What to see in La Orotava: balconies, gardens, mills and the gateway to the Teide
La Orotava sits in the north of Tenerife, in the middle of the valley that bears its name, and few towns in the islands have kept their old face so intact. The old town was declared a historic ensemble on 10 December 1976, and the Canary Islands Government ranks it alongside La Laguna and Vegueta and Triana in Las Palmas among the best-preserved historic centres in the archipelago.
What makes the town special is the change in altitude. The municipality stretches from the coast all the way to the summit of the Teide, at 3,718 metres, while the old town is built on the valley slope at 353 metres. You can walk the streets of mansions in a morning and, in the afternoon, be at the foot of the volcano without ever leaving the municipality.
A little history, so you know what you're looking at
In Guanche times the valley belonged to the menceyato (kingdom) of Taoro, which today's town council describes as the richest and most powerful kingdom on the island. After the conquest, the valley's wines, Malvasía and the sweet wine known as “canary sack”, reached Europe aboard Dutch and English merchant ships. On 28 November 1648 a royal decree of Philip IV separated La Orotava from La Laguna and gave it the rank of an independent “villa exenta”.
The old town is still divided in two. The Villa de Abajo, the lower town, is the quarter of the great manor houses, along Calle Colegio, Cólogan, San Francisco and Tomás Zerolo. The Villa de Arriba, the upper town, is made up of simpler, single-storey houses.
Casa de los Balcones and Calle San Francisco
Most people start here, and with good reason. The facade of the Casa de los Balcones, also known as the Casa Méndez Fonseca, has balconies carved from Canary pine running across three levels. Today the building is a centre for local crafts: in 1940 Eladia Machado opened her shop here, along with the first workshop school for lace and drawn-thread embroidery (calado), and calado is still La Orotava's most sought-after craft. An old spiral staircase leads up to the second floor, and it is not accessible to people with reduced mobility. See our Casa de los Balcones page.
Opposite stands the Casa del Turista, an 18th-century Canarian house whose courtyard opens like a viewpoint onto the valley. On the same street, right next to the Casa de los Balcones, the Centro de Arte Efímero “Alfombras de La Orotava” showcases the art of La Orotava's flower and earth carpets.
Nearby, at Calle Colegio 5, stands the Casa Lercaro (the Ponte Fonte house), begun in 1651: the date can still be read on the barred gate of its entrance hall.
The Town Hall square and its carpet of volcanic earth
The Plaza del Ayuntamiento opened in its present form in April 1912. Behind it stands the neoclassical town hall, built in the mid 19th century on the site of a former Poor Clares convent. But the square's real fame comes from a festival.
Corpus Christi in La Orotava is one of the best-known festivals in the islands: together with the Romería de San Isidro it makes up the town's patron saint festivities, the Fiestas Patronales, officially classed as being of National Tourist Interest since 1980. The first flower carpet was laid in 1847 by Leonor del Castillo in front of her house on Calle Colegio. Today 34 flower carpets are made along the route of the procession, covering roughly 1,200 square metres. On the Town Hall square, though, the picture has been “painted” since 1919 not with flowers but with volcanic earth in different colours, brought down from Las Cañadas, the high plateau of the Teide. It is the only carpet in La Orotava made from the national park's earth, and in 2007, at 859.42 square metres, it set a Guinness World Record as the largest natural sand painting in the world. The festival is not held on the national date of Corpus Christi but a week later, a custom followed since 1700.
Even if you're not here at festival time, the square is worth a stop: from its terrace you can see across the whole valley.
Churches and museums
Iglesia de la Concepción. Today's church is the third in a series built one after another on the site: work began in 1768, it was consecrated in 1788, and it has been a National Monument since 1948. A relief on the facade shows the outline of Cuba, because the rebuilding after the earthquakes was paid for with money from Canarian emigrants in Cuba. Inside there is also a museum of sacred art with seven rooms.
Iglesia de San Juan Bautista. This is where Pedro Roldán's “Christ Tied to the Column” is kept, a statue the town council calls the finest Andalusian Baroque sculpture in the islands.
Museo de Artesanía Iberoamericana de Tenerife (MAIT). Founded in 1990, the museum occupies the 17th-century Dominican convent of San Benito Abad and is run by the Cabildo de Tenerife. Alongside its collection of folk art from the Americas and the Philippines, it also displays Spanish and Latin American folk musical instruments. See our MAIT page.
Liceo de Taoro. Built in 1928 as a town palace commissioned by the Ascanio Monteverde couple, it has hosted exhibitions, concerts and talks since 1975.
Terraced gardens in the old town
Jardines Victoria. The gardens climb in terraces, one above the other, up to a Masonic mausoleum. The tomb was built for Diego de Ponte del Castillo, whom the Church refused to bury because he was a Freemason, and it was designed by Adolph Coquet. According to the town council, the mausoleum ended up empty. See our Jardines Victoria page.
Hijuela del Botánico. At the end of the 19th century it worked as a nursery: this is where plants were raised before moving, once acclimatised, to the botanical garden in Puerto de la Cruz. Among its trees stands a dragon tree around two hundred years old. See our Hijuela page. We cover the botanical garden itself in our Puerto de la Cruz article: What to see in Puerto de la Cruz.
Vines in the valley: the braided cordon
The valley's vines are grown using a distinctive local method, the braided cordon (cordón trenzado): canes of different ages are woven together to form long vine cordons raised off the ground. According to the regulatory council of the Valle de La Orotava wine region, the method was born of the steep, stony terrain and the needs of the Malvasía grape, and according to the Cabildo de Tenerife the technique has been declared intangible cultural heritage (Bien de Interés Cultural). If you drive through the valley, you'll see the cordons on the hillsides.
The mill route: water and gofio
In La Orotava the grain was ground by water mills rather than windmills, because the valley isn't windy enough. The main irrigation channel ran along the line of today's Calle Domingo González García, with the mills lined up beside it. Ten of them survive, and two still grind gofio, now powered by electricity. Gofio is flour made from toasted grain and a staple of Canarian cooking; if you can, take a bag home straight from the mill. If you're gluten intolerant, be careful: gofio is made from wheat as well as from maize, so ask at the mill what they're grinding. We've written about gluten-free options on Tenerife here: Where to eat gluten-free on Tenerife.
On Saturdays the valley's farmers' market is open too, with a few artisans. See our market page, and for which of Tenerife's markets opens on which day, read: Farmers' markets on Tenerife: which day each one opens.
The valley and the Teide: the road up starts here
La Orotava accounts for the larger part of Teide National Park: of the park's 18,990 hectares, 13,238 lie within this municipality. The park was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List in 2007, and the national park's “Telesforo Bravo” visitor centre is right here in the old town. Turismo de Tenerife recommends heading up to the Teide from here, on the northern road.
Two recent updates on the national park. Since 19 June 2026, following a decision by the Cabildo de Tenerife, smoking has been banned in the open air across the whole park: on the trails, at the viewpoints, in the car parks and at the rest areas. And the Altavista refuge, on the slopes of the Teide, reopened on 20 July 2026 after being closed since November 2019. See our Altavista page.
You can take in the whole valley from the Mirador de Humboldt, at 320 metres. Tradition has it that when Alexander von Humboldt first saw the valley, he fell to his knees. See our viewpoint page.
Heading uphill on the TF-21:
Aguamansa. At a thousand metres, next to the trout farm, the old pilgrims' path, the Camino a Candelaria, sets off.
La Caldera. To reach the recreation area, turn off the TF-21 at km 16.4.
Mirador de Mataznos. At km 19, at 1,248 metres. See our viewpoint page.
For the Teide summit permit and the cable car, we have a separate article: Climbing Pico del Teide: permit and cable car. We've gathered Tenerife's finest viewpoints here: The best viewpoints on Tenerife.
If you're here now, in October
From 5 to 31 October, nearly twenty cafés in La Orotava are competing in the third edition of “Mi Barraquito o tu Zaperoco”, each with its own version of the barraquito or the zaperoco. The barraquito is Tenerife's sweet, layered take on coffee, and we're publishing a separate article on it on 13 October. See the contest in our events guide.
How to get there and where to start
By guagua (bus): the TITSA service towards the Teide starts in Puerto de la Cruz and stops at La Orotava bus station, Aguamansa, El Portillo and Las Cañadas, at the Parador. You'll find the current timetable at titsa.com. For getting around without a car: The Canary Islands without a car.
Weather: the valley is often under a blanket of cloud brought by the trade winds, which locals call the “panza de burro”, and when it's there, the sun is often already shining higher up towards the Teide. Bring layers. More on the islands' microclimates here: Canary Islands microclimates: where to stay.
Tourist office: in the old town, at Calle Carrera Escultor Estévez 5.
If you want to eat too: we've written about the valley's guachinches, the eateries serving local wine and home cooking, here: Tenerife's guachinches by area.
If after La Orotava you'd like to explore another historic town, our La Laguna article will help: What to see in La Laguna.
Sources: La Orotava Town Council, tourism website (laorotava.es): the pages on the historic ensemble, history, churches, gardens, the mill route, festivals and viewpoints; Gobierno de Canarias, Decreto 22/2005 (BOC 2005/045) and the public notice of the BIC procedure for the cordón trenzado (BOC 2024/072); Cabildo de Tenerife press releases (the smoking ban in Teide National Park, June 2026; the reopening of the Altavista refuge); the regulatory council of the Valle de La Orotava wine region (dovalleorotava.com); data on Teide National Park from the Spanish Ministry for the Ecological Transition (MITECO) and the National Parks Agency (OAPN); Turismo de Tenerife (webtenerife.com); the Spanish Ministry of Culture's museum directory (MAIT); casa-balcones.com; casalercaro.com; TITSA.
Cover image (cropped): Jardín Victoria, La Orotava. Koppchen, CC BY 3.0, via Wikimedia Commons.