Hotel Emblemático San Agustin

A 17th-Century Patio House Beside Tenerife's Oldest Tree

Hotel Emblemático San Agustín occupies a merchant house built in the early seventeenth century in the historic centre of Icod de los Vinos, restored in traditional Canarian style rather than modernised out of recognition. Dark wood ceilings, floors and staircases run against bright white walls, with Moorish-influenced tilework picking out the wooden balustrades. At its centre sits a Canarian patio, a courtyard with a fountain, palms and dense planting, around which six of the eight rooms look out; the remaining two face the street below. It is the kind of building that explains itself the moment a guest steps through the door, long before a single amenity is mentioned.

Why It Works

We chose this hotel because it offers something the island's coastal resorts cannot: a genuine historic interior, not a themed recreation of one, in a town most visitors only pass through on the way to the dragon tree. Eight rooms keep the operation intimate, each individually furnished with wide beds, marble bathrooms and multi-jet showers, a level of detail unusual at this scale. The 9.5 rating across more than seven hundred reviews reflects consistency as much as charm: guests return for the welcome glass of wine, the courtyard breakfast, and a quiet that the coast rarely offers.

Why This Location

Icod de los Vinos's old town unfolds around the hotel's front door: the thousand-year-old dragon tree, the village's defining landmark, is a short walk away, as is the fifteenth-century Iglesia de San Marcos with its Renaissance portal. The Cueva del Viento lava cave is about 3.5 kilometres out, and San Marcos's black-sand beach roughly 3 kilometres. Puerto de la Cruz, with its sea-water pools and Loro Parque, is a twenty-minute drive, and Mount Teide looms about an hour away. It is a base for exploring Tenerife's volcanic north, not its resort coast.

Fast Facts

• Prix: €€

• Vibe: Historic, intimate, courtyard, romantic

• Chambres: 8 individually furnished rooms (18-24 sqm), six facing the Canarian patio

• Best For: Couples and history-minded travellers; not suited to guests needing a lift

• Our Favorite Thing About the Hotel: The Canarian patio courtyard, with its fountain and palms at the building's centre

• Dining: Full breakfast in the courtyard cafeteria (breads, cured meats, cheeses, fresh orange juice); welcome drink on arrival

• Amenities: Marble bathrooms with multi-jet massage showers, Aloe Vera toiletries, free WiFi, nearby public garage parking

• Attractions: Dragon tree of Icod de los Vinos (short walk), Iglesia de San Marcos (short walk), Cueva del Viento (3.5 km), San Marcos beach (3 km)

Rooms Built Around a Courtyard

Each of the eight rooms is individually furnished rather than fitted to a single template, spanning roughly 18 to 24 square metres with two wide 210-centimetre beds and a choice of pillows. Marble bathrooms come with multi-jet massage showers and Aloe Vera toiletries, a detail that nods to the island's own aloe industry. Six rooms open onto the covered wooden balcony overlooking the patio, where the sound is the fountain rather than traffic; the two street-facing rooms trade some quiet for views over the old town's rooftops. There is no lift, worth noting for guests who prefer not to manage stairs with luggage, though staff will help where they can.

An Old Town Worth Lingering In

Breakfast is taken in the courtyard cafeteria, a spread of breads, pastries, cereals, fresh fruit, eggs, cheeses, cured meats and orange juice rather than a hotel buffet line, and it is the one meal served on site. For lunch and dinner, the tapas bar Akepikas sits a few steps away in the pedestrian zone near the dragon tree, and the surrounding streets hold enough small restaurants to fill a weekend without a car. A welcome drink, wine or a soft drink, greets every arrival, and chocolate is left out in a first-floor lounge. Free parking is available in a public garage roughly 250 metres from the door, a rare convenience in a historic centre built long before cars.