Famous worldwide, this theme park is one of the most-visited places on the Island. It started in 1972 with a little parrot show and three decades later it has become one of Puerto de la Cruz’ and Tenerife’s most important tourist attractions. The Loro Parque possesses the world’s largest and most important parrot collection. Visitors can watch the fun spectacle of the sea lions and dolphins. Young and old enjoy the gorillas and other apes, tigers, jaguars, flamingos and alligators each housed in appropriate natural conditions. Another attraction is a giant Galapagos tortoise, over 40 years old. The attraction which receives most visits is the recently opened Penguinarium, a replica of the natural habitat in the Antarctic , where three species of these delightful birds live together. Another enclosure houses Humboldt penguins, a threatened subtropical species. The Park’s attractions are rounded off by the aquarium, the impressive shark tunnel, the orchid house and the audiovisual spectacle Naturavisión. The latest and most spectacular addition is the orca pool. Although it is sited in Punta Brava, somewhat outside the town centre, a nice little train takes tourists free-of-charge from the Plaza de los Reyes Católicos , near the Martiánez Complex right to the Park door at all hours of the day. The Loro Parque has its own Foundation which collaborates in important ecological and conservation projects all over the world.

The small pedestrian street of Las Lonjas is one of the most picturesque corners of Puerto de la Cruz, with a flavour of by-gone days. Its cobbles lead from the area around the Town Hall to the harbour. Its name is derived from the market which supplied the town with fish. At present one of the old buildings, the home of the Fishermen’s Association, is being restored. Next to it is one of the many chapels with a cross, scattered throughout the town, the Fish Market Chapel. Erected in 1821, it was financed by the seamen who fished off the coast of Africa.

Es el nombre popular con que se conoce al cementerio protestante. ‘Chercha’ es una derivación de la palabra inglesa church (iglesia). Su construcción data de 1676, lo que da idea de la importancia y tradición de la colonia extranjera en este municipio. Fue el primer cementerio protestante que se construyó en Canarias y uno de los primeros de toda España. Incluso, su construcción fue anterior a la del cementerio municipal de San Carlos.

In the last few years the Town Council has turned the Old Martiánez Garden into an open public place. This charming, evocative park, distinguished by three enormous laurel trees, belonged in the past to the old Martiánez Hotel. It still retains the old fountain stone and other original pieces. The Council has renovated the area and has a project to join it to the nearby Viera y Clavijo Plaza to create one large public park in the town centre.

The history of this marvellous hacienda, one of the oldest on the Island, goes back to the XVIIIth Century. The house was built in 1730 and for 44 years was a Convent. Its present name comes from its first proprietor Archibald Little who bought the holding in 1774, and the house and gardens came to be known as Little´s Place or Sitio Little, and the original name degenerated to the present Sitio Litre. Archibald carried out a series of reforms to turn it into a place of leisure; he restructured the house to turn it into a kind of inn or rest house and designed a lovely English-style garden in which he included representative Canary and subtropical plants. In 1852 it was sold to Charles Smith and stayed in his family until 1996 when the businessman John Lucas bought it and opened it to the public. The mansion is in colonial style with local touches. The roof terminates in a hexagonal viewpoint in English colonial style. Sitio Litre became the place to stop over for foreigners visiting the Island. Throughout its history, people as well-known as André-Pierre Ledru, Thomas Debary, Marianne North, Alexander von Humboldt, Alfredo Diston, William W. Wilde , Charles Piazzi-Smyth, Isaac Latimer, Richard Burton, Florence and Elle Du Cane, and Agatha and Rosalyn Christie passed through its doors. The result was that this botanical garden also became one of the main libraries on the Islands, as its illustrious visitors arrived accompanied by the latest publications from their home countries. At present, .Sitio Litre is an enchanting place to visit, with Puerto’s oldest dragon tree and a magic orchid garden.

On the road out of town we have one of our historical and cultural gems , a product of the Spanish Enlightenment. The Botanical and Acclimatisation Garden of La Orotava was created in1792 by the Marqués de Villanueva del Prado on the orders of King Carlos III to establish on Tenerife plantations to acclimatise plant species arriving from the Americas and Asia, since the experiments carried out in the Royal Gardens in Aranjuez and Madrid did not achieve the success hoped for , due to the rigours of winter. The Gardens contain an interesting collection of 1,500 subtropical species and receive over 300,000 visits every year. It is also home to a specialised library, a herbarium with 30,000 specimens, a germoplasm bank, a nursery and other facilities , making it an important research centre. The Canary Government plans to duplicate the area of the Garden in the near future. From a historical point of view, the Botanical Garden was Puerto’s first tourist attraction, because from the XIXth Century it was an obligatory visit for travellers arriving on the fruit company steamers.