The catch at Hotel Botánico & The Oriental Spa Garden

The hotel sits above Puerto de la Cruz on the north side of Tenerife, the cloudier side of the island. The hotel's own destination page sells the island on year-round sunshine and temperatures between 22 and 28 degrees; its own FAQ is the more useful document, because it explains that all three freshwater pools are held at 27 degrees 365 days a year, and the spa page that the thermal pools run to 26. You heat a pool that way when the air cannot be relied on to do it. A winter day here can be bright and warm from breakfast to dinner. It can also be grey the whole way through while the south coast, more than an hour's drive away round the island, is in shirt sleeves, and the north's cloud is the island's best-known complaint.

The rooms page describes the 38 square metre Superior Deluxe rooms and the 57 square metre Ambassador Superior suites as newly renovated, both in the adults-only wing. The three Deluxe categories on floors one to four, which are the rooms most people book, and the Ambassador Jr, Senator and penthouse categories carry no such line. The hotel's about page calls the whole building recently renovated, but it publishes no year for it anywhere on its site, for a hotel the town's tourist board dates to 1974. Guests rate cleanliness and service highest and value lowest, and report older bathrooms and marble-and-chintz decor in the categories the rooms page is quiet about.

For 9 to 11 February 2027 the Deluxe Teide View was 271 euros a night and the renovated Superior Deluxe Teide View 297. The whole gap between old and new is 26 euros.

The address is Avenida Richard J. Yeoward 1 in the residential Botánico district, on the slope above Puerto de la Cruz. The hotel's own FAQ puts the nearest beach, Playa Martiánez, at approximately 700 metres; on foot from the door it is 1.3 kilometres and 18 minutes down, and a climb back. Playa Jardín, the black-sand beach at the far end of town, is 38 minutes on foot or a five-minute drive. The streets of La Paz, two to five minutes' walk east of the door, are full of tourist pizzerias, grills and cafés, and one of them is worth knowing, but the places worth the evening start at Muxacho, 11 minutes on foot, and the rest need the minibus, a taxi or a car. The hotel runs a free minibus into the centre but publishes no timetable, and its transfer service needs 48 hours' notice. There is outdoor parking with electric charging, and this is a hotel where a car earns its keep.

The hotel lists three à la carte restaurants, the poolside Palmera Real for breakfast and lunch, and Brunelli's, its steakhouse across town. Each of the three evening restaurants closes two nights a week: The Oriental on Sunday and Monday, Il Pappagallo on Tuesday and Wednesday, La Parrilla on Thursday and Friday, all per the hotel's gastronomy page, which also warns that on 24 and 31 December every restaurant closes for the gala dinners. Dinner service is 18:30 to 22:30 in winter and 19:00 to 23:00 in summer. Gentlemen need long trousers and closed-toe shoes in the evening, and formal-casual dress is asked for in the public rooms all day. Half board buys three à la carte dishes a night. Guests praise the breakfast and report that the Italian and Spanish dinners trail it, along with occasional errors on the bill.

The Oriental Spa Garden is the reason to choose this hotel, and the FAQ confirms that the thermal circuit is included for guests. The conditions matter. The minimum age is 16 on the spa page and in the 2026 rules, so a family with younger teenagers is buying a spa hotel they cannot use together. The FAQ also sells Day Spa packages to outside visitors, which is why the circuit fills up in the afternoon; the spa page gives the hours as 09:00 to 20:00, the rules document 08:00 to 20:00 and the FAQ 10:00 to 20:00, so ask at the desk. Treatments are on the 2026 brochure: the 80-minute rituals are 195 to 205 euros, a 50-minute Thai or volcanic-stone massage 115, the couples' Golden Dragon ritual 475, and under the 2026 rules a cancellation inside four hours is charged in full.