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10 things I hate about living in Tenerife

Written by on 14 October 2009 | 22 Comments | Top 10's

  1. Flash Harry timeshare reps
  2. Under-staffed banks
  3. Over-staffed banks with under-qualified personnel
  4. Unelco ‘customer services’
  5. Surly shop and bar staff
  6. Cryptic road junctions
  7. Officious public service workers programmed to bark, ‘No!’
  8. Big-headed ex-pats
  9. Suicidal taxi drivers
  10. Boy racers in souped-up Seats

Send in your own Top (or Bottom) 10s to editor@tenerifemagazine.com



This post was written by

has written 3 posts on Tenerife Magazine.
Freelance travel writer and dragon-slayer.

  • http://www.sortedsites.com John Beckley

    What I want to know is why did Telefonica not make the list?

  • http://www.joecawley.co.uk Joe Cawley

    They were number 11

  • http://www.recyclingtheweb.com/ Aaron Smith

    How about

    1. Over priced valued properties
    2. ex-pats who live here for years and don’t speak Spanish
    3. Las Americas

  • http://www.joecawley.co.uk Joe Cawley

    Heck… we’re up to number 14 already! Any more?

  • http://www.etenerife.com Julie Hume

    15. Spanish people telling me I need to learn Spanish when I am trying to speak Spanish.
    16. Spanish people telling me I need to speak Spanish when I am speaking English.

  • Meryl Kew

    Dog mess and barking dogs
    `Abandoning´ the car rather than parking it properly.

  • http://www.raftingbike.com Mauricio Sedo

    Solutions:
    1- Give suicidal taxi drivers and Seat boy racers points for running over Timeshare touts.
    2- Convince big-headed ex-pats to engage Officious public service workers in learned discussion about how many stops should the Tren del Sur have.
    3- Open, in the name of Surly shop and bar staff, accounts in Over-staffed banks with under-qualified personnel and let the word go ’round that there are easy credits for intelligent bar staff who want to become self-employed Empresarios.
    4- Lets get together and open a fund-raising race to pay ourselves a trip to Madrid to speak with the Minister of Fomento about Cryptic road junctions

    5- I still cannot find out what to do with the Unelco man, though!
    Best regards ;-)

  • http://www.colinkirby.com Colin Kirby

    My pet hate is tourists that buy Barcelona or Real Madrid shirts as souvenirs – look at an atlas please.

  • http://www.realtenerifeislanddrives.com Andy Montgomery

    Right up there at number one for me is…drum roll please

    1. People who talk a good game and never deliver – you’re falling over them on this island.

    There. I feel slightly better now…but only slightly.

  • Jo Brown

    What about Mercadona, you can´t even do a grocery shop til after 9.15 am, not good when you drop the kids off at school at 8.30! theres only so much coffee you can drink to kill time!!

  • http://www.joecawley.co.uk Joe Cawley

    Good point Jo. We should petition them… there, that’s two signatures. Any more?

  • John Smith

    Why don´t we make a list for the UK or Germany? Will be a ´bit´ longer…

  • http://www.joecawley.co.uk Joe Cawley

    Ok, John… just for you, see our new things I hate about the UK list. How about you compile one for Germany? Send it to me at writer@joecawley.co.uk

  • Sandra

    Hahaha loving this although I love Tenerife but I’m also one of those people who was living there and spoke English! but hey when I tried speaking Spanish I got the ‘Why don’t you know Spanish yet?! how long are you here blablabla!’ Mercadona is the best but what’s up with EVERYTHING being closed on Sundays…??

  • http://www.joecawley.co.uk Joe Cawley

    Not strictly true, Sandra. There’s a bar in Guia de Isora that opens on Sunday. For a bit. Well, well the owner feels like it.

  • http://www.recyclingtheweb.com Aaron Smith

    not having ikea, leroy merlin and alcampo in the south!!!!!!

  • http://www.recyclingtheweb.com Aaron Smith

    english sunday markets, just full of crap. Can someone tell them to just throw them away please…

  • Marion Alderdice

    Problems with the pavements to catch the unwary ie.

    Dog Mess
    Uneven tiles to help you trip
    Chewing gum
    Drain covers that stick up to catch you out
    Cigarette butts outside shops

  • http://www.wordandmouth.com Dave Thackeray

    I like this. It’s like the reverse of hard sell. The more I hear, the more I feel like heading to Tenerife for another holiday.

    I think it can all be summed up in one word: Unique. That’s why I love Tenerife, fag butts, challenging drain covers and all.

    Surprised noone has mentioned exploding gas cylinders, yet… Just ask JC for more on that. ;-)

    PS – great site. Love it. Will promote it widely as much as I can. Keep up the incredible work.

  • http://www.sortedsites.com John Beckley

    Thanks Dave for your comments and for promoting TenerifeMagazine.com …we need all the help we can get :)

  • http://www.realtenerifeislanddrives.com/ Jack Montgomery

    People who drive at a snail’s pace when negotiating corners and then like Fernando Alonso on the straight, so that you can’t get past them…ever.

  • Chus

    I’ve got a question for you guys: Why do the English girls do not like Spanish people? I have seen it twice this week (me and my friends are on hollydays on Veronicas), and the thing is, English girls have got something against Spanish guys, and I’d like to know waht it is, I’m just curious. Thank you, great website. Regards


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