An amazing and throughly enjoyable stay at the Beautful Hotel Botanico &The Oriental Spa Garden

I was looking forward to what I thought would be a simple but charming hotel stay at the Botanico & Oriental Spa Garden. It was a short visit, one afternoon and morning before we began our cruise on the Star Breeze. The hotel was gorgeous, we were warmly welcomed and shown to our lovely room with balcony over looking the sea. After a 20 hour flight we thought we might try the Spa. There are quite a few pools to choose from. The spa staff gave us a nice tour of the facilities and suggested we start in the "cave", accessed via short tunnel then into a cave, which was a very private space with a nice sized Jacuzzi. We then moved to the first pool, then on to the sauna, very attractive, then the steam room-also gorgeous and feeling fully revived we made one more stop and yet another lovely pool. All and all we dipped and rested-steamed/sauna and revived. We dined at the Italian restaurant in the hotel, which was charming, very good and quite reasonable. There was also an Oriental restaurant which we heard was excellent. The next morning we enjoyed a very large,and most diverse buffet breakfast-all included along with spa entrance, at the hotels very nominal rate. My only regret is that we didn't plan on staying at least three extra days before the trip. The Canary Islands are lovely and the hotel truly one of the nicest I have ever stayed. If we had more time we could have taken the complimentary shuttle to explore the old town. This hotel was a delightful surprise and a wonderful way to begin a cruise, or just come for a week and be restored in quiet beauty! Patricia Berry