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
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Santa Cruz de Tenerife, 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
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Loro Parque, Santa Cruz de 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
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
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
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Loro Parque, Santa Cruz de 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
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
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
Ciao members have rated this review on average very helpful
Review of Loro Parque, Santa Cruz de Tenerife

Visit the Orchid Garden!

Advantages: Nice to visit, pretty, shady
Disadvantages: Quite small

... * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Orchid Garden Review * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Recently I visited Tenerife for almost two weeks and this is another review of somewhere I visited. Another Tenerife review I have written is on Loro Parque and is quite a good review in my opinion! Anyway today I am going to review the Orchid Gardens. While in Tenerife recently I visited the Orchid Gardens in Puerto de la Cruz. The garden was just up the road from the hotel I stayed in which is the Casablanca and probably took about 3 minutes to walk to from there! The orchid garden is a really interesting place to visit but it seemed to be very quiet ?although apparently it is busier in the winter! This is a shame as the gardens are a really nice place just to be in and relax and should be enjoyed by more people and I wish that more...

mariofan123 21.09.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Orchid Gardens, Puerto de la Cruz, Tenerife

A Fun Day Out in Tenerife!

Advantages: Good fun, suitable for all
Disadvantages: Expensive food and drink

...supermarkets or shops! Overall I had a really good time at the Lido and think most people would enjoy themselves there too. I would recommend it to everyone as everyone can enjoy it. The Lido was quite cheap but I would not want to pay to go in there for an hour or something especially when most hotels have a pool! I think it was about 14 euros for four of us. I think it is open most of the time but it is definitely busier on the weekends. I think the Martinez Lido is well worth visiting if in Puerto de La Cruz and would recommend it even if you are not staying in the North as it is a fun day out! 4/5 Thanks for reading! This review may appear on other sites under the names ns1209 and mariofan123....

mariofan123 01.10.2009 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Lido Martianez, Puerto de la Cruz

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
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Santa Cruz (California)

Fun day out with much more to see than just Loro

Advantages: Good Value. Lots to see. Shows Multi-Lingual
Disadvantages: Location poor for holiday makers in the south. Poorly planned show times.

...restaurants and cafe's in the Park, these seemed to cater of all tastes and budgets, the prices were about the same as you would expect to pay at a restaurant in resort. There are also loo's all over the place, which are all clean - not something you often see in UK attractions. The other things I particularly enjoyed seeing were the Orchid walkway and the Penguins, the penguins have had a natural habitat set up which I have never seen in any other zoo. A final note, I stayed in Puerto De La Cruz and there is a free bus to Loro Parque from the centre of town. Not sure how easy it would be to get to from the south of the island, i would imagine it would take at least an hour each way on coach. Oh and for those of you with Google Earth, it has great views of the park....

sammi_kt 29.07.2006 · Read review
Ciao members have rated this review on average helpful
Review of Loro Parque, Santa Cruz de Tenerife