Several planes and ferries between all the seven islands every day.

Perfectly warm enough for beach time in May (it is almost all year round). Fine beaches especially in the South of Tenerife (but very touristy), but the best beaches you'll find in Gran Canaria, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote: http://www.turismodecanarias.com/canary-islands-spain/holiday-travel/beach/
http://www.turismodecanarias.com/canary-islands-spain/holiday-travel/beach/playas_index.html

I have a special soft spot for small, very volcanic and beautiful Lanzarote: http://www.turismodecanarias.com/canary-islands-spain/tourism-office/lanzarote-island/

I can highly recommend a lunch in one of the several local restaurants in small beachfront village La Caleta next to the spectacular (and often dangerous) Famara beach in Lanzarote. Several other, nice small villages as well (Teguise is a must).

La Caleta/Famara: http://www.lanzaroteguidebook.com/destination/caleta-de-famara

Lanzarote beaches: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destination/spain/lanzarote/49712/Lanzarote-beaches.html

Much of Pedro Almodóvar's movie Broken Embraces was shot in Lanzarote in the Famara area: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bN0SlBE8yGQ

For some odd reason Fodor's classes the Canaries as Africa, not Spain, so you may find more information on the Africa forum.

I have only ever been to La Palma, one of the smaller, and less touristy islands. No lovely beaches there I'm afraid, though there are a couple of nice ones, with black sand. Plenty of mountains, an active volcano, good walking, Unesco listed laurel woods, interesting villages. I'm going again in February .

The weather will be lovely in May no matter which island you choose. With only one week I'd opt for just one island to be honest. There is easily enough to see and do on each island, and they are very different to each other.
Gran Canaria is described as a mini continent as it offers so much variation in one island.

I suggest you look up on Google the different islands and decide which appeals the most. You will need to be fairly quick deciding and booking, as many European countries have a school holiday in May and the Canaries are a popular destination then.

If Tenerife or Gran Canaria are set and you wanted something different to spice your trip (even though one week in total is not that much to play around with), I would also suggest Lanzarote. Inter-island flights are frequent and not that expensive.

Lanzarote is so unique and different with its volcanos and square kilometers of vineyards in the ash fields (I think the latter is also on display as Land Art in many museums) that you easily get an out of this world feeling. It's hard to describe but you will find many photos of the sites kimhe mentioned to get an idea of this island where mass tourism was more contained to smaller resort towns than elsewhere.

Especially when you get away from the resort towns or villages - which is very easy with cheap rental cars. For example to the rugged northern beaches and massive cliffs at Famara which kimhe already mentioned. The villages with all houses in cubicle form and bright white paint make you feel as if you were somewhere lost in Northern Africa (where geographically you are)...

There are plenty of vineyards in ash fields in most of the Canaries, these are not unique to Lanzagrotty . They are, after all volcanic islands.

True
La Palma also features some at its Southern tip.
But nowhere you find them as widespread and huge as on Lanzarote, and in ashfields that look as if the volcanoes erupted just yesterday.
http://www.amusingplanet.com/2011/12/peculiar-vineyards-of-lanzarote-spain.html

I've suggested Tenerife as a base as I can get flights from JFK there with FF miles on AA.

Do ferries take cars? If not, how would wee get around on other islands besides Tenerife? If we do stay on Tenerife, what part of the island would be best - convenient to get to other parts by car, and best beaches?

Just checked to see if AA flies to Gran Canaria and it does. So that's a possibility as well, although it's a bit more complicated for us getting home from there.

Any opinion on Tenerife vs Gran Canaria as a base?

Some ferries do take cars but it's not worth the hassle as you can rent cars at any airport for little money if booked in advance. Even if not booked in advance, they won't break the bank.

Even though some islands get less tourism than others, you must not forget that you will be going to a huge hotspot of (mostly) European tourism with any kind of services or ameneties available which you would also expect in places like Florida's vacation areas.

Tenerife's North is lush green (cause it gets the most rain).
Swimming is usually in man- or nature-made pools. It also is home to the most interesting towns to visit, La Laguna and the capital Sta. Cruz.

The South got the big sandy beaches and more spread out tourist resorts, but much less vegetation as the mountains of the North hardly let any rain clouds through.

Driving is dead easy. You can take the motorways along the Eastern coast for a quick dash from North to South or v.v. when in a hurry.
Or take the winding, scenic moutain route thru the center of the island or same along the Western coast for spectacular vistas.
The road network in total is very well maintained as anywhere in Spain.

Thanks Cowboy, and everyone.

Seems there's really a lot to see. Going from Tenerife to other islands, though, in a week seems cumbersome. Can get to Gran Canaria for a day, but seems impossible to go to Lanzerote.

Still wondering if our base should be Tenerife or Gran Canaria. We DO want some nice beaches, some "down" time for my overworked husband. Would like some swimmable waters, although the water temps seem to be really cold. But also want hiking and small villages.

Kenav are you finding flights direct from JFk to Canarias? Or do you connect in MAD?

I've always discounted the idea of visiting Madeira or Canarias because I thought one had to fly to Europe and back track when traveling from the US. I hope that that notion is incorrect!!

I have left the British Isles 120 times.

Only one trip I can describe as unmitigated hell.

It was a week in Tenerife.

We did little research and basically wanted a week in the sun in March. The weather was lovely and a trip up Mount Teide was interesting. Much of the rest of the island is over developed to a low standard and has few redeeming features.

Put simply we thought it was dreadful.

Going from Gran Canaria to Tenerife or vv I find not too interesting as both islands are not that different from eachother than TF/GC vs. Lanzarote or Fuerteventura (the latter being a giant sandbox).

I find Tenerife the most interesting and diverse as you have anything from sandy beaches, forests, high mountains (Teide is Spain's highest peak at almost 4K meters with a cable car going to the top), calderas, old villages and town, botanical gardens (Orotava valley) and so on.
Gran Canaria would be a close second. It has everything Tenerife got, minus the huge peak in the center. GC's center mountain is only half the size as Teide.

Canary Islands waters are always cooler than you would expect at that latitude. Reason are constant relatively cool water currents which usually keep the sea at 25C or bit less. Swimming is very popular, though.
The islands are nicknamed those of eternal spring, not summer

Hiking is no problem at all on either of the islands.

Another interesting pasttime are high sea fishing trips. Pretty big prey in those waters.. barracudas and such.

If you want to be close to the beaches, you automatically selected the Southern coast.

For enhanced privacy, and if you don't like big hotels and resorts, you can also easily rent one of the many holiday homes. Many a bit away from the coastal hotspots as renovated fincas in rural areas in/near villages.

I'll stand with Dickie on this one, many of these islands are beer, cake and low rise hotels. Think Niagra at the falls.

fuertenventura is the only one that has a hint of old style island left on it, I cycled round it slowly over about 10 days. http://www.fuerteventura.com/index.shtml
The place was introduced to chipmunks by some crazy american in the 1800s and now they struggle with lizards to eak out a small niche. Darn things spring up all over.

If I had to do this thing I'd book a villa with a pool and a view of the sea and chill out.

Wow Dickey - Sounds dreadful. Hmm...maybe i should rethink this.

ekskrunchy - Yes, we have to change planes when coming from JFK. The flights I see that we can take with FF miles from AA (at least on their website) change in Dusseldorf or Berlin (with Air Berlin which is a member of "oneworld" with AA). You can also change in Heathrow, but I wouldn't do that because going with BA, the taxes (which you have to pay even with using FF miles), adds up to hundreds of dollars while with other carriers it may only be about $70.

Kenav

Just do plenty of research.

There is a beautiful island off Tenerife, La Gomera. It hasositioned itself far more up the market than Tenerife. It will be possible to focus in Tenerife and weed out the 10% of the island that we on Fodors probably generally regard as visitable. Puerto de la Cruz is a pretty town and the coast around Masca is stunning.

The rest is simply a rock with villas where young Brits go to get drunk and lose their virginity or retired Brits go to turn into lizards and well .... die. (Nice quote for the next Fodors book).

I can assume from the tone that we don't like Tenerife.

Interesting summary.
As I have actually been on five of the seven islands, I can say that all the tourist activities focus very much on the resort towns. Few tourists even bother to rent a car to explore. As soon as you go 5-10kms inland or away from the resorts you will not see any mass tourism.

Cowboy

I am referring only to Tenerife, it is the only island we have visited.

Once you venture inland there is rock, lots of it and fairly featureless.

Unless you are a 17 year old virgin or 87 year lizard, Tenerife has little attraction.

Go to La Palma from Tenerife, or to La Gomera or el Hierro.
No mass tourism (at least once you go west from Santa Cruz de La Palma). The weather is better on the west side of the island too. Lots of walking, boating, snorkling, interesting villages, cheap car rental.
You can take a ferry or a short flight.

Gran Canaria also offers plenty of alternatives to the tourist areas.

So Dickie - Are you saying that there are no beaches on Tenerife that aren't just for drunken virgins and those about to die?

I looked up some images on Masca and it looks beautiful. Would definitely got there. But it's not a beach.

Kenav

I suppose what I am saying is that the world is a very large place and most of us do not have the time to see every square inch of it. In the limited time most of us have to travel, we just add up the pros and cons of a destination and make a judgement.

Most of Tenerife's beaches are poor and artificial. The Saharan winds blow huge amounts of natural sand onto Fuerteventura and as Biblo pointed out above, there are some stunning beaches on that island. However, Tenerife is in the lee of Fuerteventura and gets little natural sand.

If you want early summer sun, good hotels, good food and cultural day trips I would head for Nerja in Andalucia or maybe the Cost de la Luz, or one of the other Canary Islands.

If Tenerife was the only place on earth with sun in May, I would still avoid it.

But them I am not 17, a virgin or about to die (hopefully).

I'm sorry to say but Dickie must have experienced a very unique vacation on Tenerife.

I seriously don't get that obsession with virgins and old lizards and describing the rest of Tenerife island aside from the Southern beaches as "rock". It's a f*cking almost 4,000 meter mountain, obviously made from rock. So the Alps are also "just rock" or what?

On the northern coast you will find subtropical forests, quaint towns, and so on and on.

I am not even a big fan of Tenerife, but Dickie's assessment is highly bizarre to put it mildly.

Yes, Tenerife is a European tourism hotspot. Just like Miami Beach or San Diego are tourist hotspots in America. If you want to get sh*tfaced every day of your vacation on cheap booze, you will find taverns to suit that taste in either location. But you also have a vast number of families or ordinary people just spending a week or two on vacation on Tenerife. It's definetely not like Daytona Beach during spring break.
In fact, it's not even popular with "virgins". Those you will probably find rather on Ibiza or Mallorca than on Tenerife.

If OP wanted to spend a week on Mallorca's Playa de Palma a word of warning would be appropriate but Tenerife is a far cry from that.

Dickie - Was reading about Malaga and Nerje and found this article. Seems disturbing. Pumping raw sewage into their waters?

Costa del Dump
July 8, 2010 | Filed under: Environment,News | Posted by: Green Guide Spain
POLLUTED: Nerja's water under spotlight
NERJA is being blamed for the poor water conditions along the Costa del Sol. A new group, the Integral Sanitation Forum, was formed to put pressure on towns that dump sewage both in the sea and inland into rivers.


In particular, the group is extremely concerned with the black-spot of Nerja, which is the only municipality along the coast that still dumps sewage into the sea.

The town has failed to install a sewage plant, after numerous unfulfilled promises and failed deadlines. The town of 21,000 people still continues to pump raw sewage into the sea, infuriating both residents and the Nerja town hall.

Further disruption was caused by a property dispute that ended with the Nerja town hall paying 900,000 euros for the previously un-derpriced land.

The Junta admits it will be 2015 at the earliest before the plant is licensed, constructed, and fully operational.

Speaking in Torremolinos, director of the new forum Salvador Vilches believes it is crucial for officials to understand the urgency of the situation.

“If the coastline’s sanitation gets any worse tourists will abandon the Costa del Sol and flock to cheaper destinations like Turkey, Egypt, and Tunisia,” said Vilches. To sustain the Costa as a tourist destination, Vilches insists that sanitation must become a top priority. “The quality can’t just be hotels, services and facilities,” he added. “The sea water must be of a high quality too.”

"Dickies assessment is highly bizarre"

It is an assessment shared by most of the British travelling public. Tenerife is like shopping at Aldi, nobody admits to doing it.

You can ramble on all you want but of all the many holiday destinations Brits have adopted over 50 years of mass tourism, Tenerife is firmly in the bottom five of down market destinations and for good reason. It is Myrtle Beach on a bad day.

My goodness Fodor people can be so snobbish, what's wrong with places that attract lots of tourists. Personally I like Tenerife, but then I also like Blackpool and Torremolinos - at least they are not as pretentious as many of the popular spots that frequent this board. Santorini for example is full of mass tourists loaded onto long sufering donkeys struggling to keep their foothold on steep steps between beach and town, and yet it is paraded here as the bees knees.

Well, so now I'm totally confused.

Will definitely have to think a lot about this.

As to the article I found about he pollution in the Costa del Sol -anyone have any experience with this?

kimhe on Dec 8, 12 at 6:34pm Nerja is special, the only town along the Costa del Sol whitout a sewage plant. It has been a never-ending story, but now it eventually seems to be built: http://www.theolivepress.es/spain-news/2012/11/29/we-will-continue-to-fight-until-nerja-sewage-plant-is-built-say-equo/

The locals have been furious, totally desilluionised, laughing or all through several years. But the sewage goes out way off the beaches, and the local people don't go out of their way to protest the delays of the plant and seem not to be very alarmed. They might be tired of it all, but the local people also go swimming there as do their kids and thousands of visitors, also many Spanish. "Nerja has got no sewage plant because the nerjeños don't give a damn": http://www.denunciaseninternet.com/2012/04/nerja-no-tiene-depuradora-porque-los.html

Friends in Nerja welcome the plant, but they also indicate that the horror stories are way out of proportion and provided mainly by people from far away who don't know local conditions. I've yet to see some solid info that indicates that the water quality is so bad as some suggests, and remind that the Nerja beaches have got all the top ranking national and international awards, where water quality is an important variable.

This part of the Costa del Sol has reatained much of the Andalucian charm, although it has got all the amenitis that makes it popular with tourists. If you are put off by the Nerja waters, go to Almuñecar a little further west. http://www.almunecar.info/

I've visited Nerja every year for some eleven years and I use to swim all the time, as do thousands of others.

Kenav

Don't be confused just be sure what Tenerife is all about and decide whether that is what you want. Steve likes Tenrife and that's fine, he has been to many of the Southern Europe destinations that I have. Some like Corfu, we will agree on, some we will not.

I spend half my time, 10 minutes away from Blackpool and I too love it for what it is but when I travel abroad I want a specifically local experience which I don' t feel Tenerife offers.

kimhe - I've read some blogs in which tourists tell of the waters being clear one day and the next filled with "brownish disgusting stuff". Yet, there are people swimming in it. Obviously I wouldn't want to go on a vacation and worry that the water will turn me off.

Thanks for everyone's opinions.

I'm a little late, but I agree with everybody's opinion of Tenerife

There are parts that are typical of the worst excesses of mass tourism. El bingo, El fish and chips, English pubs, all day breakfasts, premier league on the television, all the night life you could ask for etc.

The Teide National Park is weirdly beautiful - more Luna surface than Earth. The hiking is great. The older North coast towns are interesting with parts of them hundreds of years old. There is relatively easy access to La Gomera which is well off the tourist route.

In May, there are many places that I would rather visit (Southern Italy, Sicily), but for an inexpensive, warm holiday in the middle of the European winter, The Canaries are fine.

I'm off there again in January.

Hello, I am Dessi from Gran Canaria, I have just discover this web and already read your post. All the 7 islands are differents and very nice indeed. The weather is always warm, today for example we have 25-27C. I live in the city of Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, in Las Canteras beach, one of the best beaches in Spain. If you are interested I will send you images and videos. My email is: laplayachica@hotmail.com
My regards
Dessi