10 Best Museums in Tenerife

Tenerife’s museums offer an engaging account of the island’s history. Through the temporary and permanent exhibitions at each of these venues, you can discover the major contributions this land and its people have made to the human, artistic, social, architectural and scientific spheres, amongst others.

Indeed, there are a large number of museums on the island, and visiting them is certainly one of the best things to do in Tenerife. For example, you can visit the Museum of Nature and Archaeology to discover Guanche artefacts, the Canary Islands Military History Museum to learn all about military history, or the Casa de los Balcones Museum, where you’ll travel back in time to discover the domestic customs of Canarian families.

The Museum of Nature and Archaeology is housed in an old neoclassical building dating from the 18th century.

There you’ll be able to enjoy fascinating Guanche artefacts that shed light on the island’s indigenous culture. You’ll also learn about the region’s natural wealth.

Archaeological Area

In this part of the tour, you can learn about the indigenous Guanches, who inhabited Tenerife before the European conquest. To do so, you can visit the following exhibitions:

• Biological anthropology: this section contains valuable archaeological finds, such as the Guanche mummy, dating from between the 11th and 13th centuries. You will also find funerary objects, bowls, instruments and other Guanche artefacts.
• Educational Classroom: this area hosts a series of educational activities focused on the island’s culture. It is the ideal place if you are visiting Tenerife with children.
• Gallery: through various images, you will learn about the aspects that shaped the identity of the Guanches and how this influenced new civilisations.

Nature Area

In this room you will find an extensive natural history collection that bears witness to the changes the island has undergone over the centuries:

• Botanical specimens.
• Mineral specimens, including some amethyst quartz, silica crystals and a range of rocks, including some moonstones.
• Recreations of fossil sites featuring tropical marine fauna. Also, terrestrial vertebrates and invertebrates.

Points of interest

• Price: the average admission price is €5 per person.
• Opening hours: Monday to Saturday (9.00 am to 7.00 pm) and Sundays (10.00 am to 5.00 pm).
• Where: Museum of Nature and Archaeology. Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

If you want to make the most of your 3-day visit to Tenerife and learn about the evolution of the islands’ military history, you must visit the city’s Military History Museum.

During the tour, you will discover the collection chronologically as you move through the galleries: Conquest of the Canary Islands, Fortifications and Militias, Gutiérrez’s Victory over Nelson, the Civil War, and Spanish Economic Command and West Africa.

In these rooms, you will see models showing what the island used to look like, maps detailing war strategies, bladed weapons, collections of flags, cartography, telemetry, artillery, and measuring and calibration instruments.

Meanwhile, in the museum’s garden area, you will see heavy equipment such as the so-called Hercules Cannon, coastal gunboats and a series of historic vehicles, amongst other things. Furthermore, from the top you can enjoy a privileged view of the coastline and the city’s port.

Useful information

• Price: free admission.
• Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday (9.00 am to 3.00 pm), Saturdays and Sundays (10.00 am to 2.00 pm).
• Where: Canary Islands Military History Museum, Almeyda Barracks.

One of the best things to do in Tenerife is a visit to the La Casa de Los Balcones house-museum. It is an old family home built in 1632 and now converted into a museum.

There you’ll find an exhibition explaining the domestic customs of Canarian families through a series of antiques on display in its rooms.

Upon arriving at this three-storey colonial house, you will feel as though you have been transported back in time. You will immediately notice its façade, featuring a central stone window and, above it, a total of nine windows framed in sgraffito wood (an ornamental technique). You will also see a continuous balcony, characteristic of the island’s traditional architecture.

Once inside the house-museum, you’ll have the option to dress in period costume and experience the tour in a different way, allowing you to observe:

• The everyday objects of the house’s former owners: furniture, beds, artefacts, art, and more.
• The inner courtyard, which offers a peaceful, natural atmosphere, surrounded by palm trees and a beautiful blue sky, where you can relax.
• The visitor shop, where you can buy handicrafts or typical island products.

Useful information

• Price: €5 per person.
• Opening hours: Monday to Friday (8.30 am to 6.00 pm).
• Where: La Casa de Los Balcones Museum, Calle San Francisco.

If you’re planning to spend four days in Tenerife , you’ll have plenty of time to visit the Casa Chacona Museum, where you’ll learn a little about societies of times gone by.

The museum is located within the Güímar Pyramids Park. It is housed in a 19th-century building, open daily from 9.30 am to 6.00 pm.

Upon entering the museum, the first thing you will see is an impressive recreation of the statue of the pre-Inca sun god (Kon Tiki). Next, you will find several rooms:

• Engravings and sculptures, which will reveal some of the gods belonging to the cultures of Mexico and Peru.
• Cultural artefacts, found on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean, which serve to illustrate the theory of the Norwegian anthropologist Thor Heyerdahl regarding cultural parallels.
• Reed boats, crafted by the Mesopotamian and Egyptian civilisations, as well as others built by the indigenous peoples of Bolivia and Peru. You will also see some maps indicating other places where these legendary vessels were used.
• A photographic collection showcasing a large number of stepped structures (pyramids) discovered around the world.

Points of interest

• Price: from €18 per person.
• Opening hours: Monday to Sunday (9.30 am to 6.00 pm).
• Where: Casa Chacona Museum, Güimar Pyramids Ethnographic Park.

Another destination to add to your itinerary is the Sacred Museum “El Tesoro de la Concepción”, where you’ll find important collections of artworks and textiles dating from the 16th century to the present day.

During your visit, you’ll explore a total of seven rooms, which house a historical collection spanning over 500 years:

• A textile art collection, where you can admire a series of ecclesiastical vestments.
• Over a thousand works of art, comprising sculptures, paintings and furniture.
• Religious art objects, including chalices and a Gothic-Manueline monstrance from 1520, considered a treasure of great historical and cultural value. You will also see the imposing filigree cross (2.45 metres high), crafted from solid silver by Jerónimo de Espellosa in Cuba during the 17th century.

The museum is usually open until 1.30 pm, so once your visit is over you’ll have plenty of time for other activities, such as sailing around Tenerife to admire the seascape, visiting one of the theme parks, exploring the historic centre at your own pace, and so on.

Useful information

• Price: from €4 per person.
• Opening hours: Monday to Friday (9.00 am to 1.30 pm).
• Where: Museo Sacro. La Orotava, Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

In the galleries of Tenerife’s Municipal Museum of Fine Arts, you’ll find paintings, sculptures and decorative arts.

All of these are artworks dating from the 16th to the 19th centuries. You’ll see important works by renowned Canarian artists and those of the Flemish school.

On the first floor of the building, you will find a space dedicated to the storage of sculptures and paintings. You will also find the research and restoration workshop, where the value of each of the collections is studied.

Furthermore, on the second floor , you will be able to view an extensive collection of paintings, organised chronologically:

• 17th-century Flemish paintings, which highlight the relationship that existed during that period of history between the Canary Islands and the ports of Flanders.
• 17th- and 18th-century Canarian Baroque paintings, in which religion is the central theme.
• 19th-century paintings, including illustrations and portraits.
• 19th-century historicist paintings, depicting Christian historical events of the period.
• 19th-century Canarian landscape painting, featuring a series of works that showcase the island’s natural beauty from different perspectives.

Points of interest

• Price: free admission.
• Opening hours: Tuesday to Friday (10.00–20.00), Saturday and Sunday (10.00–15.00).
• Where: Municipal Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

With so many cultural attractions on the island, you might not know what to do during your 5-day stay in Tenerife. If this is the case, a good option is the Museum of Science and the Cosmos. There, you’ll learn whilst having fun interacting in each of the galleries.

During the tour, you’ll notice that this museum breaks away from convention, as its rooms don’t feature exhibitions of particularly valuable artefacts. Instead, you’ll find a series of interactive displays with objects and brief explanations, which will help you discover science for yourself:

• The Sun: you’ll understand the importance of the sun for life on Earth.
• The human body: you will learn about cells, the senses, embryonic development, etc.
• How it works: you will learn how certain devices work and the principles behind some scientific phenomena.
• The Earth: you will discover the constant changes experienced by the Earth and the atmosphere.
• The Universe: you’ll be introduced to the subject of astronomy and the vastness of the cosmos.
• Microcosmos children’s room, with activities that stimulate the senses and creativity of young children.

Useful information

• Price: the average ticket price is €5 per person.
• Opening hours: Monday to Saturday (9.00 am to 7.00 pm) and Sundays (10.00 am to 5.00 pm).
• Where: Museum of Science and the Cosmos, San Cristóbal de La Laguna.

If you want to enjoy wine culture, then Tenerife is the place for you. You can visit the wine museum and enjoy a delightful experience, where you’ll learn in detail about the process of growing and making the so-called ‘nectar of the gods’.

The museum is housed in a 17th-century Canarian hacienda, so you’ll have the chance to admire this iconic architectural complex. You’ll also enjoy the landscaped grounds and have a privileged view of another of the island’s main attractions: Mount Teide, which you can visit on an excursion.

The museum’s permanent exhibition will introduce you to the history, traditions and secrets of the island’s wines. All this is presented through a chronological display of images.

You can also sample some wines in the tasting room, purchase your favourite vintage from the wine shop, explore the gift shop for souvenirs and sample Tenerife’s cuisine in the restaurant area.

Useful information

• Price: admission costs an average of €12.
• Opening hours: Tuesday to Saturday (10:00 to 20:00) and Sundays (10:00 to 18:00).
• Where: Wine Museum,

The Eduardo Westerdahl Museum of Contemporary Art is another great option to visit during your 7-day stay in Tenerife.

Here you’ll find permanent exhibitions featuring national and international art from the 20th century, as well as some temporary exhibitions in the building’s galleries.

Throughout the exhibition galleries, you’ll see works of art by iconic Canarian artists:

• Óscar Domínguez (surrealist painter).
• Manolo Millares (painter and engraver).
• Lola Massieu (avant-garde painter).

You will also have the opportunity to appreciate the work of non-Canarian painters and sculptors:

• Wolfgang Paalen (Austro-Mexican surrealist painter).
• Luc Peire (Belgian painter specialising in Flemish expressionism).
• Eduardo Úrculo (painter, sculptor and leading exponent of Pop Art in Spain).
• Angel Ferrant (Spanish surrealist sculptor and geneticist).

In addition to all these art exhibitions, you can admire the architectural design of the famous “Casa de la Aduana”, considered one of the oldest buildings on the island.

Useful information

• Price: admission costs an average of €3 per person.
• Opening hours: Monday to Saturday (10:00 to 14:00).
• Where: Museum of Contemporary Art, Calle Las Lonjas.

The Fisherman’s Museum is a small space spread over two floors. There, you’ll find an extensive exhibition featuring objects of great cultural and artisanal value, which tell the maritime history of the island of Tenerife.

In the museum’s galleries, you’ll find a significant collection of old photographs and a series of scale models, through which you can learn about the different types of boats and how they have evolved over the years.

You will also be able to view images of all the fish found in the island’s waters, organised by region.

Furthermore, you will see a display of fishing tackle, comprising hooks, lures, weights and all the items attached to the end of the line when fishing.

Useful information

• Price: free admission.
• Opening hours: Friday to Monday (9.00 am to 2.00 pm) and Tuesday to Thursday (9.00 am to 4.30 pm).
• Where: Fish Museum in Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife.