Royal Hideaway Corales Beach

Hotels on Tenerife can be a little – how can I put this? – substandard. A little bit lacking in style, in grace, even in service. This is one popular island and that sense that another coach is just around the corner, that more tourists are due any minute, can lead to a shrug more often than a smile.

And so how refreshing Corales Beach feels. As soon as we arrived at the hushed, all-white reception the car was whisked away and a glass of cold cava thrust into our hands. No sooner had we expressed an interest in the Maresía restaurant than a table was booked for us the following night. We were taken to our room via a quick tour of the facilities – grinning at each other at the sight of the rooftop infinity pool, and at our bellhop’s assertion that we wouldn’t even need it with the room we’d booked.

He was – almost – right. Our room was an ocean-view junior suite (with hot tub) and it knocked spots off any hotel room we’d had in Tenerife before. Mr Smith was immediately on the balcony sizing up said tub and declaring it more than big enough for two; I was delighted to find a double sink – no fighting over space when getting ready for dinner. That hot tub was pressed into service straight away and, on the first night, even kept us from having a sundowner in the rooftop bar. Why bother getting dressed when you have a perfect view of the sun setting into the Atlantic from your outdoor bathtub? We vowed to make amends the following day and headed out for dinner.

Although Corales Beach has several restaurants, one of the best things about staying here is its location right behind La Caleta. This old fishing harbour has retained its traditionally Spanish feel despite the encroachment of tourism and is one of my favourite places for a plate of fresh fish and local white wine. We feasted on two types of bream that night, washed down with a bottle or two and held each other up as we tipsily walked the five minutes back up the hill to our room.

The next morning the pull of the infinity pool beat the soft entreaties of our king-sized bed and we found ourselves happily swimming lengths and pausing, arms folded over the side of the pool, to look down over the harbour and try to pick out the terrace we’d had dinner on. The perfect hangover cure.

We spent ages soaking up the sun but with breakfast running in the Nao buffet until 10.30am there wasn’t any rush. We wandered in soon after 10am and found none of the scrum we had feared – this is a calm space with plenty of staff on hand to bring freshly brewed coffee and eggs benedict. The buffet had the best selection of fresh fruit I’ve seen in Tenerife – mangos, berries, pineapple – and there were proper Kellogg’s cereals, freshly baked breads and even quinoa muffins for vegans.

Corales Beach is entirely adults-only, and so the rooftop pool was still quiet on our return. Staff laid out our towels on the comfy soft sunbeds and I sat sipping another coffee and losing myself in the sunshine and my book.

It’s tempting to stay by the infinity pool all day but there are also plenty of activities on offer, both at Corales Beach and at the Corales Suites family hotel next door. I was keen to do pilates in the afternoon so left Mr Smith to his magazine and headed down to the spa
for the hour-long class. The teacher led us through a routine that turned out to be even more relaxing than my usual class back home – though perhaps that was the fresh air and sunshine.

Mr Smith joined me in the spa for some pre-dinner hydrotherapy and we floated around in the warm pools and jets discussing our last meal. Maresía, the restaurant, is led by the Padrón brothers and we were excited to see whether it could possibly be as good as their Michelin-starred Rincón de Juan Carlos just up the coast.

We were pretty sceptical – until we found out that the degustation menu was the same one that had won the brothers that star. It ran to 10 courses and was amazing value at €80 each, with an especially memorable smoked eel served with delicious raspberry salt I scooped upon my finger and licked off in delight.

Since the restaurant sits on the rooftop, our table had the same view over La Caleta that we had enjoyed from our hot tub and from the infinity pool. We sat and looked out over the lights of the harbour as we sipped our digestifs and agreed that Maresía is second only to Rincón de Juan Carlos. And that Corales Beach is most certainly the best hotel on the island.