Tenerife is a big island, and most of what people photograph here is on land. This guide is about the other half — the part of the island that turns its back on the roads and can only be looked at from the water or from the air, and what each of those views costs.
The cliffs at Los Gigantes
The wall of rock on the west coast is the reason the marina below it exists. From the road you see the top of it; from a boat you see the whole face. The three departures that leave from the Los Gigantes marina are the cheapest way to do that.
Masca Express is two hours for €28 per adult and €18 for a child of 2–11, with a swim stop in the bay of Masca, Barranco Seco or Juan López. The two-hour trip on the Flipper Uno herself is €33 with a guide and drinks, and three hours with a paella lunch is €40.
The boat itself
The Flipper Uno is worth a paragraph of its own: the company built the boat itself out of African and Brazilian mulberry wood — four carpenter brothers from Alcalá, eighteen months of work, launched at Playa de San Juan in July 1996. It has run out of Los Gigantes ever since.
What lives in the channel?
Between Tenerife and La Gomera there are resident pilot whales and dolphins, and they are there in February as much as in August. That is the honest headline: this is not a migration you can miss. It is also not a promise. Flipper Uno's own page carries the phrase “sightings guaranteed (depending on sea conditions)”, and the staff at its ticket office tell guests plainly that bad weather can take the animals away.
Masca from the sea
The gorge ends at a bay that the road does not reach comfortably. One departure stops to swim near the gorge — the Masca Express, and even then in Masca, Barranco Seco or Juan López bay, whichever the sea allows that day. Freebird's three-hour trip also has a swim stop, but the operator does not say where.
Meanwhile the 4.5-hour Freebird One cruise makes the run from Puerto Colón up to the cliffs and Masca its whole itinerary — €62 per person with a hot lunch, sangria and free hotel transfer.
Which harbour, and why does it matter?
Everything on this page leaves from one of two places. Los Gigantes puts you under the cliffs immediately but expects you to get yourself there. Puerto Colón in Costa Adeje sits inside the hotel belt, which is why the Freebird fares with transfers are the ones that start there. If you are staying in the south and have no car, that difference is the whole decision.
If you are staying in the south without a car, the harbour is the whole decision. Los Gigantes puts you under the cliffs but you get there yourself; Puerto Colón is where the fares with a hotel transfer start.
The view from above
The highest thing you can look at Tenerife from without buying a plane ticket is a paraglider. Overfly's standard tandem flight is €114.99 for 15–20 minutes in the air from about 800 m over Costa Adeje, with the transfer up to take-off in the price; the performance flight is €129.99 from 900 to 1,200 m. Both are about ninety minutes door to door, and both are moved when the wind is wrong — book it early in your stay rather than on the last day.
What does the water look like from inside?
If looking is not enough, the entry point is a first dive: €70 with BIG FISH in Los Cristianos, forty minutes under water. The same centre sells a boat snorkelling trip at €45 for people who want a mask and nothing heavier. The full comparison of the three dive centres is on the diving page.
How do you fit it into one trip?
The sights above sit in two clusters. The cliffs, Masca and the whales are all reachable in one morning from either harbour. Paragliding takes its own half-day and depends on wind. Diving takes a morning and depends on nothing much. If you have three days and one of them is windy, spend the windy one under water.
Prices in this guide are the operators' own, taxes included where they say so, and they are confirmed at booking. All the departures are on the Tenerife boat trips page.
Updated 3 September 2026.
