This seaside promenade, now pedestrian, symbolises the great urban and tourist development which the town underwent in the 1960s. From this time dates the typical scene of Lázaro the Camel Man, who took tourists for a ride on the backs of his three Fuerteventura camels. Some years ago this street was transformed into a broad pedestrian promenade next to the terrace bars of the Martiánez coast. At one end there is the Plaza de los Reyes Católicos [the Plaza to the Catholic Monarchs], where there was erected a monument in memory of Francisco de Miranda, one of the forerunners of South American independence and a son of Puerto parents. In the same square is the train stop for the mini-train which takes tourists free of charge to the LORO PARQUE.

In the centre of Puerto de la Cruz is a promontory – in olden days called Misery Mount, as it is a volcanic badland – from where one gets the best view of the whole town. This green lung is the Taoro Park which in other times was a residential area for Puerto’s select foreign community. Now a public park, it covers almost 100,000 sq metres, divided into three different sections: los Jardines de La Atalaya, [Vantage Point Gardens], los Jardines del Taoro [Taoro Gardens] and Camino de la Sortija [Hoop Road]. Camino de la Sortija is where the British community used to run horse races , the aim being to catch a hoop on the lance. La Atalaya, the best-tended and most luxuriant part of the park, is criss-crossed by pleasant paths and stairways which meander between springs and waterfalls. At the top of the hill , dominating the whole town is the hundred-year old building which was the first great hotel built in Spain, the Taoro Gran Hotel, until recently a luxury gambling casino. The Anglican Church is in the middle of the park. Due to the lack of special facilities, the Taoro gardens have lately become an athletics ground where a lot of sports enthusiasts come to jog or train. The park still retains valuable remains of the volcanic badland and is being refurbished by the Council.

One of the best preserved architectural ensembles from the XVIIIth Century, and whose elements demonstrate the splendour of that age in the town, can be seen in Iriarte Street. On one side, next to the Plaza Concejil stands the Ventoso Mansion, which for many years and until recently housed a denominational school run by the Augustinians, before that the Town Hall and a military barracks, but which originally belonged to one great trading family of Puerto after another. The building, intended as the future Municipal Library and where loyalty to the Liberal Constitution of 1812 was sworn, is curious for having at the rear a square, six-storey tower. Built of stone and wood and embellished with balconies on each side, it is classified as one of the most elegant examples of Island architecture. It was built at the beginning of the XVIIIth Century by the merchant Nicolás Blanco and served as a watchtower to observe shipping movements: the first merchants to arrive at the harbour had preference when it came to doing business with the ships arriving from Europe.

This opened to the public in 1991 in El Lomo street, and is one of the foremost cultural centres in the north of Tenerife. It is located in a large, traditional Canary house from the XIXth Century in the harbour area , acquired and restored by the Town Council in 1981. In fact, its origins go back to 1953, the date of the creation of the Archaeological Museum of the Canary Institute of Hispanic Studies. Its collections include aboriginal pots and other utensils of considerable value, mummified guanche remains, XVIIth Century maps, butterfly collections, weapons, samples of timber from the Canary forests, etc. A great number of the collections were privately donated. The present exhibition recreates the habitat and customs of the Island’s aboriginal inhabitants. One of its treasures is Guatimac, a small, clay, guanche idol.

Despite its name, in all its history Puerto de la Cruz has never had a harbour worthy of the name. What is known as the old harbour was built shortly after the Conquest of the Island at the mouth of the San Felipe barranco, where now the splendid Playa Jardín [Garden Beach] is situated. The torrential rains of 1826 destroyed this first, humble harbour and the present fishing harbour, originally called the New Harbour, became the main one in the town. The first improvements were carried out between 1822 and 1824 by the Royal Maritime Directorate. and consisted in the building of the first section of the western breakwater. The enlargement of the breakwater as far as Baja Negra finished in 1881. Due to the harbour’s busy commercial activity in the XVII and XVIIIth Centuries, in particular the export of Malmsey wines from the Valley, King Philip IV called the town “the key to the Island”. The haven consists of two arms which shelter small fishing craft. In the 1980s the outer mole was enlarged, increasing the protection of La Marina street and the Plaza del Charco. At the fishing harbour, opposite the tiny Virgen del Carmen Chapel, stands the only remaining public watering place which still works

This is one of the most spectacular viewpoints on the Island. Situated on the very edge of the Martiánez cliffs, it gives a panoramic view over the new part of Puerto de la Cruz and especially of the Martiánez beach and the Martiánez Complex , as well as part of the Orotava Valley coast. This panoramic view inspired a tale by the famous English writer Agatha Christie during her stay in the town