Monkey Park, Los Cristianos

The Monkey Zoo Park, based just opposite Guia, in the South of Tenerife is one of the better animal parks in Tenerife. It doesn't have the budget of Loro Parque and/or Parque Las Aguilas, however, you can see that the animals themselves are taken care of, and have an enjoyable lifestyle.

 The first thing you see as you walk into the Park is a basket with monkey food for sale...I recommend you buy as many of these as you can, for two reasons. The first is that there is no gift shop as such in the park, so all the money that is earnt from the front desk gets put back into the Park itself. The second reason is that no matter how much you buy, you will always regret not buying more...  From the beginning, it looks like any run of the mill zoo, with crocodiles and tortoises/terrapins. However, turning the corner you will see cages that you can open and stroll through at will.

  There are all sorts of animals in the cages that you walk through, ranging from Ring Tailed Lemurs, through to Iguanas and Chickens. You are allowed to feed all the animals you see in this zoo, and you will quickly see that each animal has its own favourite foods. Further on through the park, you will see Black Leopards, and a variety of birds as well. All in all, I urge you to go to this zoo if you visit Loro Parque, or if you have the slightest interest in monkeys or even animals in general. It is a little hard to find, but drive down the TF1 till you reach a town called Guia, and turn off there. Follow the road round under the TF1, then drive straight on, and take your first left - there is a sign, but it is very small. The road that you turn down is easy to mistake for a dumping ground, but once you are past that, just follow along the same road till you reach the park itself.