Product Description

La Palma: 3 car tours, 38 long and short walks, 22 picnic suggestionsEl Hierro: 1 car tour, 12 long and short walks, 8 picnic suggestionsThere are now charter flights from the UK to La Palma. La Palma's natural beauty rivals all the other Canary Islands put together. Its immense crater is considered the largest of its kind in the world. Deep within its towering walls is a year-round abundance of water. Outside the crater, high on the hillsides, are 20 million-year-old laurel forests. In the southern half of the island, hills pitted with volcanic craters and mini-deserts of black lapilli speak of the island's volcanic past. This stark, striking landscape, all the more dramatic for its stabs of volcanic reds, oranges, and yellows, is far removed from the lush and verdant, tree-clad north.El Hierro, the least-visited of all the Canaries, at first appears to be a dried-up, sprawling mountain of rock, rising straight from the sea, treeless and barren. But Noel introduces you to the island's hidden charms - as remarkable as any in the archipelago, and well worth a visit in its own right - or during your stay on La Palma.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #95628 in Books
• Published on: 2009-04-15
• Binding: Paperback
• 136 pages

Customer Reviews

An excellent guide to the beautiful island of La Palma
We have just reurned from a wonderful 2 weeks in La Palma and our visit was made even better by this walking and touring guide. The detailed maps are excellent, narrative both informative and accurate and the tours cover all parts of the island. My only criticism ( and it is a small one ) is that to keep to the timings on the walk you have to be pretty fit. My husband could keep up with no difficulty, alas I was a little slower!! - something to bear in mind when there are only buses every 2 - 3 hours back to the resort! I would thoroughly recommend the book. Our copy is very well thumbed and without it I do not think we would have got half as much out of the holiday or seen some of the more remote and beautiful scenery of La Palma.

Landscapes of La Palma and El Hierro 2006 print
Walk 7: if your bus driver will not stop at the unofficial bus stop before the old tunnel, and mine did not, it is NOT possible to do what the book says and walk back through the tunnel to the starting point of the walk. There is an electronic dot matrix board prior to the tunnel exit and road signs at the exit that indicate: no pedestrians, no cyclists.
Walk 12: "easy descent" it states. Although this is a short walk it is a very steep descent and you will be working hard against the gradient too avoid picking up too much momentum.

Landscapes of La Palma and El Hierro
My wife and I visited la Palma at the end of March, 2009 and used an earlier Landscapes book to plan our holiday and find our way round, as we have done with Landscapes books in other places.

The Caldera de Taburiente seemed to be the jewel of La Palma so we made it our primary destination. As an introduction we went with Natour towards Pico de la Nieve and picked up the GR131/E7 path running North then West around the rim of the Caldera to Roque de Los Muchachos, the highest point on the island. The route was straightforward and afforded some fine glimpses into the Caldera through the swirling mist. If you can get out there and back under your own steam there is no need to use a trekking company. Although Natour is expensive we found them good and convenient.

The highlight of our week was a descent into the Caldera but, alas, did not include the walk-out to the car park described in the book. We had been forewarned that the exit route was closed for footpath repairs and, after lunch by the river, a look in the visitor centre in the bottom and a walk up a huge, dry riverbed, made our way back to the top dropping-off point to meet our pre-arranged transport. I'm sure he route in the Landscapes book would have been preferable to a hot climb on the same path used for the descent but we still enjoyed the day.

The footpath marking on La Palma seems pretty good and we found that path finding was straightforward using the map in the book (and its big brother from the Tourist Information Office near the beach in Los Cancajos - surprisingly the only walking info they had) providing we kept a keen eye out for the range of waymarks and variety of their locations. We walked from Los Cancajos to Montana de la Brena with only one slight problem caused by a missing footpath sign. We should have been directed up the drive of the Parador rather than looping around it on the road, a mistake we corrected on the return.

Santa Cruz de la Palma is worth a visit. We went on a wet day, did the sights and capped it with a lovely lunch upstairs at the La Placeta restaurant, overlooking a small square just back from the sea front.

The Landscapes guides provide a lot of accurate information in a pocket sized book. I have always found them excellent and La Palma & El Hierro is no exception.