Puerto de la Cruz - the other side of Tenerife

Elaine Simpson on 31 March 2017
Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife – my second home. About 15 years ago we first visited Puerto for some relief from the relentless grey of the British winter. First a long weekend, then a week, then 10 days: each year it got longer and longer.

Around 5 years ago we realised that, with Travel Counsellors fantastic technology and better broadband than at home in Cragg Vale, it’s just as easy for me to work there as it is in the UK and as my husband is retired there was nothing stopping us.

So, we tested the water and rented an apartment with broadband for 3 months from February to April and realised within 10 days that it was going to work for us. We signed up for the apartment for the whole of this winter and we’ll be doing the same next.

If you call me and get a ‘funny’ ringtone don’t worry, let me answer I’ll take your number and then I’ll call you back. I travel back to the UK every 6 weeks or so on business and I’m in the UK throughout the summer so if you want to meet me that’s still possible.

Puerto is on the north coast of the island and much more traditionally Spanish than the custom-built resorts in the south. The geography of the island (a high mountain ridge runs from North-East to south-west, peaking at El Teide, the highest mountain in Spain) together with the prevailing winds from the west, mean that the north gets much more rain than the south and is very verdant, lush and green. It’s where most of the food is grown and it houses the Botanical Gardens where the conquistadors brought back plants from South America to acclimatise before taking them to the mainland.

The south is more favoured by holidaymakers because it’s much sunnier and rain is less frequent, so if you’ve only got a week or two to soak up the sun that’s the place to be. However, it’s a bit of a desert outside of the resorts. We don’t mind a bit of rain (after all we live in the wettest part of the UK); we love the gardens, being able to walk every day and see something different in bloom each time; and the simple life in Puerto suits us.

The town is very steep, every road leading down to the harbour, but there is a coastal strip which is very level, containing many of the best hotels and is wheelchair accessible so even the less physically able can enjoy a holiday here.

It has great bus services too so you can get to the capital Santa Cruz, many of the outlying villages and right up to the El Teide cable-car very easily using the Titsa Ten+ bus pass

So next time you visit the Canaries take a look at Puerto de la Cruz, I love it and I think you might too.