Tenerife

Tenerife is the striking grande dame in the archipelago family. Attracting over six million visitors a year, the island’s most famous southern resorts offer Brit-infused revelry and clubbing, combined with white sandy beaches and all-inclusive resorts. But get your explorer's hat on and step beyond the tourist spots and you’ll discover an island of extraordinary beauty and diversity, with remote mountain-ridge villages, cultured port settlements and charming ancient towns.

This potpourri of experiences continues with tropical-forest walks and designer-shop struts, dark forays into volcanic lava, a sexy and sultry Carnaval celebration that’s second only to Rio's, and a stash of museums and temples to modern art. But above all else, this is an island of drama, and nothing comes more dramatic than the snow-draped Pico del Teide, Spain’s tallest mountain and home to some of the most fabulous hiking in the whole country.