Hotels in Adeje

Adeje

Adeje is the historic hill town that gives its name to the whole south-western municipality of Tenerife, standing at around 295 metres above sea level and about four kilometres inland from the coast. Its name comes from the Guanche menceyato of Adeje, one of the nine kingdoms that divided the island before the Castilian conquest, and is usually read as meaning "mountain massif". The long main street, Calle Grande, forms the spine of the old quarter and is lined with balconied Canarian houses, small shops and quiet terraces. At the top of it stands the sixteenth-century church of Santa Ursula, and beside it the Casa Fuerte, the fortified residence of the feudal lords of Adeje, which burned in 1902 and survives as the town's defining ruin. The town carries the official title of Historic Villa, added to its coat of arms in 2014. From the upper edge of the town the Barranco del Infierno ravine cuts into the mountains, and its trail is one of the most walked routes on the island, with daily visitor numbers capped by permit. The municipality as a whole is often said to hold the greatest concentration of five-star hotels in Europe, but those are all down on the coast, and the town itself keeps the unhurried rhythm of an ordinary Canarian working town. Los Cristianos lies about eight kilometres to the south, Tenerife South Airport around seventeen kilometres away, and the island capital Santa Cruz roughly sixty kilometres to the north-east. The altitude makes evenings noticeably cooler and fresher than on the beaches below, and the view runs down over the resorts to the open sea and the outline of La Gomera. It suits travellers who want the coast within ten minutes but would rather sleep in a real town than inside a resort.