Better for viewing than swimming

Sea water swimming pool
see all photos »

I took the bus to Los Gigantes, the resort on the west coast which is adjacent to high cliffs (1500 metres plus) which plunge down to the sea. The bus goes through Icod at the coast then up very high into the mountains as it crosses to the other coast. Beautiful views (through clouds ..)

The weather was sunny and warm here. There are some nice walks around Los Gigantes and Puerto de Santiago but the beaches are small and rocky. The seawater swimming pool is attrractive, but better for viewing than swimming (I suspect).Unfortunately the whole area is overdeveloped. Apparently it was unpopulated until a couple of decades ago, so there are no old buildings of interest and little sense that ‘real people’ live here. This feeling grows stronger as you go down the coast towards the south which the really big tourist areas are located.

Los Gigantes cliffs
see all photos »

There is a particularly repulsive 5 star hotel development at Abama on this coast (328 rooms and 10 restaurants .. plus several private villas). It is done in a Moorish (sort of) style and painted a repulsive colour of rose. But Trip Advisor reviews of it say it is great .. horses for course as the English say.