A birthday, a communion or a family lunch at a Tenerife estate: what to ask before you book

With fifteen people there is no need to complicate things: a restaurant with a private room solves the food, the wine and the washing up, and you leave at five without clearing a table. The limit of a restaurant is not the food, it is the clock: at some point they need the room for dinner, and with children loose in the dining room the long lunch lasts as long as it lasts.

With thirty it changes. Few private rooms stretch that far, and those that do put you on two tables that cannot talk to each other. A large rural house with a garden works if you genuinely fit seated and if the owner does not mind thirty of you on a Sunday; many are built for eight who sleep, not thirty who eat.

With fifty you are talking about a place made for it: tables and chairs for everyone, shade or cover, somewhere a caterer can work, parking for fifteen cars and someone who knows how to set up and take down. That is where an events estate stops being an indulgence and becomes the cheaper option, because what a restaurant charges per menu is split here between the space and a meal you choose yourselves.

The number that decides is not how many you are today but how many you will be once everyone confirms. Add twenty per cent to the first list and see which bracket you land in.

The ones that separate a relaxed lunch from an afternoon of arguments, in the order they usually hurt:

For thirty or forty people, a caterer is what simplifies things most and what costs most, in that order. A caterer from the valley who already knows the estate knows where to plug in, which gate the van fits through and when to start serving so the long lunch still has daylight. That knowledge costs money and saves as much again in surprises.

We work with outside caterers, suppliers from the Orotava Valley who have set up here before, and we recommend one according to the meal: a roast on a long table is not a standing cocktail for a communion with a lot of children. If you already have a cook you trust, tell us when you write: the answer depends on what they need and on the date, and we would rather give it to you straight than surprise you.

What almost always comes from home, and nobody asks about: the cake, a friend's wine, the music for the afternoon and grandma's tablecloth. That fits at any estate.

Saturdays in May, June, September and October belong to weddings at nearly every estate on the island, and a family lunch competes for them at a disadvantage. The advantage is the rest of the calendar: Sunday lunchtimes, Friday evenings, weekdays and the whole winter, which in the north has more clear days than people think.

First communions cluster in May and get booked from January. Christenings are more spread out, with spring ahead. Round-number birthdays and silver weddings fall when they fall, and the December ones collide with company dinners: if yours is at Christmas, fix the date in October.

A lunch for thirty does not need a year's notice the way a wedding does. Two or three months are usually enough to have the date, the caterer and the tables; less is possible, but you choose from less.

We are in La Orotava at about 500 metres, with 17,000 square metres of garden and Mount Teide straight ahead. For family celebrations the estate is set up for up to 60 guests; cocktail-style it takes up to 100, and seated for a banquet up to 80, which is the wedding capacity. And one thing that changes the afternoon: we host one event at a time, so your family's lunch does not share the garden with somebody else's wedding.

The usual picture with thirty is the long table by the pool, the volcano behind it and the parasols up if it is summer. The children have the old threshing floor and the pétanque court, both within sight of the table, and the century-old wine press is where the group photos end up. There is parking inside the estate, which matters more than it sounds once grandparents are involved.

Inside the estate there are three separate houses, each for up to four people. They are where the ones from off the island usually stay, or the ones who would rather not drive afterwards: the grandparents the night before, the cousins from Madrid for the whole weekend. All of it, with the spaces and the form, is on the page for the estate for celebrations and events in La Orotava.

We do not publish fixed prices because they depend on the date, on how many you are and on what you need: we quote each one and reply within 24 hours. The events form has a box for a family celebration and brackets for up to 25 and 25 to 50 people; with that and an approximate date we can already tell you whether it fits.

The time. A communion or a christening starts at the church in the morning, so lunch begins early and the afternoon is long: you want shade, something for the children to do and somewhere the guest of honour can change clothes halfway through.

The children's table. At a communion there are ten or fifteen kids of the same age, and a table of their own near the garden works better than spreading them among the adults. And a menu for them that is not the grown-ups' one in miniature.

The photos. It is the event with the most group photographs: the wine press, the hydrangea garden and the pool with Teide behind it are the three spots people ask for here, and it pays to plan them before the long lunch scatters.

The rest — how many, what food, until when — is the same as any family lunch. What does not change is that you have to ask beforehand.