Garachico, the town a volcano buried

Garachico lies minutes west of Icod and is probably the easiest outing to recommend in the whole district: you park, you walk, and in two hours you have seen a whole town whose history explains its shape.

What happened in 1706

Garachico was Tenerife's main commercial port: malvasía wine left for Europe from here and the island's wealth came in through it. In 1706 the Arenas Negras eruption (the volcano many call Trevejo or simply the Garachico volcano) came down the slope, destroyed much of the old town and, crucially, sealed the harbour. The town lost its reason to exist and never recovered what it had been. What you visit today is what was rebuilt on top.

That same lava, meeting the sea, left the El Caletón pools behind. It is hard to find another place where a catastrophe turned so literally into a town's main attraction.

What to see in two hours

• Castillo de San Miguel, a 16th-century ashlar fortress that narrowly survived the eruption and now houses the heritage information centre.
• The El Caletón natural pools, each with its own name.
• Santa Ana church, from 1520, and the Santo Domingo convent.
• The old town, listed since 1994: you can walk it without a map.
• The seafront promenade, which links all of the above.