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SPAIN | Tenerife, Spain Travel Guide
Wednesday, April 24, 2024
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Northeastern Tenerife
Exploring Northeastern Tenerife
Santa Cruz de Tenerife
The capital city, numbering over 200,000 people, is no place to spend a vacation on the island of Tenerife unless the celebrations of Carnaval are under way. The overriding air of commercialism and the grimy industrial port area are rarely out of sight. Still, there are countless hotels, some casinos, a rollicking nightlife, lots of concrete. Unlike the historic capital of La Laguna nearby, which Santa Cruz gradually replaced during the 18th century, this city’s architecture is predominantly modern, with some exceptions in the central district around Plaza de España, an area that hosts the bulk of February’s Carnaval festivities. The streets and medieval accoutrements gathered around this plaza, namely the imposing city hall known as the Cabildo de Tenerife, the modest 16th-century Iglesia de La Concepcíon and the brick streets leading off from it (one of which leads to the refreshing confines of the Parque de Garcia Sanabria), create an endearing contrast to the rest of the city. Not that Santa Cruz lacks other attractive areas. There are tree-lined boulevards, with pots hung from balconies overflowing with bougainvillea and one stylish, leisurely water park designed by beloved Canary architect Cesar Manrique. But, with so much else to see and do on the islands, these few niceties pale in comparison.
La Laguna
Inland from Santa Cruz, the university town of San Cristobal de La Laguna is, by all outward appearances, the antithesis of its larger neighbor. With its founding in 1497, La Laguna served as the capital of Tenerife until the 18th century, when its port of Garchico was obliterated by a 15th-century volcanic eruption. Still, thanks to an ensemble of 17th- and 18th-century monuments, mansions and its respected Universidad de San Fernando, La Laguna is recognized as the island’s cultural lodestar. In touring around, stick to the classic streets of Nava Grimon, Herradores, and San Agustin de la Carrera, each within close proximity of the next. Besides the alluring Catedral and the Mudéjar-influenced Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de la Concepción, both of which house religious museums, the Iglesia de La Laguna, Convento de Santa Catalina and La Ermita de San Miguel warrant mention.
Taganana
As it only received electricity and telephone lines around 20 years ago, the quiet village of Taganana on the far northeastern coast of Tenerife has survived relatively unscathed from the changes wrought on much of the island through increasing tourism. Along with a handful of other small villages or caserios and a sprinkling of overgrown caves where the native Gaunches once dwelled, Taganana lies in the realm of the moisture-rich Montes de las Mercedes, one of the few areas of the island that wasn’t affected by the eruptions of Teide. In Taganana one drinks the locally made rose wine and drinks in the rugged coastal vistas of the ocean, here pierced intermittently by giant volcanic rocks. Fishing has long been the lifeblood of Taganana. If for nothing else, you should stop here to sample the fine white fish called la vieja.
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