The Canary Islands are an autonomous community of Spain, but geographically, they lie closer to Africa, just 75 miles off the coast of Morocco. Originally inhabited by the Berbers, the islands were conquered in the 15th century by the Spanish, who saw their location in the Atlantic as fundamental to trade. When Franco fully embraced tourism in the 1950s and ’60s, the scenic archipelago was rediscovered, and today, the “Hawaii of Europe” is a popular destination for Brits and Germans, who find wintertime sun amid beautiful beaches, fairy-tale forests and dramatic volcanic landscapes. It remains, however, relatively obscure to most Americans.

My own introduction to the Canaries, which the Hideaway Report has never covered, came by way of the Sea Cloud Spirit, which hosted an eight-night sailing voyage with stops on five of the islands. My traveling companion and I bookended the cruise with stays on Gran Canaria, where I reviewed two hotels in Las Palmas, the cosmopolitan city that draws visitors year-round to its sandy beaches and charming old town.

Santa Catalina, a Royal Hideaway Hotel

The oldest hotel in Las Palmas is also its most prestigious, with a rich history that dates to 1890, when an “English company, from the plans of an English architect,” opened the Santa Catalina hotel to great acclaim. It was a convenient stop en route to Africa, and many 20th-century luminaries passed through. But it fell on hard times after World War I and was shuttered for decades, when finally in the 1950s a Canarian architect was commissioned to restore and expand it.