Tenerife South Airport to Los Gigantes
About 45 km up the west coast; there's no direct airport bus, so it's a change at Las Américas or a taxi/transfer at roughly €55–75.
A small west-coast resort built beneath cliffs that fall 600 metres straight into the Atlantic — a marina for whale-watching boats, dark volcanic beaches and calmer evenings than the south coast strip.
Every way to get there
Our verdict: for Los Gigantes, a private transfer is the easiest door-to-door option (from €60). Travelling light on a budget? The bus is cheapest (from €6.5) but slower, with a change in the city.
What it costs for your group
The bus is charged per person, while a taxi or private transfer is one price for the whole car — so the more of you there are, the better door-to-door value looks.
| Group | Bus (per person) | Private transfer | Best value |
|---|---|---|---|
| Solo · 1 traveller | €6.5 | €60 | Bus |
| Couple · 2 travellers | €13 | €60 | Bus |
| Family of 4 · 4 travellers | €26 | €60 | Bus |
Which option should you choose?
| If your priority is… | Our pick | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Lowest price | Bus | From €6.5, though slower with a change in the city. |
| Speed & comfort | Private transfer | Door-to-door, fixed price, a driver waiting for you. |
| A group of 3–4 | Transfer or taxi | One flat fare splits cheaper than several bus tickets. |
| A late-night arrival | Transfer or taxi | Both run 24/7 when buses and the tram have stopped. |
By transport mode
Bus / shuttle
Cheap but slow — with the wait, budget an hour and three quarters end to end. Reasonable if you're travelling light and the connection lines up; punishing with cases.
Where to catch it: No line runs airport to Los Gigantes directly. You ride the 111 or 450 down to Las Américas or Costa Adeje, then pick up a west-coast service onward.
Best for solo & budget travellersTaxi
Metered and rising on the twisty final section. The night supplement after 22:00 bites harder on a 45-minute run than a 20-minute one.
Where to catch it: Available from the rank; the road out is motorway to Adeje then a winding coastal climb.
Best for small groups in a hurryPrivate transfer
This is the route where pre-booking earns most on Tenerife: the public option needs a connection, the meter is long, and Los Gigantes' streets are steep and confusingly numbered.
Where to catch it: Booked ahead you skip the change-of-bus problem entirely, and the driver already knows which of the cliff-side apartment blocks is which.
Best for families, groups & late arrivalsCar rental
The west coast is where a car pays off: Masca, Garachico and the Teno massif are all within reach and barely served by bus. Parking in the village itself is tight and largely on the street.
Where to catch it: TF-1 to Adeje, then the TF-47 along the coast — the last stretch has serious bends and serious views.
Best for travellers who want to exploreLos Gigantes & Tenerife in photos
Buying tickets in Tenerife
Tenerife has no rail at all, so everything runs on TITSA's green guaguas. Buy a tenmás card for €2 from the machines or the TITSA desk and top it up with any amount: it takes roughly 20% off short hops and up to 30% off long intercity runs such as the airport to Santa Cruz or Puerto de la Cruz, and one card can be tapped for several passengers. Without a card you pay the driver in cash. Airport lines are 111 (Los Cristianos, Playa de las Américas, Costa Adeje), 343 (the express linking both island airports with Puerto de la Cruz), 450, 40, 415 and the 711 night service. The 343 runs to a sparse timetable, so check departures against your landing time rather than assuming a bus will be waiting.
Taxi scams & safety in Tenerife
Spain regulates taxis tightly and Tenerife is a low-risk airport: fares are metered, the rank outside arrivals is marshalled, and drivers are licensed. Take the next car in the queue rather than accepting an approach inside the terminal. Two legitimate charges surprise visitors and are not scams — the supplement after 22:00, and per-item luggage charges — so check the tariff card displayed in the vehicle rather than assuming you are being overcharged. The genuine risk here is car hire: always photograph the vehicle from every angle before leaving the lot, and be wary of counters offering a heavily discounted rate with a large fuel or excess deposit attached. Local firms such as Cicar and Autoreisen quote insurance-inclusive rates and are the safer default.
Getting from TFS to Los Gigantes
Start with the thing the booking sites won't tell you: there is no bus from Tenerife South to Los Gigantes. Not an infrequent one, not a seasonal one — none. Every public-transport route to this village involves riding down to Las Américas or Costa Adeje first and picking up a west-coast service from there, and with the wait that's about an hour and three quarters for a journey a car does in forty-five minutes. Knowing that before you land changes how you plan the day.
What you're heading towards
The cliffs are the point. Los Gigantes takes its name from them — a wall of rock dropping six hundred metres straight into the Atlantic at the island's west corner, best seen from the water, which is why the small marina sends out whale and dolphin boats all year. The village itself is built up the slope behind, terraces of apartments and small hotels on steep, confusingly numbered streets, with a dark volcanic beach at the bottom. Evenings are quieter than the southern strip by some margin, which is the reason a lot of people choose it and the reason a lot of others find it dull.
The change-of-bus route, honestly assessed
You take the 111 or the 450 from outside arrivals down to Las Américas or Adeje, then a west-coast service onward. Total fare comes to about €6.50 to €8.50, which is cheap. Total time, including standing about waiting for the connection, runs to roughly an hour and forty minutes. If you're travelling with a rucksack, unhurried, and arriving mid-morning, that's a perfectly reasonable way to spend eight euros and see some coast. If you have two suitcases, children, or a flight that landed at eleven at night, it is a genuinely bad idea and the honest advice is not to attempt it.
Why the meter climbs on the last twenty minutes
A metered taxi from the rank runs €55 to €75. The route is motorway as far as Adeje and then a winding coastal climb on the TF-47, and it's that second half that moves the number — slower going, more time on the clock, and the night supplement after ten biting harder on a forty-five-minute run than on a twenty-minute one. Drivers do this journey regularly and know the village, so navigation isn't the issue. The issue is simply that you're paying for three quarters of an hour of driving rather than twenty minutes.
This is the Tenerife route where pre-booking earns most
Transfers quote €60 to €80 for the vehicle, roughly level with the upper end of the meter. On most of this island a booked car is a modest convenience. Here it removes an actual problem: the public option needs a connection that may not line up, the taxi is long and priced accordingly, and Los Gigantes' streets are steep enough that being dropped at the wrong terrace means a serious climb. A driver who has the apartment complex on file takes you to the right level of the right block. Give the complex name and, if you have it, the block letter — the numbering here defeats people who live in the village, never mind visitors.
The west coast is where a hire car actually pays
From about €22 a day, and this is the corner of Tenerife that most rewards having one. Masca's gorge village, Garachico, the Teno massif, the coastal road north — all within reach from Los Gigantes and all barely served by bus. If you're basing yourself here for a week, collecting a car at the airport and driving straight over solves the transfer problem and the getting-about problem in one go. Two caveats: the final approach has serious bends, and parking in the village is tight and largely on-street, so a smaller car is the better choice.
To summarise plainly: the bus works only if you're light, patient and arriving in daylight. For everyone else it's a taxi at €55–75, a booked transfer at €60–80, or a hire car that solves the rest of the week at the same time. There's no cheap direct option here, and pretending otherwise is how people end up at a bus stop in Adeje at midnight.
