"Santa Cruz de Tenerife " a Santa Cruz de Tenerife Travel Page by steventilly

Santa Cruz is the capital and largest city of Tenerife. To be honest I was a little disappointed with the place at first, I think I expected a little too much of it in terms of architectural splendour and history. In fact much of Santa Cruz is a sprawling, modern city and all of the industry that you would associate with its status as the major seaport of the island.
You arrive on the TF1 motorway passing chemical works and oil refineries and pass through suburban areas that are being torn down and rebuilt, giving the impression of one big building site. You finally arrive at a bus station that is gleaming and modern and covered in glass and you wonder did you get this city all wrong.
After spending a few hours seeing the sights (what there are of them - see Santa Cruz page) we thought "well, we've seen it now, I doubt if I'd come back again". However by evening, when the city came alive with nightlife, and certainly throughout the next day our attitude changed. Santa Cruz is a place that I will certainly visit again as it does have a quite quiet charm all of its own, and it is most definitely Spanish, paying little regard to the tourist hordes.
The shops here are a class above those in Las Americas (though prices are higher too) and the restaurants & bars are a lot different too, ranging from outdoor terraces through large "colonial style" bars to hole-in-the-wall type of places. Food and drink is cheaper than Las Americas, quite substantially so in some instances.