Puerto de la Cruz ⚓ Tenerife, Canaries: Hotels, Restaurants & Activities

Puerto de la Cruz ⚓ Tenerife, Canaries: Hotels, Restaurants & Activities

Tenerife comprised the second leg of our 14-day Spain and Canary islands itinerary. After spending 3 days at Golf del Sur in the south of the island, we headed up north by coach to Puerto de la Cruz.

We planned to stay 1 night at a small central hotel close to the bus station, followed by a few more nights at a more up-market hotel in the north part of town.

Little did we know we’d be testing our psychological endurance against an army of Teutonic pensioners sporting high-SPF sun cream. We were to discover that our fledgling Spanish language skills are redundant when most signs and menus leaned heavily into German.

 

Escaping South Tenerife 🗺️ Why Heading North Saves Your Sanity

Ever spent time in a holiday location resembling an endless parking lot of sunburned flesh and golf carts? After three days in the sun-baked, expat-infested sprawl of Tenerife’s southern coast, our patience had worn thin.

We craved actual character. We wanted a place where the local architecture didn’t comprise monolithic concrete blocks shouting happy-hour cocktail prices in three languages.

Enter Puerto de la Cruz, clinging stubbornly to the dramatic, wave-lashed northern rim of the island.

Leaving Gold Del Sur felt less like moving between holiday destinations and more like escape from a resort prison. The bus journey from the south cost a modest €18. As the arid southern scrubland melted away into mist-veiled emerald mountains, the temperature dropped just enough to remind us we were heading to the Atlantic coast.

Where We Stayed 🏨 Puerto de la Cruz Hotels

Checking into a North Tenerife hotel guarantees an unforgettable exercise in cultural immersion.

Hotel Marte 🏨 The Culinary Crime Scene At Breakfast

We stepped off the coach near Hotel Marte, a central establishment situated a stone’s throw from the local bus station. First impressions suggested a building that peaked during the Franco administration and decided maintenance was optional.

Our room was small but functional, with a compact double bed and a tiny flat-screen TV. We paid €60 for the night, including breakfast. However, this was easily the worst buffet breakfast we can remember not eating.

As with most places in Puerto, the hotel is tailored for elderly German tourists – and their breakfast reflects this. Plenty of bratwurst, muesli and black bread. There’s no bacon, no real tea or real milk, and watered-down juices.

We were lucky we’d only booked 1 night here.

Hotel Atlantic El Tope 🏨 Twin Beds & Atlantic Panoramas

Relocating to the north side of town led to Hotel El Tope, a larger, vastly more modern monolith dominating the local skyline.

This establishment also caters overwhelmingly to a demographic of spry German pensioners who treat breakfast buffets like high-stakes tactical maneuvers.

• The Room: We’d requested one large bed, but the front desk had other plans: Two single beds shoved together, creating a tactical canyon right down the middle.
• The View: Compensating for our nocturnal separation was a magnificent, sweeping balcony vista of the Atlantic Ocean crashing aggressively against black volcanic rocks.
• The Buffet Realities: The breakfast spread was adequate, provided your culinary ambitions don’t stretch beyond lukewarm scrambled eggs and industrial coffee. We were supervised by an intense floor manager who patrolled the cereal dispensers with the stern vigilance of an Austro-Hungarian border guard.

Safety deposit boxes required the standard daily rental fee, an annoying little holiday tax universally applied across the Canary Islands.

Wifi Internet in the hotel is next to useless – incredibly slow even in the Reception area. You need a new password every day, and this is valid for just one device.

They have a computer that you can pay to use (€2  for 10 minutes) but forget about trying to print anything – boarding passes? You’ll just get a message in Spanish (and German!) telling you that no printer has been set up.

You have to email your boarding passes to the hotel email address and then ask a receptionist to print it for you.

The buffet breakfast is just about OK – don’t expect quality. The staff are generally polite and helpful. For us, this was marred by one particular functionary in the breakfast room (probably one of the managers, since he wasn’t wearing a name tag).

He very rudely tried to move us to another table during breakfast, then went off in a huff when we refused. The rest of the staff were polite and friendly.

For three nights, including breakfasts, the bill came to a reasonable €210 based on two people sharing. It’s astonishing what you can put up with when a room rate leaves enough euros in your pocket for a couple of pints and a bag of crisps.

If you’re German – or better still, part of a group of German pensioners – Welcome Home! Any other nationality? Get to the back of the queue.

Germany actually has some interesting historical links with Puerto de la Cruz, as we discovered in this article by EL PAÍS.

What to See & Do in Town

Once you’ve successfully navigated the buffet gauntlet and wrapped up well against the Atlantic winds, the town offers a number of diversions to work up an appetite.

Sea-front Bathing Pools

Maybe it was the time of year (May), but our visit to Tenerife was decidedly wintry. With huge waves crashing in off the Atlantic, this isn’t the sort of place that invites you for a dip in the sea.

No wonder Puerto de la Cruz features a large number of sea-front bathing pools – These are the closest most people will get to the ocean.

Walk the Promenade 💨

Puerto de la Cruz refuses to pander exclusively to sun-worshippers. The seafront promenade offers a brisk, lung-clearing stomp alongside crashing Atlantic swells. You walk past historic Canarian architecture, wrought-iron balconies, and dramatic coastal panoramas that manage to look moody even when the sun’s shining.

But sooner rather than later you’ll be looking for some other ways to occupy your time. When the bracing sea spray gets too much, you can always retreat inland to marvel at screaming exotic birds.

Loro Park 🦜 Parrots, Penguins & Marine Spectacles

We eventually caved to popular tourist pressure and visited Loro Parque, a sprawling animal sanctuary tucked away on the edge of town. If you possess a soft spot for feathered fauna, this place is essentially avian Valhalla.

Billed as the largest parrot sanctuary on the planet, it houses an astonishing menagerie of screaming, brilliantly colored birds alongside killer whales, penguins, and slithering reptiles.

Walking through the park feels like stepping into a botanical fever dream where every bush contains something that might either bite you or recite German poetry. The scale of the park is vast, the upkeep is remarkably pristine, and the dolphin shows draw crowds that rival a rock concert.

It makes for an exceptionally solid afternoon out, provided you don’t mind sharing your walking paths with three thousand school children on a field trip.

Like its sister park in the south – Siam Park – Loro Parque is one of Tenerife’s biggest attractions, and deservedly so.

Culinary Masterclasses 🥘 Where To Eat In Puerto de la Cruz

Among the best experiences of our two-week trip to the Canary Islands was undoubtedly the local restaurants. Puerto de la Cruz in particular is home to some outstanding eateries.

Before our trip we’d earmarked a few places that struck our fancy. These were all character-restaurants with a high number of excellent reviews.

El Taller Seve Diaz

If it’s a Michelin-style experience you’re looking for, then head over to El Taller Seve Diaz.

Located close to the coastal High Street that runs through Puerto de la Cruz, this restaurant blew our minds with the ingenuity, inventiveness and flavour of the dishes on offer.

If you visit only one restaurant in Tenerife, make sure it’s this one. The overall experience will make you question why you ever settled for a frozen pizza.

FIND IN GOOGLE MAPS

Bodegar Julian

Located right on the main high street, this family-run tavern offers hearty, traditional food at prices that won’t induce heart palpitations.

Do not skip their homemade croquettes under any circumstances.

Halfway through our meal, our hosts picked up guitars and treated the dining room to an impromptu bolero. It was charming, slightly disorienting, and entirely authentic.

FIND IN GOOGLE MAPS

Tito’s Bodeguita

Tucked up the mountain slopes a few kilometers southeast of town, this garden restaurant requires a dedicated taxi ride or a genuinely enthusiastic uphill hike.

The reward? Tuna tartare and tender lamb chops consumed under lush, tropical foliage while twilight settles over the mountains.

FIND IN GOOGLE MAPS

A visit to Tito’s Bodeguita is well worth the effort. This is a large beautifully-landscaped garden restaurant.

The food is tasty and well presented, and the prices very reasonable.

Conclusion 🌅 Why The North Wins Every Time

Leaving Puerto de la Cruz to catch the ferry towards Gran Canaria felt oddly bittersweet.

Sure, the bed had a canyon down the middle, and the breakfast room supervisor possessed the warmth of a glacier, but the town has soul. It offers crisp mountain air, astonishing food, historic streetscapes, and a refreshing lack of neon-lit English pubs selling full English for €6.50.

If you ever find yourself trapped in the sun-baked, sanitized tourist soup of Tenerife’s southern resorts, take the bus north. Your lungs, your palate, and your sanity will thank you.

Tenerife to Gran Canaria

Tips for Your Puerto de la Cruz Adventure:

🥾 Wear sensible footwear: Cobblestones and steep mountain paths care nothing for your delicate arches.

🚰 BYO water: Hotel tap water tastes like it was channeled straight through a Franco-era radiator.

🤪 Embrace the chaos. You’re surrounded by militant German pensioners; resistance is entirely futile.

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If you like Tenerife North, check out Tenerife & Gran Canaria with Stopovers in Spain. You may also like:

 

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