Once you’ve picked up your vehicle from the car rental company, you will find there are two exits signposted as you leave the airport. One says Ciudad and the other is for Puerto del Carmen and Playa Blanca. This second exit takes you through an underpass and then comes out onto a dual carriageway. Immediately on entering the dual carriageway there is an exit for Puerto del Carmen, which you should avoid – so continue on the dual carriageway, which begins to ascend towards the hill town of Tias.
Once you are leaving Tias, the road becomes single lane for the rest of the journey. Continue straight on until you reach the roundabout at Macher and go straight over (in other words, taking the second exit). Now the road wiggles along the edges of a hillside, going past the road down to Puerto Calero and eventually coming out at another roundabout just before the village of Uga. Drive through Uga towards Yaiza, until you reach a further roundabout, where there is a right hand exit signposted for Playa Blanca which takes you on a ring road round the village of Yaiza.
Just after you have passed Yaiza, there is a large roundabout with access to El Golfo and back to Yaiza. Ignore the roundabout and continue straight on the road to Playa Blanca. This road runs for approximately 15 kilometres straight down to the southernmost part of the island. At the entrance to Playa Blanca, there are two roundabouts. If you are staying in the Montana Roja or Los Claveles areas, you should take the first, right hand exit onto the dual lane road, passing the HL Hotel Club Playa Blanca almost immediately.
If you are staying near Punta Limones or Las Coloradas areas, continue straight over the first roundabout and at the second roundabout, take the exit you need, as per the instructions on finding your accommodation that Optima Villas have provided you with.
From the airport to the resort, the drive takes between 30 and 35 minutes.
If you have booked a bus transfer, when you come out of the arrivals hall with your luggage you should turn right and look for signage for your chosen company. Make sure you know the name of the company who are providing your transfer if you have booked it online. The driver should know where to take you within the resort, but make sure that you know the name of the area in Playa Blanca where your accommodation can be found.
If you prefer to take a taxi to your accommodation, there is usually a line of taxis waiting outside the arrivals hall. The drive takes approximately 30-35 minutes and will cost around €55. The taxi drivers generally don’t speak much English but should be able to find your accommodation without any problems.
There is a bus service that operates between the two terminals of the airport and Playa Blanca. The bus company is called Intercity Service and has a fleet of green buses and white buses with green lettering.
The bus number to Playa Blanca via Puerto del Carmen and Puerto Calero is the 161 – there are 18 stops between the start of the journey at Terminal 1 and the harbour in Playa Blanca, where the service terminates. There are 10 stops in Puerto del Carmen and then the bus proceeds through Yaiza and on to Playa Blanca. It will take approximately 60 minutes to complete the journey.