HEADING to Tenerife this winter? Remember to pack swimming costumes, a paperback thriller or two, sunscreen — and a pair of binoculars.

At first glance the Auditorio de Tenerife, pictured on our front cover, looks like an ancient warrior’s helmet. Or perhaps a spaceship, a Post-Modernist sculpture or a crashing wave. However you chose to interpret it, the Santiago Calatrava design is stunning.

The new £50 million opera house (www.auditoriodetenerife.com) opened two months ago in the island’s capital, Santa Cruz, and has a main auditorium seating more than 1,600. Its winter programme includes performances of Mahler, Mozart and Brahms, as well as the Tenerife Symphony Orchestra and Antonio Canales dance.

It will be so much easier to reach Santa Cruz this winter, with both GB Airways and bmi British Midland starting services from London to Tenerife’s north airport.

John Patterson, managing director of GB Airways, a BA franchise, said: “They are upgrading hotels and resorts on Tenerife to get away from its previous image. They are trying to ditch the old image and replace it with good stuff, as they have done in Benidorm and Palma.”

Tellingly for a leisure route, up to 44 out of 156 seats on GB Airways are in business class. The north of the island is expected to attract busy professionals desperate for a winter sun break: two thirds of the airline’s passengers are booking independently on the web.

Tour operators have been extending programmes to the north of Tenerife on the back of the scheduled flights. Here are some of the best:

Details: (020-8686 3638, www.therealspain.org.uk).

Details: (020-7828 6021, www.mundicolor.co.uk).

Details: (020-7428 3737, www.respect-holidays.co.uk).

Details: (01606 720099, www.headwater-holidays.co.uk).