The El Mirador swimming pool at the Ritz-Carlton, Abama. Photograph by Gary Schmid.

Seclusion, service, tropical weather, Michelin-starred dining, multiple pools, golf, gardens and sports: The Ritz-Carlton, Abama offers an escape for everybody

As we all endure multiple lockdowns of varying strictness and duration, the idea of an escape from the past year’s febrile world is an attractive one. Time for a break from the pandemic fallout accompanied by multiple heated global conversations, including one which would have brought tears to Voltaire’s eyes, about whether we should actually be allowed to have a conversation.

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All of which makes your own beachside villa a delightful prospect. Although for some people, the attractiveness fades when you start to examine the details. It may have full service, but your chef realistically isn’t going to be able to rustle up a Michelin-starred Japanese meal one night and some molecular gastronomy the next. Your pool, while potentially big, will be just that, a pool, not a choice of numerous pools in different locations. As to the atmosphere, you’ll either have to make your own, or travel to the nearest establishment which has one.

Then, there is The Ritz-Carlton, Abama. Perched on a cliff at the southern edge of the Canary Islands, with a spectacular view across the sea to a volcano bursting out of the ocean and looking as if it might come alive at any moment (don’t worry, La Gomera hasn’t erupted for three million years). Abama has a sense of geography that would be the envy of many places in more exotic settings, in a location that is a short flight and transfer from the major cities of Europe.

A view from the hotel’s Citadel building. Photograph by Roger Mendez Fotografo, S.L.

The luxury Ritz-Carlton hotel is at the heart of the complex, but we stayed at one of the villas, located on a series of pathways traversing exotic hanging gardens tumbling down the peak of the cliff. Despite the name, these are not villas per se, as they do not have a kitchen: ours was a large private apartment, with two big bedrooms with vaulted ceilings, marble bathrooms with North African touches, a marble living and dining room, and no fewer than four balconies, all facing the sea, the volcano and, at night, a view of the stars for which the islands are famous.

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On our first night, we became addicted to room service, taking it on the biggest of the balconies, itself the size of a decent suite. Iberico ham, local Canarian potatoes with an intensity of taste served with a spicy vegetable sauce, the day’s catch of local white fish, and as secluded as you might ever want to be. Eventually one evening we headed out to El Mirador restaurant. This is located below the villas with its own pool, on the edge of the cliff itself. We dined on the restaurant’s speciality, its seafood paella with clams, mussels, white fish and calamari.

The resort exists in an elevated sphere of gastronomy. A short ride in your own dedicated golf buggy takes you up the hillside to Kabuki, an outpost of the famed Madrid restaurant of the same name, with a 100km view in three directions, a Michelin star and dishes that remain in the soul, like butterfish and white truffle nigiri, and white fish and Iberian pancetta sushi.

The Beach Club. Photograph by Roger Mendez Fotografo, S.L.

There are more outdoor pools than we could count – we gave up at ten. Each set of villas has its own long, sinuous, sneaky 40m-long pool at whose side socially distanced sunbathing on the garden terrace, accompanied by butterflies and exotic flowers, is not just possible, it happens naturally. This is a place with a luxury of space.

At the bottom of the cliff, accessible by lift, hotel transport or a short walk, is the only white-sand beach of the island, with its own beach restaurant, bar, rock diving spots and a sheltered swimming area where even short swim brings you into visual contact with an array of multicoloured fish. And at the top of the resort, high on the mountainside, is one of Spain’s most celebrated 18-hole golf courses, and a set of championship quality tennis courts.

The facilities of one of the world’s greatest hotels with the seclusion of a villa? The best, as Voltaire’s Candide would say, of all worlds.

Book your stay: ritzcarlton.com

The Abama overlooks the volcanic island of Gomera

LUX steps into a different universe of tranquillity, colour and cuisine at The Ritz-Carlton Abama resort in Tenerife, a short hop from western Europe

Stepping out of your room into a kaleidoscope washed by warm salty air is a delicious feeling. The kaleidoscope was the lavishly planted sea of flowers in multilayered, terraced tropical gardens around the villa where we were staying. A short stroll along the path took us past even more plants, trees and flowers of every conceivable colour, which rose first past several organically shaped pools and then onto the terrace where breakfast was served.

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The Ritz-Carlton Abama is located on top of a cliff overlooking the ocean and a volcanic island opposite. During breakfast time, this island was always covered in a mysterious, horror-movie murk, almost indistinguishable from the light-blue sky around it. The sun rises slowly in equatorial zones, and even though the morning air had a hint of chill in it, due to the coldness of the sea currents, we were indeed in an equatorial zone off the coast of Africa. The Canary Islands may have become host, in part, to unglamorous mass tourism recently, but they first came into Western awareness as a hive of distinctive species and ecosystems.

The villas are set in lush gardens

The days soon took on a familiar rhythm. Adjacent to the breakfast terrace, a 50-metre pool, curvaceous and irregular, is boarded by rows of sun lounges with a view down over the gardens to the sea. As the sun became stronger, we moved down to the beach, where a seafood and grill restaurant was washed by calling breezes and salty air. There is cliff jumping from either side of the bay where the long, sandy beach is located, and in the next bay you can jump from black volcanic rock to black volcanic rock admiring great schools of crabs, blue and orange, living in the twilight zone beneath them, between land and ocean.

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Swimming in the clear sea, sheltered by a breakwater, involved being accompanied by fish – sometimes individuals, sometimes in shoals, occasionally monochrome, usually in an array of colours to match and even outdo their plant-based counterparts on land, with fluorescent blues and oranges all the vogue.

If we had not had the energy in the morning, an early-evening game at the tennis centre based around perfect clay courts next to the (celebrated) golf course was a way of adding to the exercise quotient, before either moving to one of the restaurants, or dining on room service on our own terrace overlooking treetops, banana plantations, the ocean and the volcanic island of Gomera. In the evening, this was lit up in pinks and greens, and strung by lights from its occasional roads, just visible from our vantage point 20 miles away across the water.

Abama’s main pool – one of seven at the resort

Fine dining is not often associated with the Canary Islands, something the original creators of Abama sought to change when building this resort. Unusually for an island in the Atlantic, 1,000 miles from the southern tip of Spain, it has Michelin-starred restaurants and an array of other dining spots with specialised cuisines and, often, spectacular views.

The most notable is Kabuki, a Japanese restaurant high above the resort and the 18- hole championship golf course. The whole resort is built on a steep volcanic slope, meaning the view down from Kabuki to the gardens, plantations, swimming pools and the sea is particularly captivating at dusk. Aperitifs are served on the terrace, and inside, the restaurant serves a celebrated blend of local and Japanese cuisine. The flame-seared fish nigiri is easily the most memorable thing on the menu.

At the other end of the resort, although by no means at the other end of the scale, El Mirador is an eagle’s nest atop cliffs that plunge down to the ocean. From the tables you can hear the sea crashing against the rocks far below and smell the ocean spray. Appropriately, El Mirador serves grilled fish and seafood, and is also celebrated for Spanish cuisine from a different part of the country: black rice paella. Like a number of the restaurants in the resort, it also serves a mean bowl of Canarian potatoes, which maximise on intense, nutty taste, accompanied by red and green chilli sauces.

The kitchen and terrace at El Mirado

The cascade of colours at sunset at El Mirador is a match for any oceanside location in the world, and a fitting end to a day that began with the kaleidoscope of flowers outside the villas. The villas themselves are the most secluded category of accommodation in a resort that is bigger than it may seem, so well blended is it with its natural context. We had a seaview suite, including a large living room, huge bedroom and two balconies, which should be plenty for any couple. It can be combined with an adjoining (equally large) bedroom for a family area big enough to match many people’s homes. Interior décor is all cool stone and tiles, with equally large bathrooms to match. And that fabulous morning cascade of colour as soon as you draw the curtain, or open the door.

One-bedroom suites in villas at The Ritz-Carlton Abama Tenerife start from €615, plus tax. Find out more: ritzcarlton.com/abama

This article was originally published in the Autumn 19 Issue.

Blue skies and sunshine: springtime is picture perfect in the Canary Islands

Why should I go now?

Spring sounds good in theory, but in much of the northern hemisphere it means grey and cold as business as usual. Europeans still need to fly long haul to have guaranteed warm sunshine – or do they? The Canary Islands are beautifully toasty at this time of year, and never too hot, although you have to choose carefully: the rain in this part of Spain can sometimes arrive on windward hillsides.

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This is where the Ritz-Carlton Abama comes in. Built in the style of a Moorish palace, on a steeply raking mountainside dropping into the Atlantic, it is on the sunniest, southwest facing coast of Tenerife, which also happens to be entirely unspoiled by the overdevelopment in other parts of the island. To one side, banana plantations rise up relentlessly towards the peak of Mount Teide, a snow-capped volcano which at nearly 4000m is as high as most of the significant Alps. To the other, the mountainside plunges off a cliff and onto a semi-private white sand beach on a protected cove, facing the wild volcanic island of La Gomera.

Views through a window of the Ritz Carlton Abama Citadel and the volcanic island of La Gomera

Monarch butterflies flutter hello as you wander through the resort’s endless tropical gardens; Margaritas are mixed and and ice-cold draft beer is on tap next to all of the seven pools (and the beach); and the place is so spaced-out that you never feel overcrowded – and end up feeling very pleasantly spaced-out yourself.

What’s the lowdown?

The pool and beach action, or inaction, should be enough for anyone wanting a decompression from a long winter deal-making season. We enjoy sitting on a balcony facing out over the sea, looking at the ominous mountain shapes on Gomera turn a deep blue-green as the sun sets behind them and disappears, and a panoply of stars emerges – Tenerife is one of the best spots in the world for star-spotting, as it is so clear of pollution and light pollution.

But there is an enormous amount to do for active types: the hotel has its own championship golf course on the dizzying slopes leading up the volcano, with a vertical gain so dramatic that it can be noticeably chilly on the uppermost holes while the resort basks in sunshine. There are numerous tennis courts (and a tennis academy), a kids’ club with an extensive outside area and mini football/rugby pitch surrounded by tropical flowers, a series of interconnected ponds and water features filled with hundreds of decorative Koi carp, and then there’s the dining.

The imperial terrace and swimming pool

Two of the hotel’s restaurants have Michelin stars, an exceptional achievement this far from the coast of Africa; M.B is run by celebrated Basque chef Martín Berasategui, and Kabuki is an outpost of two renowned Madrid restaurants of the same name and outdoes either for both cuisine and location. Situated halfway up the golf course, Kabuki has a terrace with dramatic views down over the resort and the ocean, and a Japanese menu tinged with touches of the local – local catches are used for the sushi and sashimi, and flavoursome Canary mini-potatoes integrated into the menu. The wine list is rich with hard-to-find small grower champagnes.

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Our favourite restaurant of all, though, is not Michelin starred; it is the Mirador, an eagle’s nest situated on top of a cliff plunging straight down into the ocean. On the terrace, you feel like you are floating over the sea, and Mirador is so celebrated for its paellas that it runs its own school, teaching clients how to cook the perfect blend of lobster, mussels, clams, local fish, saffron, and al dente rice.

Getting horizontal

Rooms are large, and simply but tastefully furnished in keeping with the semi-tropical setting, with marble floors, floor-to-ceiling windows, and furniture and artefacts from west Africa, the nearest continent. Pay more for a room with a view out over the ocean.

A deluxe, adults only room in the Tagor Villas with an ocean view

Flipside

If you’re travelling without kids and choose to dine within the family-friendly hotels in the centre of the complex, you might find more children around you than you care for; but otherwise, there are adult-only pools, and zones, and so much space around the grounds and facilities that you never feel overrun by other people’s offspring, unlike in many resorts at peak season. And outside peak season, you’ll have the place and views to yourselves. And while some rooms inside the main block have restricted views, if you choose a Villa in the grounds, you can walk out of your living room into your own gardens and pool area.

All in all, you could fly to the Caribbean or Indian Ocean and not have vistas, cuisine, and facilities to match. Believe us, we’ve done it.

Rates: From €245 + tax ( approx. £200 / $300 )

Darius Sanai

ritzcarlton.com/abama