Icod de los Vinos is the town our village belongs to, sitting on the slope directly above Playa de San Marcos. Guests end up there constantly — it has the supermarkets — and it is worth more attention than a shopping trip.
The name is about wine
De los Vinos, of the wines. These slopes have grown grapes since the sixteenth century, and the town’s wealth came from exporting them at a time when Canarian malvasía was drunk across Europe.
That history is still living rather than commemorated. The vines above the town are part of the same growing area as the bodegas at La Guancha, and the local wine our hosts tell you to order in Garachico comes from a few kilometres along the same slope. We have written about the wineries separately.
The dragon tree
The Drago Milenario is what brings the coaches. It is a Dracaena draco, the Canary Islands dragon tree, and it is the largest and best known specimen anywhere — a squat, many-branched thing that looks more like a fungus than a tree, and bleeds red resin when cut. That resin is where the name comes from.
Its age is honestly contested. The name claims a thousand years; dragon trees produce no growth rings, so nobody can settle it, and serious estimates are lower. It is undeniably very old and worth seeing.
The small square around it gets crowded when a coach arrives and empties again minutes later. Casa del Drago next door is where our hosts suggest sitting once you have looked at it.
The thing most visitors miss
Cueva del Viento is also in Icod: the longest lava tube in Europe, around eighteen kilometres mapped, and among the longest in the world. Guided visits only, and they sell out.
It is a far more remarkable thing than the tree, and a fraction as busy.
Eating, and the practical stuff
La Parada and El Mortero are the two traditional restaurants our hosts name, and Vielú does the thin-based pizza that ends up being a lot of guests’ easy evening.
Otherwise this is where the useful things are: Mercadona and HiperDino, the Lidl on the road towards Puerto, pharmacies, petrol, and the gym. See where to shop.
Getting there and back
Eight minutes by car up the hill. The walk down to San Marcos takes about half an hour and is pleasant; the walk up is a climb and our hosts advise against it. Details in the downhill walk.