Roque de las Bodegas

The sea is the show. Atlantic waves hit the rock and throw spray over the railed path that runs round it, and anyone standing there when a big one comes in gets soaked. Behind the hamlet the Anaga ridges rise steep and dark, and on a cloudy day the whole shore looks like another planet.

The rock has a working past. Its landing stage served Taganana from the 16th century, when the valley's wine waited in cellars by the water before it sailed for Europe and the Americas. Later, people from this side of the massif took boats from here to the rest of the island. A few families lived on the beach in the early 20th century, and the first bars opened in the early 1970s.

The houses nearly went. In 2006 the state set the protected coastal strip at 100 m from the high-water mark, which left the hamlet outside the planning rules; the residents appealed, and in 2012 the Supreme Court cut the strip to 20 m and the homes were legalised.

• Waves break over the path round the rock when the tide is in; expect spray, and stay off it altogether when the sea is up.
• Parking is along the street in the hamlet, and it is full by lunchtime.
• There are no public toilets or drinking fountains by the rock; the hamlet's bars and restaurants are the place to stop.
• This north-facing coast catches the wind, so bring a layer even when the sun is out.

Roque de las Bodegas lies on the TF-134, the road to Almáciga, 2 km from the centre of Taganana and 26 km from the centre of Santa Cruz de Tenerife.

Cars park along the street in the hamlet. Spaces are there in the morning and gone by lunchtime. The nearest car parks, one gravel and one unpaved, sit about 1.3 km and 1.4 km away in a straight line, so on a busy day the last stretch is on foot.

By bus, the Las Bajas stop is about 150 m from the rock. In the hamlet, a path with handrails leads out round the promontory.

Best: a morning with a calm sea and the tide out.

Avoid: high tide in a swell, and the middle of the day.

When the tide is in and the sea is up, waves wash over the railed path, and by lunchtime the street parking in the hamlet is full. In July the hamlet holds its fiestas for the Virgen del Carmen.