Kayak is one of the biggest water searches on Tenerife, and almost all of it points at the same short stretch of the south coast. Two names come up again and again: El Puertito and Las Galletas. What people are looking for there is not really the boat — it is the turtles.
El Puertito and Las Galletas are launch points you arrange on the spot. Green turtles are a protected species: keep your distance, do not touch them and do not feed them.
El Puertito: the turtle bay
El Puertito is a small bay on the Costa Adeje shore, west of the resort strip and down below the road: a handful of houses, a slipway, almost no beach. It is shallow, and it is sheltered from the swell that shuts other spots on this coast. Green turtles feed there.
That combination is why the bay is paddled and snorkelled rather than dived deep. The animals are a few metres under you and you are looking at them from the surface, which is exactly what a kayak or a mask is for and exactly what a tank is not needed for.
Keep your distance
Green turtles are a protected species in Spanish waters. Keep your distance, do not touch them and do not feed them. They are in the bay because it is quiet, and they will stay for the same reason.
Las Galletas: the other launch
Las Galletas is further east along the south coast, past Los Cristianos — a working fishing village with a harbour and a promenade rather than a hotel strip. It is the second place the island's paddlers put in, and the second address that comes up next to the word turtles.
El Puertito or Las Galletas?
Between the two, the practical difference is the crowd rather than the water: El Puertito is small and gets busy in the middle of the day, Las Galletas is a town with parking and somewhere to eat afterwards.
Is there a booking that gets you to the turtles?
If the turtles are the point and the kayak was only the way of reaching them, the nearest thing to book is BIG FISH's boat snorkelling trip out of Los Cristianos at €45, with 10% off for booking online. It is run by a dive centre rather than a paddle outfit, it uses a boat to reach the site, and the centre confirms the duration and what is included when you book — its price page does not itemise them.
Turtles also turn up where nobody sells them. A guest on the sailing yacht out of Puerto Colón lists “pilot whales, flying fish and a turtle” in the same sentence, and a father who went up with his daughters on the AJ Fly parasail writes that they saw a sea turtle from the air. Both are luck, not an itinerary.
What if a motor is acceptable?
The cheapest way to spend time on this water is the two-hour Masca Express from Los Gigantes at €28 per adult and €18 for a child of 2–11, which stops to swim in Masca, Barranco Seco or Juan López bay, whichever the sea allows that day. It is not paddling, but it puts you in a bay you cannot easily walk to. The rest of the departures, €28 to €62, are on the boat trips page.
One practical note: El Puertito and Las Galletas are arranged on the spot; what is bookable on this stretch of water is the boat snorkelling and the Masca Express below.
Updated 3 September 2026.
