Puerto de la Cruz is about twenty-five minutes east of San Marcos, and it is the answer to most sentences that begin “there isn’t anywhere near us that…”. It has the restaurants, the surf, the pools and the nightlife that our village very deliberately does not.
The original resort, and why that matters
This was Tenerife’s first tourist town — receiving visitors from the nineteenth century, when northern Europeans came for the climate and the botanical gardens, long before Playa de las Américas existed as anything but coastline.
That history produced something the southern resorts do not have: a real town that happens to receive visitors, rather than a resort built from nothing to receive them. There is an old quarter, a working harbour, a Spanish population, and a settled international community that has been here for generations.
The practical consequence is variety. A town of this size on this coast should not have Thai, Indian, Lebanese and a Michelin-starred restaurant within walking distance of each other. It does, because people have lived here all year for a century and wanted food from home.
Where to eat
- El Taller Seve Díaz — one Michelin star, awarded in the 2026 guide, and the only starred restaurant in town. Book months ahead.
- Ristta — Thai, and the recommendation our hosts are most enthusiastic about
- Mother India — the best of the Indian options
- El Amir — Lebanese, and the baklava specifically
What else to do
Street art through the old Ranilla quarter, free and best on an overcast day.
Lago Martiánez, the seawater pool complex designed by César Manrique — the reliable swimming option when the open coast is not usable.
Surfing at Playa Martiánez, with the school our hosts recommend, and Playa del Socorro a little further west.
And the Jardín Botánico, planted in the eighteenth century as a staging post for acclimatising plants brought from the Americas to Europe.
When to go
Two obvious cases. An evening, when you want a proper dinner and some life around it — and a wet afternoon, because this is the nearest place with enough indoors to fill one.
Park in a town car park rather than the old streets, and walk.