After being on that island in 2003, in a tourist factory (or should I say "farm", beee?) on the southern coast, we were not sure to return. Luckily, there is a north coast as well - much more authentic, with human-sized tourism. The price to pay - cloudy weather - is no big deal for the luxury of not being branded or color-coded with some funny wrist strap, and fed on lasagne with horse meat (pony for children)! Now, Luz del Mar is a great compromise between rural tourism and a resort - you have a (virtually) own two-room bungalow, it's in a residential area in Los Silos (not much to do outside of the hotel - enjoy the silence) but also has an excellent restaurant and a great, heated swimming pool. SInce we wanted to have dinner & swimming on the spot, for the kid (8-year old), we chose Luz del Mar instead one of the nice Fincas in the region. That was worth the significant additional expense, especially in the context of the strange local climat: in the evenings, after returning from hiking, temperatures were rarely above 19° (by contrast, count - mid April - some 28+ on the south coast... and some 25 at 2300 m, in the volcano caldera!) So, the heated swimming pool made a huge difference (note that the ocean is quite chilly - some 19 as well, fine for one swim if motivated, but hardly more). Unlike in Bavaria, the "official" language in this Bundesland Tenerife Hotel is, natürlich, German ;-). That fitted us well, our Spanish being poor - but English and French are fluently spoken too (and German staff are fluent in Spanish, of course). Meals were great, (we had no half-board, but sometimes we picked items from the daily menu offered to half-boarders, especially when it came to local dishes). They have a large selection of local wines, too - so, one really feels like in Tenerife, not like in an airport hotel. So, all's possible in Tenerife, after all!…