Hotels in Buenavista del Norte

Buenavista del Norte

Buenavista del Norte is a town and municipality at the far north-western corner of Tenerife, standing at about 120 metres above sea level and long the historic capital of the Daute district. The municipality covers 67.42 square kilometres, has nearly 34 kilometres of coastline and rises to 1,342 metres at Los Topos de la Mesa. It divides into three clearly different territories: the flat coastal shelf of the Isla Baja, the Teno massif above it, and the remote Teno Bajo beyond. The Isla Baja was formed when lava flows from the cones of El Palmar and Las Portelas reached the sea and built out a horizontal plain, which is why the land here is unusually level for Tenerife. The Teno massif behind it is among the oldest parts of the island, built up over roughly seven million years and now cut by deep barrancos. The name is said to come from the Castilian conquerors' reaction to the view over this country, and the town still looks out across banana plantations to the Atlantic. Buenavista is one of the few places on Tenerife that keeps the tradition of raising draught oxen, and its farming character remains far stronger than its tourism. Beyond the town the road runs out to Punta de Teno, the westernmost point of the island, where a lighthouse stands below the cliffs and vehicle access is restricted to protect the site. A links-style golf course lies along the shore just outside the town, laid out between the sea and the mountains. Green, agricultural and often cloud-touched, this corner of Tenerife is the natural base for walking in the Teno rural park and belongs to a wholly different island from the resorts of the south.