By JO TWEEDY

Natural highs: The fantastical Tiede National Park welcomes three million visitors every year


This time, though, it was going to be different. And as soon as the taxi driver put on some jaunty Spanish music and pelted away from the airport, going north, not stopping to pull his foot from the floor anywhere near the resorts in the island's south west, I had a good feeling.

As love affairs go, my relationship with Tenerife has been a slow-burner.

My first date with the largest of the Canary Islands came at the tender age of 18 when I spent two weeks basking in the glow of neon lights in notorious party town Playa de las Americas. I imbibed cocktails the colours of squashed frog, ate fast food, and deposited myself back on the doorstep of the family home looking peaky.

Later, a couple of work trips showcased a cruise ship, a conference centre and little else.

So far, so tepid. I had been to Tenerife - but never been to Tenerife.

And then came the banana fields. A sea of green flags swaying in the breeze, sectioned like paddy fields into staggered terraces, their plump, yellowing fruit fattening under the winter sun. It was my first clue that there is more to Tenerife than foam parties and frogtails.

You don't need to look too far to see what is responsible for the fertile soil. From almost all of the north, and a fair proportion of the south, El Tiede, Tenerife's active volcano, makes a sizeable dent in the inland panoramic.

The highest elevation in Spain, it dominates an island that is shaped roughly like one of the brawny legs of ham that hang in the north's tapas bars. And like el puerco, Tenerife has been carved into the choicest cuts. Tinerfeños have kept the lush, sloping foothills of the north to themselves and gifted the dry, arid plains - Wild-West-beautiful, but tarnished by mass development - of the south to tourism. It is a division of landmass that has served the island well. The locals' reward is a hefty slice of the European flop-and-drop industry, that brings some five million holidaymakers here annually.


Lodged between mountain and sea, the cities, towns and villages of Tenerife's north coast feel almost exclusively Spanish


In the soulless pocket of mini-England I called home for two weeks back in the mid-Nineties, the hotel-o-meter seemed to oscillate from downright-grotty to clean-but-unremarkable. Not so in 2011. The luxury developers have clearly been shovelling the volcanic soil as if their lives depend on it, and exclusive properties are now very much a part of the accommodation landscape.

What brought them here? Tenerife's most bankable asset...the weather. On an island pitched 300km from the coast of Africa, the average temperature is 22 degrees. In winter, the skies are clear, the sun high and hot. The trade winds caress. Nothing bites. You don’t sweat just walking around. You can sleep at night. It is the nicest climate I’ve encountered - summer or winter - in a decade of writing about travel, and it only took 3 hours and 40 minutes to get there.

Somewhere amid those banana fields on the west coast lies one of the new breed of hotels. Built in 2008 in the village of Alcalá, the Gran Melia Palacio de Isora is a vast, self-contained holiday village which counts almost 600 rooms, six restaurants, four pools and a spa and gym among its tourist-wooing credentials. Facing the smallest Canary Island, La Gomera, the resort serves up the kind of sea views (if not from all of the rooms, then certainly from the pool areas) that make you strike up conversations about 'moving to the coast...shall we?...one day?'.

In May last year, Thomson joined owners Sol Melia to offer the resort to the UK market on an all-inclusive basis. Five-star, it is a natural fit with the holiday goliath's luxury Sensatori brand. The hotel has been a roaring success with Thomson guests, especially with families who don't want to compromise on luxury but want somewhere where their offspring can run free and not be on the receiving end of snooty glances from fellow guests.

The general vibe that floats around Sensatori is Ibiza-lite. Couples recline on white leather daybeds, statement Swarovski chandeliers glint in the lobby, and when the sun begins its nightly descent, a DJ plays Café del Mar-style tunes. Pale English skins and under-fives may not seem the most natural combination, but the size of the hotel means that everyone rubs along nicely. An adult-only pool and sun-bathing lawn ensure that those who want to fade out the soundtrack of family chatter can easily do so.


Stacks of volcanic rock, moulded by the weather, teeter precariously around Tiede. Right, Jo catches the sun - and the wind - at a scenic spot in the volcano's foothills


The real test with resorts like this comes with the food. The bold offer of six restaurants turns out not to be quite true for all-inclusive guests. Two of them - including Calima, overseen by Spanish superchef Dani García - you must pay for. Of the remaining four, only one, Pangea, doesn't require a reservation to dine at night. During our four-night stay, I try to reserve one of the other restaurants every day...always to no avail. So, like the majority of other guests, we spend most evenings enjoying the culinary kaleidoscope of buffet-style dining. That said, you'd have to be very, very picky to not like something on offer. Chicken shish kebab anyone? A plate piled high with meatballs? Cuttlefish cooked to order?

By day three, though, it all feels too familiar. And while you can't fault Pangea in context, we are left craving something a little less inclusive. A quick 15-minute hop on the bus up the road to Los Gigantes - a small, quiet resort with a pretty harbour that is book-ended by chocolate-brown cliffs - suddenly feels like an exotic excursion. A mini-cauldron of paella, laden with hunks of fresh fish and slow-cooked chicken, proves a fitting antidote to any self-service tedium that may have crept in.

With a car, the hotel's west-coast location is a gift to easy exploration - you are a banana's throw from the Tiede National Park - which, in 2010, was the most visited in Europe and spans almost 19,000 hectares.

As soon as you deviate from the coast, you are already in the foothills of El Tiede.

Stay in low gear and you wind through hills where black, nutrient-rich soil nurtures up to 140 different species of plant. Up higher, the landscape is suddenly alpine, the cacti giving way to pine trees.

Approaching the gods at 2,000 metres, Tiede's snow-dusted crater comes into full view and the impact of hundreds of years of eruptions - the most catastrophic in 1798 - is laid out before you. A smooth tarmac road loops around the peak through vast, desolate expanses of 'aa', the Hawaiian name given to the type of lava that solidifies into a spiky, churned landscape that is the colour of charcoal. It makes your feet hurt just looking at it. A few miles on, the baked black makes way for red, and you're transported to what feels like America's Navajo country.

It is a desperate shame that many tourists never experience this awe-inspiring manifestation of Mother Nature's theatricals. If you have a whole day to dedicate, there is a cable car that trundles up to the summit, which stands at 3,178m.


Expect contemporary rooms and all-you-can-eat buffets at the vast Thomson Sensatori Tenerife resort in the west coast town of Alcalá


Coiling down the mountain roads in a northerly direction, you eventually come to Tenerife's capitals, one erstwhile, one new. They are just 9km apart - but culturally, there are centuries wedged between them. Current capital Santa Cruz is the 21st century face of the island, a cosmopolitan port city bristling with high street fashions and trendy bars. Just 5km north of it lies one of the island's best beaches, Las Teresitas, made golden with imported Sahara grains.

Old capital San Cristóbal de La Laguna - or just La Laguna - was made a UNESCO city in 1999. It was the first non-fortified Spanish colonial town, and its streets were used as an architectural blueprint for the fledgling towns in the Americas. Today, it is Tenerife's cultural outpost with some 30,000 students residing in the city.

Make sure to visit its core La Concepción, the towering early 16th century church around which much of La Laguna's colourful houses sprung up.


Short haul sunshine, long haul swimming: The resort's saltwater infinity pool is the longest in Europe


The city lit the touchpaper for similar easy-on-the-eye construction around the north-west coast. Towns and villages melt into the hills, offering rousing views of sea and mountain with the merest swivel of the neck.

The historic town of La Orotava hangs indolently in the verdant valley between volcano and ocean, and perhaps harbours the biggest visual thrills.

A 30-minute drive south and you come to Garachio. This former fishing port was almost obliterated by the 1798 eruption, but the the boiling lava which flowed through the town, eventually stilled by the Atlantic, hardened into what are now a beguiling cluster of rockpools, some shallow, some deep.

Tenerife bears the scars of over-zealous development and its reputation as a package holiday destination is unlikely to be changed. But don't dismiss this isle if you are looking for an out-of-season getaway with substance. Point your compass north and there are few destinations this side of an eight-hour flight that can match it.


Travel Facts
Thomson (0871 231 5595; www.thomson.co.uk) offers seven night holidays at the 5T+ Sensatori Resort in Guia De Isora on a full-board-plus basis, from £769 based on two people sharing – a saving £260 per person. Departing on 26 April 2011 from London Gatwick airport, this price includes return flights, accommodation, transfers and all taxes and charges.

For more information on holidays to Tenerife, visit www.webtenerifeuk.co.uk


source: dailymail