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Buenavista del Norte is in Tenerife’s northwest |
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Written by Steve Andrews
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 Buenavista del Norte, meaning, “Good view of the North, is the most extreme north-westerly municipality of Tenerife and lies at the foot of the Teno Massif mountain chain. Around and about it does offer some stunning countryside, so is well named.
Buses from Buenavista go to the mountain village of Masca, which is a “must-see” location for visitors to the island, and they will also take you to El Palmar and Las Portelas, which are also on the much higher ground. The sweeping El Palmar valley is an amazing landscape to view.
 Buenavista itself only has a population of around 5,000 residents and because of its location, which is to a degree away from the usual routes that tourists take, its potential for economic growth has been held back. It is nevertheless a charming Canarian town, which was founded in the early 16th century and has a traditional square with a bandstand and a church close by.
 The church in this old part of the town is the Iglesia de la Nuestra Señora de los Remedios (Our Lady of the Remedies), who is the patron of Buenavista and who is said to have saved the town from a plague of locusts in 1659.
Buenavista has most of the usual shops and businesses you would expect in a town, as well as many bars and restaurants. Buenavista also boasts a golf course located below the town and overlooking the sea. In this area there is a rocky beach known as Playa de los Barqueros and some splendid Tenerife coastal scenery. The small chapel called the Ermita de Nuestra Señora del Carmen you will find on the way down to this beach.
 The coastal areas of Teno and the wild and mainly deserted countryside around Buenavista is of special interest to botanists and nature-lovers, who will find many unusual Tenerife endemic plants in the region, including the Tolda (Euphorbia aphylla), which is a succulent member of the Spurge family.
 Buenavista has a small park that has a seven-headed dragon tree and some grassy lawns and from it you can easily see the towering Montaña de Taco, which has a reservoir in its crater said to be the largest on the island of Tenerife. It was created in 1984 when the interior was sealed and made watertight.
Heading back towards Icod de los Vinos the road passes through Los Silos and Garachico and the buses 363 to Puerto de la Cruz and the 107 to Santa Cruz travel on this route. From Buenavista bus station you can also get the 355 that goes all the way through El Palmar and Las Portelas and on to Masca and Santiago del Teide, or the 366, which only goes to Las Portelas and back.
 Some nine kilometres past Buenavista in the other direction lies the most westerly tip of Tenerife and the Punta del Teno where there is a lighthouse. The road there passes through a tunnel and some spectacular rocky scenery as it goes along the coast.
This road is sometimes closed though and it doesn’t at present have any bus service, although there has been talk of changing this. Let us hope that it does become more accessible to visitors to Buenavista and Tenerife because the views from this point are truly amazing with the neighbouring island of La Gomera across the water and the cliffs of Los Gigantes to the south.
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Tenerife Island 
