Costa del Silencio is the low-rise, low-key end of south Tenerife: single-storey bungalow complexes, a rocky coast of small coves rather than sand, and an average age that is noticeably higher than in Playa de las Américas twenty minutes up the road. The name means "coast of silence", which is a slight exaggeration but points in the right direction. There are no nightclubs, no strip, and very little that happens after about eleven.
It sits at the southern tip of the island in the municipality of Arona, between the fishing harbour of Las Galletas to the west and the empty coast towards the airport to the east. Most of it was built from the 1960s onwards as one of the first tourist developments in the south — whitewashed bungalows around communal pools, laid out flat, with almost nothing above three floors. That original low-rise plan is why it still feels calm fifty years later.
Who it suits is easy to describe. Long-stay winter visitors, couples who want a pool and a sunlounger and a quiet dinner, walkers and cyclists who want a cheap base with the whole south within reach, and anyone who has done the resort strip once and does not want to do it again. Who it does not suit is equally clear: anyone under thirty looking for a night out, and anyone who measures a holiday in sand.
The coast: coves, not beaches
Be clear about this before you book. Costa del Silencio does not have a proper beach. What it has is a rocky, low volcanic shoreline broken by a handful of small coves — some sand and shingle, some pure boulder — with sea pools where the rock allows, ladders in a few places, and a coastal path running along the top of it.
On a calm day the swimming is good and the water is clear, because there is no sand shelf to cloud it. On a windy one, and the south-east of Tenerife gets the trade wind, it is not swimming weather at all. Several of the apartment complexes have large pools, which is what most residents actually use. If you want sand, the engineered crescent of Playa de las Vistas at Los Cristianos is a fifteen-minute drive or a short bus ride, and it is one of the best swimming beaches on the island.
Montaña Amarilla, the yellow volcano
The single most interesting thing here, and the reason to stay an extra hour, is the small mountain at the western edge of the resort. Montaña Amarilla — the Yellow Mountain — is a protected natural monument: a cone of pale ochre-yellow rock sitting directly on the sea, with a cliff face honeycombed into pockets and hollows by wind and salt, looking more like weathered sandstone than anything volcanic.
The colour and the texture come from how it formed. This was a hydromagmatic eruption — rising magma meeting seawater, flashing it to steam and blowing out fine fragmented ash rather than flowing lava. That ash consolidated into a soft pale tuff, quite unlike the hard black basalt along the rest of this coast, and the sea has been carving it ever since. There is a small beach at its foot and a path around and over it, taking maybe half an hour, with a view along the coast to Montaña Roja at El Médano — its red-brown cousin, formed the same way.
The rock is soft and it crumbles. Stay on the marked paths, keep back from the cliff edge, and do not climb on the honeycombed faces — they break under weight, and the monument is protected precisely because it is fragile.
What there is to do
Honestly, not a great deal within walking distance, and that is the point. There is a run of supermarkets, a few small commercial centres with bars and restaurants, a couple of pharmacies and a weekly market. The coastal promenade is the main daily activity — a flat, easy walk west towards Las Galletas, which takes twenty minutes or so and delivers you to a working fishing harbour with far better fish restaurants than anything in the resort itself.
Beyond that, you are using a car or a bus. The whole of south Tenerife is within half an hour: whale and dolphin boats from Los Cristianos, Siam Park in Costa Adeje, the Barranco del Infierno gorge above Adeje, and the long climb into the national park for Teide. The TITSA network is genuinely good along this coast, with frequent services to Los Cristianos and the airport, and the travel card makes it cheap.
Diving and the sea
The rocky shoreline that spoils the sunbathing is excellent for what goes on underneath it. This stretch of coast, and particularly the water off Las Galletas and around Montaña Amarilla, is a long-established diving area with volcanic arches, ledges, rays and the occasional angel shark, and several schools operate out of the harbour next door. Visibility is generally good and the sites are close inshore, which means short boat rides.
Snorkelling from the coves is worthwhile on a flat day. Bring reef shoes: everything here is sharp volcanic rock and the entries are over stone.
Costa del Silencio versus Los Cristianos
This is the comparison that matters, because the two are close together and are often shortlisted against each other. The honest version:
| Costa del Silencio | Los Cristianos | |
|---|---|---|
| Beach | Rocky coves, sea pools, no real sand | Two large sheltered sand beaches |
| Evenings | Quiet; a handful of bars, most winding down early | Busy promenade, wide choice, live music |
| Getting about | Car or bus for almost everything | Walkable; ferry port and bus hub on the doorstep |
| Feel | Residential, low-rise, long-stay | A real town that is also a resort |
| Typical cost | Lower, especially for self-catering by the week | Higher, with more choice at every level |
Los Cristianos is the better all-round base for a one-week holiday, and it is where we would send a first-timer. Costa del Silencio wins on price, on calm and on parking, and it is the better choice for a month in February. If you want the comparison across the whole island, our guide to where to stay on Tenerife lays the resorts out side by side.
The aircraft, and the name
Now the honest caveat. Tenerife South airport is a short distance east along the same coast, and depending on the runway in use and the wind, arriving aircraft pass over or near this stretch of shoreline. It is nothing like living under a flight path at a major hub — the airport is busy in waves around the charter arrival banks rather than continuously, and it is quiet overnight — but on a given afternoon you will hear and see aeroplanes, and a resort called the Coast of Silence naming itself that is an easy target for reviewers.
The upside of the same geography is real: transfers here are among the shortest on the island, often fifteen to twenty minutes, so you are by the pool while people bound for Costa Adeje are still on the coach. Our page on Tenerife South transfers covers the options and the typical journey times.
One thing to be careful about
This part of south Tenerife has a long history with timeshare and holiday club selling, and while the industry is far smaller and better regulated than it was in the 1990s, the approach still happens around commercial centres and outside supermarkets — a scratchcard, a prize, a free excursion, an invitation to a short presentation that turns out not to be short.
The rule is simple and it costs you nothing: do not accept the lift, do not sign anything on the day, and remember that Spanish law gives you cancellation rights that a high-pressure room is designed to make you forget. Our careful guide to timeshare in the Canaries sets out what the law actually says, including the rules on deposits.
Practical notes
- Almost all accommodation here is self-catering apartments and bungalows rather than hotels, and a good deal of it is let privately by the week or month.
- Supermarkets are well stocked and cheaper than the resort strip; the weekly market is the place for fruit and vegetables.
- Parking is free and easy, which is not true of Los Cristianos or Costa Adeje.
- It is flat, which matters more than people expect if anyone in the party has limited mobility — see the Canaries for older travellers.
- There are British and Irish bars here, but fewer than in the big resorts; our page on British and Irish food on the islands says where the concentrations are.
So, is it right for you?
Costa del Silencio is a good deal rather than a destination. You come for a cheap, warm, flat, quiet base with a pool, twenty minutes from the airport and half an hour from everything in the south, and you accept that the sea is rocky and the evenings are mild. Plenty of people come back to the same complex every winter for a decade, which is the strongest recommendation any resort can have.
If quiet is genuinely your priority rather than convenience, be aware that other islands do it better — our comparison of the quietest Canary Island makes the case for going further west. But for the south of Tenerife, at this price, with the Yellow Mountain at one end and a fishing harbour at the other, it holds up.