The pickup point, without surprises
An excursion in the Canaries collects from fifteen or thirty different points before it really sets off. Most problems with a booking are not about the operator or the price: they are about somebody waiting at the wrong door. Here is how it works.
Why there are so many points
Accommodation in the south is spread across large zones — Costa Adeje, Playa de Las Américas, Los Cristianos, Playa del Inglés, Maspalomas — and the bus chains them together. That means your pickup time is not the activity start time: there can be forty minutes between the first stop and the last.
What your voucher must tell you
- The exact point, not the zone.
- The exact time for that point, not the activity time.
- The waiting margin.
- The operator direct phone number.
That last one is what saves the morning. If the bus does not show up or you cannot find it, calling the operator solves in two minutes what email will not solve in an hour.
What goes wrong most
Confusing the activity time with the pickup time. If the departure is at 10:00 and your point has a 45 minute offset, your time is 9:15.
Not knowing which side of the road. Big seafront avenues run both ways. The voucher should say which side.
Signal. In the south of Tenerife and in mountain areas mobile coverage fails. Download your voucher before leaving the hotel: it works offline and carries the operator phone number printed on it.
If you get left behind
Call the operator before taking a taxi. Very often the bus is two streets away and running late. And if the pickup failed through the operator fault, that is a cancellation on their side: full refund.
Frequently asked questions
›Is the time on the voucher the excursion time or the pickup time?
Your pickup point time. A bus can chain fifteen stops, so there may be forty minutes between the first and the last. The voucher shows the time calculated for your specific point.
›What do I do if the bus does not turn up?
Call the operator number printed on your voucher before taking a taxi. It is usually nearby and running late. If the pickup failed through the operator fault, that is their cancellation and the refund is full.
›Does the voucher work without signal?
Yes, that is the point of it. In the south of Tenerife and in mountain areas coverage is not reliable, so it is worth downloading it before leaving your accommodation.