What you can see on the Costa Adeje webcams
From the harbour you look out across the water to the beaches and the line of white hotels, with the mountains behind, and down the length of the marina, where excursion boats, yachts and jet skis come and go. A third view, from high on a hotel, takes in its pools and palms and, beyond them, the breakwaters of Fañabé and the open Atlantic. Together they answer the usual questions before a day out: is the sky clear over the mountains, is the sea calm, and is the wind blowing the flags straight?
Costa Adeje's beaches and hotels from Puerto Colón
This camera stands above the quay at Puerto Colón where the catamarans and boat-trip companies tie up, and it looks north out through the harbour mouth. In the foreground are the quay, a moored sport-fishing boat and a trip operator's pontoon, then a breakwater of concrete blocks with a green harbour light. Across the water lies the small beach of La Pinta, right beside the marina, with Torviscas and Fañabé running off to the left and white hotels climbing towards the bare volcanic mountains of Adeje.
It is the widest view of Costa Adeje on this page. The flags on the pontoon show the wind, the harbour mouth shows whether the sea is flat or rolling in, and the clouds over the mountains tell you what the afternoon may bring. With the sun behind it, the colours stay true all day.
Boats coming and going in Puerto Colón marina
The second Puerto Colón camera is on the same quay near the harbour entrance, but it looks along the inside of the marina. The Club Náutico sign sits on a rock wall on the left; the pontoons fill the middle with yachts, catamarans and fishing boats, and the big sport-fishing cruisers are moored right in front. On the right runs the outer breakwater, with the open sea beyond it and the coast fading towards Las Américas.
This is where many of Costa Adeje's boat trips begin, so the camera shows the harbour at work: jet skis and inflatables heading out, excursion boats loading at the quay, a wake across the still water. Glance beyond the breakwater to see how choppy it is outside before booking a trip to look for whales and dolphins.
The sea off Fañabé from a seafront hotel
Hotel Jardines de Nivaria, a five-star hotel of Adrián Hoteles, stands on the seafront at the northern end of Playa de Fañabé, and this camera is high on the building. Most of the picture is the hotel itself: free-form pools with palm islands, rows of white parasols and sunbeds, and a terracotta wing on the right. The sea fills the top left corner, with the promenade, the dark sand and breakwaters of Fañabé, and the open Atlantic beyond.
The camera faces roughly south-west, so in the late afternoon it looks into the sun and the water turns to silver. Use it to see whether the sun is out over Costa Adeje and how busy the pool terraces are; for the beaches themselves, the harbour view gives the wider picture. The date and time are printed in the top corner.
A resort coast, and the whales offshore
Costa Adeje is the seaside part of the municipality of Adeje, developed as a resort from the late 1960s; Puerto Colón was built in the 1980s as a marina for pleasure boats. Today it is the departure point for many of the island's boat trips, including whale- and dolphin-watching cruises: the waters between Tenerife and La Gomera are home all year to pilot whales and several kinds of dolphin. Most of the beaches are sheltered by breakwaters, which keep the water calmer for swimming than the open coast.
When to watch Costa Adeje
Tenerife keeps the same time as the UK and Ireland all year, so the clock on the cameras matches the one at home. The mountains shelter this side of the island from the north-east trade wind, and winter afternoons usually reach the low 20s °C. The view across the water to the beaches faces north, with the sun behind it all day; late in the afternoon the hotel camera looks into the sun as it sinks towards La Gomera.
Around Costa Adeje
Los Cristianos and Las Américas continue the seafront to the south-east, and Playa Paraíso and Callao Salvaje lie a few miles to the north-west, beyond La Caleta. Inland, the old town of Adeje sits at the foot of the Barranco del Infierno ravine.
Visiting Costa Adeje
Tenerife South airport is about 10 miles (16 km) away as the crow flies. A promenade runs along almost the whole coast, so the beaches can be walked from one to the next. Lifeguards and flags operate on the main beaches; outside the breakwaters the Atlantic swell can be strong.
