Tenerife's theme parks and water parks

Siam Park is a water park built around a Thai theme, with a floating market of shops and 19 attractions. The headline ride is the Tower of Power, a 28-metre near-vertical drop that ends in a clear tube through an aquarium of sharks and rays. SP Saifa is a twin-lane water roller coaster 306 metres long, and The Dragon and Kinaree are there for those who want speed.

Younger children have their own areas, Lost City and Sawasdee, and there is a wave pool for everyone. Ten restaurant areas, lockers, towels, sunbeds and changing rooms with showers mean you can stay all day without planning. For more space, private cabins and VIP houses and villas can be booked.

The park is at the top of Costa Adeje, close to the big southern resorts.

Loro Parque is a zoo and marine park with more than 600 species and subspecies and over a million visitors a year. Orca Ocean is its marine area, Lion's Kingdom recreates the African savannah, and Coral Kingdom shows a living reef with immersive screens. The Animal Embassy lets you look into the park's veterinary clinic and learn about the Loro Parque Foundation's conservation work.

The park sits on the edge of Puerto de la Cruz, next to the black-sand beaches of Playa Jardín, so a morning at the zoo and an afternoon by the sea is an easy day.

A combined Twin Ticket covers one visit to Siam Park and one to Loro Parque. It is the simplest way to fit both into a week. From the southern resorts, Loro Parque is the longer trip: allow time on the motorway to Puerto de la Cruz, or pick a ticket that includes transport.

If you are staying in the north, the reverse applies: Siam Park is the day to plan around.

Aqualand in Costa Adeje is a smaller water park with a dolphin show and areas for younger children. Parque Las Águilas Jungle Park in Arona covers 75,000 square metres with more than 400 animals, rope courses and hanging bridges, and makes a gentler half day with younger children.

Forestal Park in the forest above El Rosario has treetop courses and zip lines for children from age 5 and 1.10 metres tall, and it needs booking ahead. Karting Club Tenerife in San Miguel de Abona has a 1,250-metre track and a junior circuit. For a quieter day, the Pirámides de Güímar ethnographic park in the east has gardens, exhibitions and audio guides, with routes adapted for reduced mobility.