Arico Nuevo is hidden away on the TF28, the old road that links the hill towns of the east coast of Tenerife dot-to-dot fashion, a few kilometres and a million miles away from the busy TF1 motorway below. Arico Nuevo is the middle child of the Arico family, flanked on its north side by Villa de Arico and on its south by Arico Viejo.

Originally constructed by the great landowners of the area in the 18th century, it’s now a sort of Tenerife version of Portmeirion on a day when filming of ‘The Prisoner’ is planned and the cast and crew are still at breakfast; a cloistered settlement of 17th century houses with walled patios and erratically angled windows that look out over near deserted alleyways.

Take your pick; there’s the small mirador (viewpoint) at the entrance to the village which provides the sort of postcard view that has its recipient reaching for the mouse to browse flights to Tenerife, or there are the multitude of crooked Arabic tiled roofs and impossibly sloped door frames that populate the narrow alleys.

From rustic chic to just plain rustic, the village’s only restaurant, El Pimentón serves wonderfully tradition cuisine with a modern verve and is as easy on the eye as the picturesque square it sits. At the opposite end of the spectrum, continue the surrealism of the trip by taking lunch in a cave; Las Cuevas de Ramon to be exact, just a couple of kilometres past Icor on the TF28 heading north. Traditional Canarian cuisine in a traditional setting, if you’re a troglodyte that is.