The house

A bit of history

Casa La Aldaba is a traditional 18th-century Canarian house located in Realejo Alto, one of the historic areas of Los Realejos. Its architecture retains the character of the area's old houses: thick walls, wood, courtyards and spaces designed to adapt to the climate and the way of life of past generations.

The house has survived to this day retaining much of its original character, while adapted to offer today's comforts. Its spacious rooms, the garden and the different corners of the house make it easy to imagine a time when the house was not just a place to live, but also the centre of everyday family life.

Today, Casa La Aldaba opens its doors as rural accommodation, aiming to share a part of the history, architecture and tranquillity of northern Tenerife. More than just a holiday home, it aims to be a place to pause, spend time together and enjoy the landscape and heritage of Los Realejos.

Architecture and layout

The house retains many features typical of traditional Canarian domestic architecture. Its U-shaped layout arranges the rooms around a central space and creates a sequence of corridors, galleries and passageways that connect the different parts of the house. The wooden balcony, the wood-plank floors, and the traditional ceilings and carpentry bring warmth and reflect the important role wood played in the islands' historic buildings. The main staircase, conceived as both a functional and a statement piece, reinforces the house's stately character.

Among its most distinctive features is the old outdoor 'destiladera', a traditional stone water filter used to cool and purify water before the arrival of modern systems. Together with the thick walls, the courtyards, the sheltered corridors and the layout of the rooms, this feature is a reminder of how the architecture adapted to the climate, the materials available and everyday life in each era. All these details mean that exploring Casa La Aldaba is also a way of getting closer to the building and domestic history of the Canary Islands.

Who we are

We are Ruth and Anselmo. We both trained in astrophysics, and maybe that's why we like to take our time with things that deserve it — like this house. Casa La Aldaba came to us through family inheritance, and we soon realised it was too big for our small family. Its rooms, its courtyard and its history were meant to be lived in, not kept shut away. That's why we decided to open it up, so that other people could also enjoy such a beautiful house with so much history. Whoever stays here lives alongside real memories: furniture from the old pharmacy run by my mother and grandfather, and paintings by local artists that hang on the very same walls that have seen generations of this family go by. More than hosts, we like to think of ourselves as caretakers of a history that we now also share with you.