Where the Canaries sleep: Atlantic resorts, old houses and island hideaways

The first decision in the Canaries is which island, and the second is which side of it. The south and west of Tenerife and Gran Canaria are dry and sunny, lined with resorts that face the Atlantic; the north of each island is greener and older, its towns built around plazas and churches. Lanzarote and Fuerteventura are low, volcanic and windswept, with long beaches; La Palma and La Gomera are steep, forested and quiet.

The resorts of south-west Tenerife

The Ritz-Carlton Tenerife, Abama has 459 rooms, suites and penthouses framed by the Atlantic, Mount Teide and its gardens, with a 2,500-square-metre spa and its own beach; its restaurant M.B holds two MICHELIN stars. At La Caleta, the Royal Hideaway Corales Resort houses three starred restaurants of its own: El Rincón de Juan Carlos, San-Hô and Il Bocconcino (MICHELIN Guide Spain, read 1 Nov 2026).

Old houses in the north

In Garachico, Hotel San Roque sets contemporary art inside a historic house a few streets from the sea. In Puerto de la Cruz, Hotel Botánico, a member of The Leading Hotels of the World, has its Oriental Spa Garden. On La Palma, Hotel Hacienda de Abajo occupies a seventeenth-century sugar plantation in Tazacorte, its 32 rooms hung with works of art from the first to the twentieth century.

Gran Canaria and the eastern islands

Bohemia Suites & Spa is an adults-only design hotel in Playa del Inglés with a panoramic restaurant and a rooftop bar; Salobre Hotel Resort & Serenity sits among golf courses near Maspalomas. On Lanzarote, the Princesa Yaiza faces Playa Dorada with nine restaurants; on Fuerteventura, Hotel Rural Mahoh keeps nine rooms in a nineteenth-century farmhouse of volcanic stone and wood.

For a first visit, stay a week on one island, with a night in a historic house in its north.

Our advice: if you want sun in winter, sleep in the south; if you want walks, markets and old towns, add a few nights in the north.