Tenerife Guest houses

The guest house and the casa rural are the island's quiet alternative to the resort. They are family businesses with a handful of rooms, and they cluster in the north and in the hill villages: the Orotava valley, the Anaga foothills, the wine country above Tacoronte and the villages behind Guia de Isora.

What you get is a host, local advice, a homemade breakfast rather than a buffet, and a considerably lower price. What you give up is the beach on the doorstep and, usually, the reliable sunshine. Several are converted Canarian houses with internal courtyards, which is worth seeing from the inside. A car is close to essential.