The tours are aimed mainly at cruise passengers with a few hours ashore, although anyone can book. Planned stops include the marina close to the cruise terminal, the Castillo de San José, home to the island's museum of contemporary art, and the area around the church of San Ginés beside the Charco, Arrecife's old fishermen's lagoon. Audio and video guides are available in several languages, so passengers can follow the history of the city as they go.
The tuk-tuks are not taxis. Every trip has to be booked in advance by phone, through the company's website or through partners such as TUI, Viator and GetYourGuide, and each tour starts and finishes at the same point. Drivers will not stop for passengers who wave them down in the street. The vehicles are fully electric and limited to 40 km/h, which means the company needs only to register the activity as a business rather than hold a transport licence.
The timing is deliberate. The Las Palmas Port Authority expects a busy run of cruise calls in Arrecife through November and December, and the company says it hopes to be running at full capacity within days. Prices and tour lengths have not yet been published.
It is not the first attempt to show visitors around the capital on wheels. A horse-drawn carriage operated briefly in the early 2000s, and a tourist train sponsored by the council ran for much of the 2010s until the pandemic brought it to a halt. Other ways to see the island are covered in our guide to excursions in Lanzarote.
See Mr TravelONs Tenerife Tuk Tuk Video below
