Beautiful oasis, good location, lavish spa, pleasant staff, good restaurants

We enjoyed another return visit to the Botánico (we first went there 50 years ago!), this time for eight nights. The hotel is a calm and elegant oasis high up the hill at the E edge of ‘downtown’ Puerto de la Cruz and close to its famous Botanical Garden, established in the 18c. The northern airport is a c. 30 minute taxi journey. The hotel continues the botanical theme with its own beautiful garden and offers an outstanding collection of local and Asian art in the public areas. There are several bus services close by and taxis to downtown (or elsewhere) are inexpensive. The hotel also offers a - somewhat limited - shuttle service to the city centre (which seems to be designed to discourage going there for lunch!). Apart from the Botanic Garden, the immediate area is uninteresting but there’s an attractive coastal walk to El Bullullo and beyond starting at the Mirador La Paz, only about 600 m downhill from the hotel. There’s little of interest to see in downtown Puerto de la Cruz but the better preserved La Orotava is only a short taxi ride. Our ‘double deluxe’ room, balcony and bathroom (shower over bath) were well sized and well equipped but their general ambience was more four star than five star. And the room faced NE, so never sees the sun in January - a disappointing allocation given that the hotel was far from full occupancy. Breakfast is a sumptuous self-service buffet. There are three elegant restaurants, expensive by local standards, and we dined every night in one or other of them (our favourite was Il Pappagallo). WiFi was easy to use but rather slow. All the staff we met were helpful and friendly. Overall, we thought our advance booking rate was good value - but some services are seriously overpriced e.g. the private airport transfer offered to the northern airport costs $125 compared to a taxi fare of c. $45). The clientele is mainly couples 50 + in age and the atmosphere correspondingly quiet. Families with small children might feel ‘out of place’. The Botánico is a relaxing and pleasant experience, five star in most respects and it’s also a good base for touring the interesting historic towns of northern Tenerife. Recommended.