I Love Los Gigantes: Tenerife From A Different Side!

After a long time without a break we decided to switch off, have a change of scenery and we travelled to the other side of the island. We were on holiday!!! but only for one day and it was just what we needed.

Just to be away for a few hours, having nowhere we had to be and no doors that had to be opened at a certain time was wonderful. It was also interesting to see the island from a tourists point of view which is very different post Covid.

We set off on Tuesday morning, headed up through Santiago Del Teide and wended our merry way up to Puerto De La Cruz where our destination was the Casablanca Apartments. We have stayed at Casablanca on many occasions since we moved to the island all those years ago.

On check in we had to fill in a declaration form that said we hadn't left the island for a certain amount of time (2 weeks I think) and another form that we had to sign with our contact details on it. I guess this was in case of a Covid outbreak and they would be able to contact us if need be.
After check in which only took a few minutes we headed to our room which was ready from midday, dumped our bags and headed off in to town.

We were curious as to how many places were open and others that were still closed post lockdown and Covid. I had been told by friends that probably one in three places was open and I would say this is a fairly accurate description. As you head further back from the sea front less places are open and an awful lot of business premises are up for rent.
We wondered back along the sea front there was definitely more people around, many of them might have been daytrippers . We headed to the main square and stopped for a quick bite to eat. A burger and a coffee followed by a cheeky glass of wine, (it was after midday and we were on holiday!)
Fed and watered, we continued on our walk and headed back along the sea front and back to towards the apartment.
Near where are staying there is a commercial centre called the Martinez, on previous visits we have watched it go slightly down hill, we'll say "tired" shall we?
It would now appear that the whole centre has had a facelift and it now has a great selection of shops as well as a big Mercadona Supermarket, even the supermarket has had a refurb. We picked up a souvenir for our son and we headed back to the Casablanca as we fancied a swim in the pool. Usually the pool is heated, on this day it wasn't although we did have it to ourselves which once we had got in was just lovely.

So, we had seen Puerto during the day but what was it like in the evening? we were about to find out!
We headed back down towards the square, taking a different route and although there was still a trickle of people around it was quiet. We had dinner at a restaurant called Pommadoro and until we had been there a good twenty minutes we were the only people in there. Eddie had fish and I decided on the lamb. Both dishes were served piping hot and delicious.
We strolled back the Casablanca and decided to stop for a night cap at the on site bar. Before Covid it would've been busy and there would be entertainment. On this evening there was just us, we had a couple of drinks, a couple of games and pool, I beat Eddie 2-1, we do like a game of pool although we don't play often.
We retired back to our apartment after a wonderful day and returned to Los Gigantes the following morning.
One more thing I really enjoyed was having the opportunity to practise my Spanish!

We had a wonderful short break and it was lovely to see the other side of the island and to also see it through a tourists eyes. We love Puerto de la Cruz and will definitely be back soon. We booked the Casablanca through Booking.com but it can easily be booked direct, just type it in to google and you will find their website.

Until next time, we now sit and wait to see if we will go green.

H x