One Beach, One Story · Las Teresitas, Tenerife · October 2026 · 4 min

Playa de las Teresitas, Tenerife: 270,000 Tonnes of Sahara Sand, Some Scorpions Included

In 1973 a Canary Island beach of black stones became a beach of white desert sand, shipped in five million bags. It later played Cancún on MTV.

Playa de las Teresitas is a long curve of pale sand and palm trees just north of San Andrés, close to Santa Cruz de Tenerife. It is one of the few beaches on Tenerife without the black volcanic sand most of the Canary Islands have. That is because none of it is from here.

What was there before

Originally the shore was mostly stones and rocks with a small strip of black sand, in three parts with their own names: Tras la Arena, Los Moros, and the stretch by the ravine of Las Teresas. There was a private spa in the middle, people surfed it, and above it were farms growing bananas, mangoes, tomatoes and avocados that gave the village most of its income.

Why build a beach

In the 1950s the beaches around Santa Cruz were disappearing: their sand was being used for construction, and the port was growing over them. The city council first considered an artificial beach at San Andrés in 1953. The plan was approved in 1961, the design in 1965, and the Spanish ministry signed off in 1967. The farms above the shore were compulsorily purchased, part of the ravine was removed, and in 1968 a breakwater a kilometre long was built 150 metres out, with two piers, to stop the sea carrying the new sand away.

The sand

Local black sand was too scarce and too expensive, and white sand looked better to tourists. So in 1971 the council borrowed 50 million pesetas and bought 150,000 cubic metres of sand, about 270,000 tonnes, from the El Aaiún region of what was then the Spanish Sahara. The phosphate company Fosfatos de Bucraa moved it, and five million bags arrived on a ship called the Gopegui. The beach was filled in the first half of 1973 and opened on 15 June 1973.

It came with passengers. The new beach had initial problems with red ants and scorpions that had made the trip along with the sand.

Tenerife ordered a beach from the desert, and the desert sent some wildlife with it.

Keeping it

Desert sand is lighter than the native black sand, so the wind lifts it off the beach more easily, and the work on the ravine made the wind there stronger. Between April and November 1998 the council added another 2,800 tonnes of Saharan sand to replace what had blown or washed away in 25 years. That top-up cost 400 million pesetas.

Its TV career

Las Teresitas was chosen for the promotional spot for the third season of the reality show Geordie Shore, titled Chaos in Cancún, on MTV in the UK. A beach of Saharan sand in Spain, playing Mexico.

Going

We rate it Worth a detour, for the sand and its story. It is close to Santa Cruz, with parking for more than 100 cars and a bus service, a paddling area, bars and restaurants, and Lonely Planet calls it popular for its chilled atmosphere and chiringuitos. Wikipedia gives it as about 1.3 km long; we measured 1,141 metres.