable resort on the final approach before landing.

Making the short journey into the resort is fairly painless, once you have collected your luggage and cleared customs that it. The main Tenerife motorway, the TF-1, takes you to within almost walking distance of the resort centre, and normally it should take no more than around 20 - 30 minutes to complete the journey.

Having said that, for those visitors who choose to pay the additional cost for a tour operators coach transfer, although after 30 minutes you will certainly be "somewhere" in Los Cristianos, the final transfer time may be somewhere in the region of 1 hour before you actually arrive at your chosen accommodation.

For most people visiting the resort for the first time, this unscheduled tour of the town isn't really an issue, as it gives them an early opportunity to get their bearings, along with a general feeling as to what the area has to offer visitors.

If however, you have been to Los Cristianos before, and feel that after already spending the last 7 hours or so either sitting in an airport departure lounge, or cramped Boeing 747, you now wish to take the most direct route to your chosen accommodation, there is always a multitude of taxis waiting outside of the arrivals hall.

Although these taxis do all operate on a fixed price basis, this "fixed price" can, and often does, vary slightly depending upon the number of suitcases, the time of day or night of the journey, and of course the number of passengers carried, however, as a very general guide the journey should normally cost somewhere in the region of 20 euro.

Whatever method of transport you finally decide upon for this transfer, and as with the other resorts on the island, we have put together the basic directions for this journey, complete with links to maps where appropriate, and this is available from the Route Map link on the left hand frame of this page.

Your first impressions of Los Cristianos will very much depend upon the route that the driver takes for the final few kilometres from the motorway exit into the resort. If this route passes through the Oasis del Sur district, as you have just discovered, this is the most recent area of the resort to be developed, and is a combination of both modern residential and holiday homes.

However, unless they have to stop here, most coach drivers do actually still seem to prefer to take the traditional "old road", which takes you directly into the centre of the resort. Whatever the route, I will almost guarantee that you fail to recognise that the mountain overlooking the town is in fact a now long extinct volcano.

Once you have settled into your accommodation, and have had the opportunity to explore the resort beyond the confines of the hotel grounds, you will very quickly come to realise that the focal point of Los Cristianos is undoubtedly the pedestrianised area around the harbour.

It is from this harbour that traditional Canarian fishing boats weave in and out of large ferries and jet foils who are making their regular trips over to the nearby island of La Gomera, which is approximately 1 hour away, along with numerous other boats catering for the tourist market by offering trips to see the whale and dolphins colonies that live in the deep waters between the two islands.

These independent trips represent superb value for money, when compared to those being offered by the large tour operators, in addition to which you will be guaranteed to be also offered either a free child place along with a free trip the following day if you fail to see anything.

A wide traffic free promenade runs along the full length of the resort starting at the eastern end of the bay adjacent to the Hotel Arona Gran, and continues for several miles right into the heart of Playa de las Americas, through the Costa Adeje, district, and for the keen walker, ultimately on to the resort of La Caleta in the west.

Walking along any section of the promenade you will undoubtedly encounter numerous street traders selling "genuine" designer T shirts and Rolex watches for less than the price of a cup of tea, as well as the highly organised "find the lady" card games. These games are illegal and you WILL loose your money very quickly.

The minimum stake is usually around £20. Be warned, these people all operate in groups of between 6 - 8, excluding the lookouts, and the only ones winning will be part of the group. These people will never force you to get involved, and you will not feel threatened by their game as long as you ignore them.

For most, if not all visitors to the resort, it is now impossible to determine where Los Cristianos actually ends and Playa de las Americas begins. Technically the diving point is a small gorge or "barranco", somewhere in the San Telmo area, between the Playa de las Vistas and the Compostela Beach, although I seriously doubt if anyone other than some bureaucrat in the Arona municipal council actually cares.

Compared to Playa de las Americas, the nightlife in Los Cristianos could never really be described as being rowdy, although the resort does have a couple of late night discos. This is also reflected in the fact that the town is generally more popular with families with young children and older couples, than the party all night 18 - 30's crowd.