Hotel Botánico & The Oriental Spa Garden

Botánico has been the reliable north-coast choice since the 1970s, a member of Leading Hotels of the World, owned by the Loro Parque group whose parrot park is the other reason people come to this town. It is 212 rooms and suites set in 25,000 square metres of subtropical garden holding more than 200 species of plant and tree, along with black swans, koi and a bonsai corner. The view from the pool is Teide. The suite names tell you what sort of hotel this has been for fifty years, among them one for the Queen of Thailand and one for Michael Jackson.

It is a traditional hotel, and that cuts both ways. Guest feedback praises the old-school service, the generous breakfast and the sense of space. The recurring complaint is that the classic decor, marble and chintz in places, feels dated to anyone used to the modern south-coast hotels. Refurbishment has run category by category and the hotel publishes no year for it, so ask for a renovated room and ask which categories are actually done. The gardens carry the ground floor. They are why the building does not feel its age, and why the regulars keep coming back.

The Oriental Spa Garden is the reason many guests choose the hotel at all. It is Thai-inspired, set in 3,500 square metres of its own garden, open until 20:00, with a thermal circuit, heated pools up to 26 degrees and a team of nearly thirty therapists. Non-residents can book it too, which explains the busy afternoons. On the food side there are four restaurants: The Oriental for Asian fine dining with a Thai kitchen team, Il Pappagallo for Italian, La Parrilla for Spanish grills, and Palmera Real for breakfast and lunch by the pool, with the Bar Hall pouring cocktails to live music until one. Each evening restaurant closes two nights a week on a rota, so check before you plan.

The setting is the point. Puerto de la Cruz is a real town with a working harbour, a botanical garden next door and the green Orotava valley behind. Come for gardens, the spa, Teide day trips and a cooler, gentler pace. Do not come for a tan: the north sits under cloud more often than the brochure suggests, and the pools, though heated, are not always sunbathing weather. You are not on a beach either, and the town's black sand and sea pools are a walk or a short drive. If you want guaranteed sun, go south. If you want the rest of Tenerife, this is the better side of the island, and the rate is kinder than the south's in the same weeks.