hi ceri,if you dont want lively with free shots,stay away from puerto del carmen! its great for nights out but not so romantic,personally we love costa teguise,its more relaxed and quiet and popular with couples and young families and all the bars and restaurants are reasonable,most of the accomodation is self catering (dont go all inclusive here,waste of time!) so try the nazaret apartments,oasis lanz,galleon playa or oceana for budget prices but good quality.and all in centre of town.
there is a main square called peublo marinero which has little markets on,tuesday night,local market with handcrafts etc and friday evening for jewellery handbags etc. and some lovely bars and restaurants.
hope this helps,hopefully somone else will give you abit of advice about other resorts,but i'm biased!!! playa blanca is also nice but i have no recent experience of there,also mostly hotels,but more upmarket.
good luck

hi, totally agree with marysol, costa teguise is lovely, great restraunts and lovely little bars, beaches are fab and no high rises !
as said before, this is definately more suited to families and couples than pdc, but if you fancy a livelier night, you could always hop on the bus to pdc !
costa teguise was definately a winner with us, have fun !
juby

Costa Teguise is nice, but it can also be overly windy. For a more authentic feeling, Playa Blanca is definitely better, which still retains a little bit of authenticity.

Playa Blanca gets my vote too

You can read other people's opinions HERE.

Pippy

Ceri,
All 3 of the main resorts would probably match your requirements, if budget is an issue then simply choose the best deal.
My personal view is that PDC has the better variety of things and you're not overwhelmed by any, CT beach can be quite windy and Hyper Music, sorry PB is the newest and probably the cleanest resort, so I couldn't really describe it as authentic.
Ole

Ole, while Playa Blanca is really growing at a huge rate, it has the centre of resort with the main shopping street from the harbour towards where the new marina is and the parallel walk along the seafront which has great character. It's just like Puerto Del Carmen many years ago, spreading out from the old towards new areas, but as the thread starter didn't want to go there, I thought it was better choice wise than costa teguise which is wholly a purpose built resort and while nice, isn't particularly pretty or old at all.