I was asked by the publisher of this book to review it. I have not been paid to write the review except that I received the book and have been allowed to keep it as my reward for having read it.

By Andrea and Jack Montgomery
Published by www.bookshare.com
Published in 2009
ISBN 1-905430-49-3
185 pages
Price £9.99

Contents

OVERVIEW

Introduction
A brief history
People and their quirks
Language
Culture
Food and Drink
Transport
Climate
Economy
Fiesta Calendar
Going Native in Tenerife

Town and City guide

North Tenerife
East Tenerife
South Tenerife
West Tenerife

Essential Travel Information

Emergency Telephone Numbers
Crime
Driving
Health
Shopping

Resources

Magazines and Newspapers
Books
Websites
More Links

ABOUT ANDREA & JACK

Review by Duncan Williamson

Introduction

From www.amazon.co.uk:

'Going Native' guides are written with a rare type of traveller in mind ... longer term visitors who want to become a true part of their new home. So, whether your stay is a month or a lifetime this guide will give you everything the tourist travel guides won't.Inside you will discover:

• hidden treasures beyond the tourist hotspots
• a brief look into Tenerife's past and future
• intimate guided tours of towns and villages across the island
• personal photographs from the authors' travels
• tips on when, where and how to enjoy the island's fiestas
• much, much more...

Well, is all of this true? It’s all there but the emphasis of the book is not what it ought to be, I would say. I would also say that as someone who has never been to Tenerife, I am tempted to go there now and I will take this book with me. Since I have not been to Tenerife yet, there is no way that I can verify any of the facts presented in the book.

I don’t doubt what I have read: from the most basic information to the stories of the Brits who have retired to the Island. However, the book is a cross between a relocation guide and an ordinary tourist guide. After all, even a tourist is interested in such things as nice long walks to take

Going Native

Rather oddly, give the aim and nature of this book, the going native section is buried at the end of the overview section of the book and it comprises just 14 pages. The major headings in this section are:

• Families
• Weekend
• Week
• Month
• For life
• Culture Vulture
• Weekend
• Week
• Month
• For life
• Nature Lovers
• Weekend
• Week
• Month
• For life
• Sport Enthusiasts
• Weekend
• Week
• Month
• For life
• Hopeless Romantics
• Weekend
• Party Animals
• Weekend
• For life

If I were to rely on this section to make up my mind as to whether to emigrate to Tenerife or not, I probably wouldn’t go ... there doesn’t seem to be enough to do there. For anyone who is thinking of retiring whilst having no hobbies or interests outside of eating, drinking and sleeping, you’re in for a quiet time. Of course, lots of people retire to take it easy and they live long and happy lives as they do so. Others are dead after the first weekend! Which type are you? Read this section carefully!

The Town and City Guide: North, East, South and West

This section of the book comprises 105 pages.

As you can see from the contents page, the book divides Tenerife into four areas: North, East, South and West. There is a map of the island on page 49 ... FORTY NINE? Unfortunately, it’s not split into North, East, South and West so you have to do a bit of reading and page flipping to make sense of that.

Within each geographical division, however, the book highlights each major town or village. You’ll learn about beaches, food, accommodation, nightlife, fiestas and attractions. This is why I say this is also a tourist’s guide as I’d want to know all of that as a short term visitor.

You will find a photograph every four or five pages or so: they are reasonable quality photos but since they are in monochrome, they don’t pretend to show the brilliance of the sunshine or the depth of colour of that seaside scene!

They give a lot of information in this section including telephone numbers, internet addresses and so on. There are a few prices given in this book but not many. Clearly the thinking here is that prices are time sensitive so they are bound to be out of date as soon as the book is published. However, it would have been useful to have given a few more if only to give an indication of how much spending money to take!

There are a few good pointers of where to eat and stay in this section: do people going native really stay in five star hotels? So Andrea and Jack seem to have eaten out a lot and maybe even slept around a lot!

Essential Travel Information

This section is aimed specifically at the long stay resident I think but it is just five pages long. In those five pages they talk about

• Crime: fortunately there’s not much
• Driving: the Tinerfiños (didn’t know they were called that!) don’t drive well
• Health: if you are going to live somewhere you need to consider health care really carefully, the one page in this book is not enough
• Shopping
• Best buys
• Food
• Clothes

Resources

This section is fine and it concerns some very useful information on Magazines and Newspapers, Books, Websites and More Links, as per the contents page. These additional resources are definitely an important addition to this book.

Considering Emigrating?

For anyone seriously considering emigrating to Tenerife I do encourage everyone to read every story from those who have done it. The book has done the service of including gushing stories of people who don’t regret a minute of it. Then there are the stories of people who are not so sure.

Not regretting a minute of it: Aguilas pages 119 - 121
Not 100% in favour but not totally regretting it: Dr Leslie Brown pages 58 - 61

The temperature on Tenerife is moderate: see the chart on page 29 to appreciate what you are in for. There are rainfall and sunshine charts on page 30.

All charts include the equivalent data for the UK just to see what you can look forward to or to see what you are [not] missing.

Think carefully: there is more to life than sunshine, little rain and lots of sunshine. After all, when it’s all you’ve known, you might actually miss the odd blizzard and bout of lashing rain.

Drawbacks?

Are there any drawbacks to the book? One that does really annoy me is the absence of an index. For example, I read a story about the man who wanted to go on a bone crushing walk ... cut a long story short, I didn’t mark the passage and can’t find it again! Found it ... pages 45 – 47 ... the one in which Euan wants a walk that hurts!

Conclusion

Is this a must buy book for long stay residents or emigrée? It looks very useful for the ordinary tourist but for the longer stay visitor I would say that it’s a stepping off point containing some good ideas. However, I am pretty sure that because of this book I will be going to Tenerife this year!

 

Duncan Williamson

30^th January 2009