Home to the archipelago's biggest container shipping port and a number of oil refineries, SANTA CRUZ is no aesthete's delight, but its uniquely Canarian urban vibrance is hard to find elsewhere on the island. From the time of the landing of the first conquistadors, Santa Cruz became the island's main port and, as Tenerife became a routine stop-off for replenishing supplies before the final leg of the journey to the New World, Spanish galleons would regularly anchor here and the town was well-fortified to protect them. Santa Cruz continues to be a convenient and popular port of call for navies of the world, tankers and Atlantic trawlers. As the island's capital city and the administrative and financial centre for the four westernmost Canary Islands, it has grown into a bustling, modern Spanish town, a grid of narrow shopping streets, parks and plazas, intersected by several wide bustling avenues.

The centre is easy to explore on foot, and though there are few real sights save for a couple of churches and some good museums, the pretty parks and plazas are pleasant to wander around and the absence of the resort racket makes a welcome change from the island's other major centres