Paradisus Salinas Lanzarote

In 1974 the Spanish chemicals and explosives firm Unión Explosivos Río Tinto began a hotel on the shore at Costa Teguise. Fernando Higueras drew it: a building of exposed concrete in the shape of a Y, its three arms stepping down the ground in terraces and skylights. César Manrique, the island's artist, made the murals, the pool and the gardens inside and out. The work was finished in 1977, and Higueras's foundation still counts it among his finest buildings. For decades it was the Meliá Salinas; Meliá spent €15 million on it and reopened it in 2023 as Paradisus Salinas Lanzarote, a five-star resort with 282 rooms and villas, for adults only (16 and over) and all-inclusive.

Most rooms have a terrace, and the entry Premium rooms have 32 m², a rain shower and organic toiletries. The Premium rooms look over the gardens, the Premium Ocean Front rooms over the Atlantic, and the Oceanfront Suite with Whirlpool has 65 m² and two terraces. Then there is The Reserve, a hotel within the hotel: its own lounge and check-in, a private breakfast, a concierge, and a pool with its own bar. Its junior suites run to 75 m², the penthouse on the top floor to 110 m², and the garden villas come with a freshwater pool of their own.

The reason to come is what Manrique left. Under the octagon at the heart of the building, water falls in shallow steps and along a channel beneath a jungle of hanging plants, lit from the skylights above. His murals are carved into the walls of the lobby, now the Ginger Lobby Bar, and of the original hotel restaurant, where the most striking is worked in porous red basalt. Outside, the planted terraces wrap the building like the island's farm terraces, and the 1,800 m² seawater lagoon pool curls between basalt, plants and whitewashed walls. Teguise's municipal catalogue protects the gardens at its highest grade, and the island's own heritage plan lists the building. The hotel runs a guided tour of the gardens, murals and pool for its guests.

The trade is the formula. Everyone is on all-inclusive, and the three à la carte dinners have to be booked. The lagoon pool is the busy one, and the quieter pool belongs to The Reserve, which costs more. Costa Teguise is the island's windy east coast. Book it if architecture and gardens matter more to you than a lively scene, and take a sea-facing room.