Most driving tours pick one hotel and build the itinerary around it. The Mustangs Tenerife deliberately does the opposite: 4 nights at The Ritz-Carlton, Abama in the south, then 3 nights at Precise Resort Tenerife in the north, with a full day of driving in between. It’s not a logistics compromise. It’s the reason the trip works, and understanding what each property actually offers explains why the split earns its place on the itinerary rather than just adding complexity.
The Ritz-Carlton, Abama — the first four nights
Abama sits on a cliff above the Atlantic on Tenerife’s southwest coast, in the middle of a private banana plantation that the resort was built into rather than over. It’s the kind of property where the drive up to the lobby is itself a small event — palm-lined roads, terraced gardens, and a first glimpse of the ocean that resets whatever mood the flight left you in. The resort spans a genuinely large footprint by European hotel standards, with rooms and suites arranged across low-rise villas rather than a single tower, which keeps the whole place feeling more like a private estate than a conventional hotel block.
This half of the stay is built around contrast: mornings on some of the most dramatic driving roads in the Canary Islands — the switchbacks of Masca, the volcanic ascent to Teide — and afternoons back at a resort with the kind of infrastructure that makes doing nothing feel like an achievement. Multiple pools stepped down toward the ocean, a spa built around local volcanic stone and thalassotherapy treatments, and an 18-hole golf course designed by Dave Thomas are all part of the property, none of it required, all of it there if a driving day runs a little lighter than planned. The resort’s own funicular takes guests down to a private beach club at the base of the cliff, which is worth the ride at least once during the four nights, ideally on the Day 4 half-rest afternoon before the yacht party.
The welcome cocktail on arrival night sets the tone early: this isn’t a hotel guests pass through on the way to the real experience. For the first half of the tour, Abama is the experience, in the hours the group isn’t in the Mustang — and the property’s multiple restaurants, including a well-regarded Basque-influenced dining room, mean the half-board dinners here rarely feel like a compromise against eating out.
Precise Resort Tenerife — the second half
The drive north on Day 5, along the TF-24 ridge road, is where the island changes character — and Precise Resort, on the northern coast near Puerto de la Cruz, is built to match. Where Abama is dry heat and volcanic desert, the north is greener, cooler, and noticeably more local: this is the older, more established side of Tenerife, with a town center in Puerto de la Cruz that predates the southern resort boom by centuries.
Precise Resort’s own footprint is smaller and more intimate than Abama’s — three nights here feels less like “the second hotel” and more like a deliberate change of register after four nights of south-coast polish. The property sits directly on the coast with ocean-facing rooms and a pool complex built into black volcanic rock formations, a nod to the island’s geology that Abama’s more manicured southern setting doesn’t attempt. It’s also the base for the tour’s two most surprising days: the Anaga rainforest drive on Day 6, and the lighter Day 7 built around Loro Parque and La Orotava’s historic center, closing with a farewell dinner in Puerto de la Cruz itself, a short enough drive from the resort that nobody needs to think twice about a second glass of wine.
Why the split matters more than either hotel alone
Guests who’ve only researched southern Tenerife — Costa Adeje, Playa de las Américas, the resort strip most package tourists know — are usually surprised the island has a north at all. Splitting the stay isn’t just about avoiding hotel fatigue; it’s the only way the itinerary can honestly claim to show Tenerife rather than one resort’s version of it. Anaga’s cloud forest and Puerto de la Cruz’s old town don’t exist in the south, and Masca’s switchbacks and Teide’s volcanic passes don’t exist in the north. Both halves are real Tenerife. Neither one alone is the whole story.
Practically, it also means the trip never runs the same day twice. Four nights is long enough at Abama to actually use the property — the spa, the pools, an evening at leisure — without the second half of the tour feeling like more of the same scenery from a different angle. The drive between them, roughly two to three hours along the TF-24, is treated as its own full day on the itinerary rather than squeezed in as a transfer, which means it gets the same attention to pacing and stops as any other driving day on the route.
Which half suits which traveler
If you had to pick a favorite in advance — and most guests can’t, honestly, until they’ve experienced both — Abama tends to land better with travelers who want a resort worth lingering at, with enough amenities to fill an entire rest day without leaving the property. Precise Resort tends to land better with guests who came for the driving and the contrast, and who’d rather spend downtime exploring Puerto de la Cruz’s old town on foot than staying poolside. The good news is you don’t have to choose; the itinerary gives you both, in a sequence designed so each one feels like a genuine change of scenery from the last.
Curious what a full day between the two resorts looks like? See the complete Mustangs Tenerife itinerary.
Ready to check dates? Book the Mustangs Tenerife here.