Moist Mercedes

Advantages: a lot to see
Disadvantages: I didn't find any.

...When we stayed in Puerto de la Cruz on Tenerife in December two years ago, I went on a coach tour to the north east of the island including the capital Santa Cruz. I booked it with the rep of our travel organisation, the actual tour operators are always local firms. It doesn?t make sense if I give you the name of the firm we went with as you can?t choose one, you have to take the one your travel organisation works with. I guess they?re all more or less alike and a tour?s success depends on the guide you get. Our first stop was the auditorium in Santa Cruz (built from 2000 to 2003) at the southern end of the harbour area, designed by the Spanish architect Santiago Calatrava, who?s famous for combining architecture, engineering, and sculpture, (from the net) ??he has produced an astonishingly photogenic opera house. Above its main...

MALU 21.05.2009 · Read review
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Review of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Tenerife

A must visit attraction if you holiday on Tenerife

Advantages: The cleanest animal park you will ever visit
Disadvantages: May be difficult for people with limited mobility

...Loro Parque is an amazing animal park. Quite simply I do not know where to start - there is so much that can be said. I am going to concentrate on the highlights of the day as there is too much to put in a single review. I hope I cover the main attractions and that you may decide to visit after reading. We visited as part of an organised excursion with our holiday company. The visit was expensive. But, after a day at Loro Parque we decided the entry fee was more than worth it. There is a land train that takes visitors who are either staying in or visiting Santa Cruz to the park. When we were there a year ago it was free but I don't know whether it still is. You enter Loro Parque through a grand entrance designed as a Thai Village. The village is said to be the largest Thai village outside of Thailand itself and the park...

nattinoo1970 06.02.2007 · Read review
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Review of Loro Parque, Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Loro Parque - Puerto de la Cruz

Advantages: Amazing wildlife and shows
Disadvantages: Long journey depending on where your staying

...Loro Parque is probably the best attraction on the Canary Island of Tenerife. Although the journey via coach from Puerto de Santiago took a tiring 3 and a bit hours to Puerto de la Cruz, it was well worth it. I would strongly recommend watching all of the shows around the park such as the sealions, whales, dolphins and the parrots. The dolphin and whale shows were amazing and I must admit that they topped those of Sea World, Orlando, Florida. Loro Parque meaning "Parrot Park" in Spanish lives up to the name as the park is based around the hundreds of different parrots they own. If you are on holiday to Tenerife, do not hesistate to visit this park. With animals ranging from penguins to tigers to gorillas, it truly is somewhere to visit as it is a brilliant place for families, couples, groups of friends or even by yourself. Do not miss...

HayleyMaloney 12.07.2008 · Read review
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Review of Loro Parque, Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Come to the Parrot Park and see much more than parrots!

Advantages: Great day out, interesting, Orca show
Disadvantages: Expensive!

...Loro Parque Review Recently I went away to Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife for the third time for nearly two weeks which would explain my absence from reviewing. Now I am back and you are probably going to see a few Tenerife reviews! I have been to the Loro Parque all three times I have been in Tenerife and think it is a brilliant tourist attraction and that if you are visiting you must go and visit it! Loro Parque is a cross between a massive fancy zoo, a conservation place and basically a brilliant tourist attraction (and it is advertised everywhere on the island!) My favourite part of the park was the Orca show and this is the best animal show I have ever seen and something you must see if visiting Loro Parque. The Orca whales are from Seaworld in America and they do lots of clever tricks and are very interesting to watch...

mariofan123 09.09.2009 · Read review
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Review of Loro Parque, Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Hotel Noelia Sur, Tenerife

Advantages: Quality, Family Friendly Hotel
Disadvantages: Non really, just needs to sort out the sunbed situation

...I have just got back from Tenerife and staying at the Hotel Noelia Sur. My family go to Tenerife every year and this is the second time we have stayed at the Noelia. It has always been known as a quality hotel, but like many hotels it has its blips. Our flight was with Monarch airlines and to be honest it did leave certain things to be desired. I was told to expect to pay £10.00 for the inflight meals, which basicaly are crap, but Monarch tried to hit us with a £15.00 bill for them.As there were 7 in my party, this would have been an extra £105.00. I honestly do not think there is a need for such a price, as this would bring in more than £5000 revenue for the company, just for the inflight meals. They already charge a price of £3.00 for a 330 ml can of beer that costs 60p in an off license. On top of this there is a hire charge of £1...

jacksback40 15.07.2007 · Read review
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Review of Hotel Noelia Sur, Tenerife

Santa Cruz, just cruz along.............

Advantages: Just excellent
Disadvantages: A little plane spotting

...We are now Vila Gale loyal customers. Personally we have stayed in their hotels as follows, Vila Gale Marina, Vila Gale Ampalius, both in Villamoura, on the Algarve. Vila Gale Tavira also on the Algarve and then last week Vila Gale Santa Cruz, Madeira. I can recommend all of the above, but the Santa Cruz is the newest and modernist of all. The reception is a vast expanse of glass, marble and big soft sofas and a view of the ocean, just for good measure. It somewhat reminds you of the old Art novo cinemas. Staff on reception where very polite and speak better English then I do Portuguese, excellent. The main areas of the hotel are all on -1 level, with magnificent views of the sea which is only 150 yards away. The restaurants have the same view, so does the fitness room, pools and Jacuzzi. There are two outside...

bostonianbeer 21.02.2008 · Read review
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Review of Vila Gale Hotels

Hotel Paradise Park, Tenerife - Great Base

Advantages: Good food
Disadvantages: Mega Hill

...I am pretty new to this and the following is a rewritten review. I have only done this by advise from other members to make it a better presented review. I hope you enjoy - ************ROOM********* The hotel room had brilliant air conditioning (an absolute must in the hotter months) and a little fridge that could easily fit a big bottle of lemonade as well as a bottle of water in it and still have room for some food. I personally liked this as there is nothing worse than warm water. There is refurbishment going on at present ( Apr 07). Be sure to request a room with a pool view as the rooms overlooking the road at the front of the hotel are a little noisy. *********FOOD********** We stayed on a half board basis and had breakfast every morning in the hotel restaurant. The food was always fresh and there was plenty of it. If...

traveller10 24.05.2007 (29.05.2007) · Read review
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Review of Hotel Paradise Park, Tenerife

Dancing Dolphins

Advantages: fascinating shows
Disadvantages: which make me sad

...The moment tourists set foot on Tenerife they get to know that Loro Parque is one, if not *the* attraction of the island, a huge poster welcomes them, all trolleys in the airport carry a small one. So that they won´t forget the message each bin on the island (more than 10 000 all in all) has a poster, too, showing a photo or a design of one of the animals of this small zoo. It´s situated in Puerto de la Cruz, the well-known resort in the north of the island, in Punta Brava to be precise near the Playa Jardin beach, there is a free mini train to the park leaving from Avenida de Colon near Hotel San Felipe (no stops in between). We certainly hadn´t flown to the Canaries to see a zoo, but in the first week of our holidays from Christmas 2004 to Epiphany 2005 the weather wasn´t very good, so when walking along the seafront or through...

MALU 09.01.2006 · Read review
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Review of Loro Parque, Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Parrot Park but I dont like the Birds

Advantages: a pleasant day out
Disadvantages: cost and parking

...Well since I dissapeared from here recently for almost two weeks forgive me for giving you an explaination before I continue this review, my OH was home on leave for the two weeks so we headed out to my Mums apartment in Tenerife. After a week of eating, drinking and arguing we decided to sober up and hire a car. Our intention was to drive to the peak to Teide but with a 1.1 C2 we decided that the car may not have been up to the challenge of the mountain roads so instead headed up the TF1 and TF5 motorways to Puerto de la Cruz and Loro Parque. The journey from the Village took just over and hour and a half, so from Las Americas or Los Christianos the drive would take around and hour. At the junction between TF1 and TF5 you will find all the road signs feature a small whale tail, parrot and dolphin symbol, this you simply follow to...

scuba_angel 14.09.2007 · Read review
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Review of Loro Parque, Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Santa Cruz - The Hippie Capital

Advantages: Fun place to see
Disadvantages: locals can be a bit weird...

...Santa Cruz is a great place to stop whilst on a road trip from San Fran to LA. A girlfriend and I decided to do exactly that, we'd spent a number of days travelling all over California, and we thought we'd visit the place where Lost Boys was filmed. Did we see any vampires...no..but loads of hippies. We found a motel to stay which was well priced, about $60 a night located two blocks from the beach and the famous Santa Cruz boardwalk. The first thing you notice whilst walking around are the amount of hippies there are around the place. People mostly in their mid 40s-60s smoking substances unknown to me, and wearing rainbow coloured clothing - very friendly, but a little weird. There are plenty of coffee/laundrette shops that boast a better collection of art than a museum. Nightlife seems non-exsistent, but plenty of cafe...

disneykelly 12.07.2000 · Read review
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Review of Santa Cruz (California)