To begin with, you shouldn’t ask yourself “What to see in Puerto de la Cruz”, but rather “What to feel in Puerto de la Cruz.” Because the city of Tenerife has a lot of history to tell, such as that tourism in the Canary Islands began there, but also a lot to offer, such as first-rate hotels, restaurants with a Canarian soul, pools carved into the volcanic landscape, and views of Teide that many of Tenerife’s beaches would envy.
Fortresses, Beaches, and Pools
Before earning its own name in 1808, when the king Ferdinand VII granted it the title of independent town, Puerto de la Cruz was a natural sea outlet from the conquest of Tenerife in 1496. From the then-called port of La Orotava, linked to maritime trade and agricultural export, many of the products that travelled to European markets, especially the prized Canarian wine, set out. This activity intensified after the volcanic eruptions that affected Garachico’s port in 1706, since the north of the island needed another embarkation point to meet foreign trade needs.
Due to this economic boom, it is not surprising that pirates and rival powers would want to raid its coastline, which required a defensive strategy materialized in fortifications that still resist against the sea, such as the Battery of Santa Bárbara or the Castle of San Felipe, which stands out with its colonial bearing in Playa Jardín, divided into three black-sand coves – Castillo Beach, Charcón Beach and Punta Brava Beach – and <-intervened in the 1990s by César Manrique, who conceived the coastal stretch that spans from the fort to the old fishermen’s quarter of Punta Brava (near Loro Parque) as a landscaped walk with native flora, with paths between stone walls and waterfalls.
