Puerto de la Cruz

Puerto de la Cruz was taking visitors a century before the southern resorts existed. It began as the port for the Orotava valley's wine trade, and when the wine…Puerto de la Cruz was taking visitors a century before the southern resorts existed. It began as the port for the Orotava valley's wine trade, and when the wine failed it turned to the British and German travellers who came for the climate, which is why it has grand nineteenth-century hotels, a botanical garden planted in 1788 and a town centre that was a town first.

The setting is the north coast, which changes everything. It is greener, cooler and cloudier than the south, and the Atlantic arrives with real force. The beaches are black volcanic sand: Playa Jardin at the western end, laid out with gardens behind it, is the best of them, and the sea here is for strong swimmers on many days.

The town's answer to that is a complex of seawater pools and terraces on the seafront, built into the rock and designed with the Lanzarote artist Cesar Manrique, which is where a lot of people actually swim.

What the north buys you is the rest of the island. La Orotava is ten minutes uphill, Teide is under an hour by road, the laurel forest and the wine villages are close, and the prices for accommodation and eating are visibly lower than in the south. What you accept in exchange is that some days are grey.