What you can see on the Playa Paraíso webcams
The main camera streams live video from high up on a hotel built at the edge of the cliff: palm gardens and pools in the foreground, a promenade along the rocks, then ocean all the way to the horizon. You can watch the swell break white over the reefs and decide whether it is a day for the pool or the sea. The second view, a time-lapse from apartments a little further along, takes in the rocky point, the white terraces of the resort and the deep blue water beyond.
Playa Paraíso from a clifftop hotel
Mounted high on a hotel built on the lava cliffs of Playa Paraíso, this camera streams live video westwards over the hotel's grounds to the open Atlantic. The foreground is a jumble of palms and curving blue pools; then comes the seafront path along the rocks, a dark lava headland on the left with the swell breaking white around it, and a sweep of ocean to the horizon.
The wide lens bends the horizon slightly, but it takes in a huge stretch of sea. Use it to see whether the Atlantic is calm or rolling in, whether the sky is clear over the water, and how busy the pools are. In the evening it looks towards the sunset.
The Playa Paraíso coast from apartments next door
From the top of an apartment block in Playa Paraíso, this camera looks west over red-tiled roofs and terraces to the coast. A low rocky point runs out into the sea, and on the right the long white tiers of a hillside apartment complex step down towards the water. Behind everything is the open Atlantic.
It shows the same stretch of coast as the hotel camera from a little further along, with more of the shoreline and the resort in the frame. Instead of video, it keeps a day-long sequence of still frames, a good way to see how the light and the cloud have changed since sunrise.
A coast that faces west
Most of Tenerife's southern resorts look south. Playa Paraíso looks west, and that shapes the day: mornings on the terraces are shaded and fresh, the sun comes round around midday, and in the evening it drops into the sea in full view. On the clearest days La Gomera, about 18 miles (30 km) away, sits on the horizon. The shore is volcanic rock broken into small coves, so most bathing happens in pools, and the clear water off the rocks draws snorkellers and divers.
When to watch Playa Paraíso
Tenerife runs on the same time as the UK and Ireland. The live camera is at its best in the hour before sunset, which comes at around 6pm in December and around 9pm in midsummer. In winter, swells from the North Atlantic wrap round the island and break hard on this rocky shore; summer seas are usually gentler, although the afternoon trade wind can roughen the surface.
Around Playa Paraíso
Callao Salvaje and its small dark-sand beach are next door, and the sandy beaches of Costa Adeje, from El Duque and Fañabé to the Puerto Colón marina, are a few miles to the south-east. Inland, the old town of Adeje sits at the mouth of the Barranco del Infierno ravine.
Visiting Playa Paraíso
Tenerife South airport is about 14 miles (22 km) away as the crow flies. The coast here is steep and rocky: swim only where there is safe access to the water, and stay out when waves are washing over the rocks.
