Parador de Cruz de Tejeda

The Parador de Cruz de Tejeda stands on the pass in the heart of Gran Canaria, about 1,500 metres up, beside the stone cross that gives the place its name. The island's council built a mountain hotel here in the 1930s and 1940s in the style of a Canarian country house, and it is now the island's only Parador, part of Spain's state-run chain. The present Parador opened in February 2009. A forest fire in September 2017 damaged the roof, the spa and fifteen rooms, and after repairs that kept the old look it reopened on 5 October 2018.

There are 43 rooms in four categories: Standard Double, Superior Double, Junior Suite and an accessible double. They are Canarian in feel rather than grand, some under wooden ceilings. Most, though not all, face the Tejeda caldera, so ask for the caldera side when you book. Every category has rooms with a terrace, and the Junior Suite adds a sitting room and a canopy bed. Breakfast is a buffet from 7.45, and the restaurant cooks the island's food: watercress stew, papas arrugadas with mojo, local fish such as cherne, and bienmesabe, Tejeda's almond sweet. A guests' lounge with fireplaces takes care of cold evenings.

It is the escape because of what lies outside. From the stone terrace, the spa and the caldera-side rooms, the land drops into the Tejeda caldera, with the Roque Bentayga in the middle and the Roque Nublo, the island's emblem, on the skyline to the south. UNESCO listed the landscape in 2019 as the Risco Caído and Sacred Mountains of Gran Canaria. Trails leave from the Parador towards the Valle Escondido and the Roque Nublo, and the 3.2 km out-and-back path to the rock starts at the Degollada de La Goleta, reached on line 18 from the stop outside; entry from 9am to 5pm needs a booked slot. The spa, open from midday to 8pm, has a sauna, a Turkish bath and the outdoor hydrothermal pool, which looks across the caldera and, at times, over a sea of cloud.

The trade is the extras, the weather and the distance. The pool belongs to the spa, at €35 a person for a 90-minute circuit, booked ahead. At this height the pass can sit in cloud, fog or rain and turn cold while the south coast is in sun, so pack a warm layer and keep a spare day for the view. The beaches are a drive: the nearest, La Laja and Las Canteras, are 48 and 51 minutes away with the roads clear, and the Maspalomas lighthouse 79, all on mountain bends. Book it for two or three nights of walking and quiet, with a stay on the coast either side, at about €100 a night midweek in June.