|
Home > Features > Tenerife
|
|
|
Andrew Eames talks to us about Tenerife
Posted On
03.04.07 |
 |
|
|
|
Tenerife has been Britain's favourite Canary Island for decades, and a century ago its northern shore was the resort of choice for the British elite. It had elegant hotels, botanical gardens, a climate which doctors prescribed to ailing gentility, and it attracted King George VI, Winston Churchill and Agatha Christie, who all arrived by ocean liner.
Then came the package tourism revolution, with its emphasis on fly-and-flop. The new generation decamped to the scrubby southern end of the island, where the sunshine was far more reliable and the chips were piled high on the plate.
But now the business has turned full circle, and northern Tenerife is pulling in more discriminating travellers again. Much of this revival is focused around the original resort of Puerto de la Cruz, where the riot of greenery is a welcome sight for winter eyes. In downtown Puerto the old souvenir tat has been replaced by more upscale branded goods and several of the Canarian mansions have been sympathetically converted into hotels like the Marquesa and the Monopol and into restaurants like the Regulo and Casa Miranda, specialising in local cuisine.
The cooler, more variable weather on this northerly coast makes ideal walking conditions for the Anaga Mountains, to the northeast, or for the Isla Baja on the western corner. This is a Tenerife that few visitors ever witness, the Tenerife of distant goat bells, of laurisilva woods, of slow dripping mists, of vines, campesinos and wheeling birds of prey.
For an insight into unspoiled village life head for Garachico, a peaceful little gem of cobbled streets and Canarian architecture, with a central square surrounded by laurel trees, a Franciscan convent, an 18th century church, and the residence of the Counts of Gomera.
A couple of Garachico's grandest houses have been converted into boutique hotels - the Quinta Roja and the San Roque - but tourism here is still low key. By day groups of old men play cards under the muscular laurels; by night, it'll be just you and the convent cat.
Andrew Eames writes for the Daily Express, Times and Daily Telegraph. His peripatetic lifestyle is the envy of everyone he meets – although he is keen to emphasise how hard his life is, sampling everyone else’s holidays. Along the way he also writes books, the latest being The 8.55 to Baghdad, an award-winning account of a train journey from London to Iraq just before the toppling of Saddam Hussein, described by the Daily Mail as the Travel Book of the Year |
|
|
 |
|
|
Andrew Eames, Travel Writer
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
