Shopping and Souvenirs
Given the low rate of sales tax, Tenerife is something of a shopper's paradise, with hundreds of small shops in the resorts selling luxury items, such as jewellery and perfume, to tourists. These items, and all the consumer durables locals need in their daily lives, are also available (sometimes more cheaply) in two large out-of-town shopping centres near Santa Cruz: Las Chumberas, beside the motorway near La Laguna, and Continente, between Santa Cruz and Candelaria (jctn 4 off the motorway Autopista del Sur). While opening hours for the shops here and in the tourist resorts are long (typically daily 8am-8pm), the rest of the island's shops keep more traditional hours - usually Monday to Saturday from 9am to 1pm and 4pm to 8pm.
For unusual souvenirs, head for the fleamarket outside the African Market building ( Mercado De Nuestra Senora de Africa ) in Santa Cruz on Sunday mornings.
Traditional souvenirs of Tenerife and La Gomera include handcrafted goods such as wooden carvings, basketware, pottery, embroidery and lacework. The lace is considered particularly fine and comes from one of two main traditions - that of La Orotava, where a wooden frame is used and that of Vilaflor, where small rosettes are sewn together to form larger pieces. Various consumables are also popular souvenirs, including cigars, said to be inferior only to their Cuban cousins (and much cheaper), novelty liqueurs such as the cobana banana liqueur that comes in a bottle shaped like a bunch of bananas and the honey rum mistela from La Gomera. Some local foodstuffs might also be worth picking up, including the fine honeys collected from hives around Teide, some of the popular and varied goats' cheeses or even some mojo , the traditional local spicy dip .
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