0871 423-5051
Only £25 deposit per booking
- Canary Islands Sub Region Menu
- Canary Islands
- West Canaries
- Tenerife
- Gran Canaria
- Fuerteventura
- Lanzarote
0871 423-5051
Only £25 deposit per booking
La Palma is still a relatively quiet Canary Island, and particularly popular with walkers exploring the magnificent Parque Nacional de la Caldera de Taburiente in La Palma's northern interior. In November 2002 the whole of La Palma was declared a World Biosphere Reserve. To the south are the Fuencaliente La Palma volcanoes and a popular and informative visitor centre is situated adjacent to Volcan de San Antonio. You can actually walk around the rim of San Antonio Volcano - a must do whilst on La Palma. For sheer natural beauty La Palma comes top of the Canary Islands charts, and unlike many of the other islands, La Palma has so far avoided the influx of mass tourism. Work is currently afoot on an extra Terminal at La Palma Airport and there has been much protest from locals against it, concerned for the environmental affects on the island from the inevitable increase in visitor numbers!
La Palma's Airport is situated on the central east coast of the island near one of two main resort centres - Los Cancajos. The other main La Palma resort centre is Puerto Naos on the west coast. Both have beautiful black sandy beaches, with Puerto Naos' beach lined with palm trees to great effect. Relatively untouched and very Canarian and rural, La Palma offers some challenging mountain driving for sure! It's a joy of an island, nicknamed 'La Isla Bonita', and a paradise for walkers and nature lovers alike. La Palma is a mix of high verdant mountains to the north, and arid, lower lying volcanic cones and lava outflows to the south. You'll find some of the best preserved rock carvings on La Palma - two of the best can be found at La Zarza to the north and Belmaco in Mazo to the south. La Palma is also famous for it's Astronomical Observatory situated high up at El Roque de Los Muchachos - for star gazing worldwide you can't do much better than La Palma!
Not by chance has La Palma, the greenest of all the Canary Island, been nicknamed the Pretty Island). Shaped like a triangle, and the most north-westerly of the Canary Islands archipelago, in the northern interior is the Caldera de Taburiente National Park. Essentially this is an enormous crater or landslide, and outside of the crater is an abundance of 2 million year old Laurel pine forests and plummeting waterfalls. La Palma has no shortage of natural water supply - there are numerous springs in the park. Uneven erosion has been going on here for thousands of years, to great effect. The heights of the crater or caldera are dotted with crests known as Roques - there's diverse volcanci material here and the Roques jutting upwards have eroded at a slower pace. The heart of the Caldera is the Barranco de Las Angustias (Gorge of Fear), which is a semi-circular ravine stretching 8km in diameter and 2000m from the base to the highest point.
Although the Caldera de Taburiente looks like a volcanic crator it's actually the result of landslide, also known as seamount. When Volcanic islands like La Palma form and emerge from the ocean they begin to sink again under their own weight - the Caldera de Taburiente is mass subsidence. Another particular feature of the Caldera de Taburiente is the huge number of well preserved archeological remains in the park. The original settlers were pastoral, and they used Neolithic tools. Called Benahoaries, they decorated their cave dwellings with intricate petroglyphs.
Parque Nacional de la Caldera de Taburiente, El Paso Visitor Centre and Park Offices, Ctra. General de Padron, 47, 38750 El Paso, La Palma. Tel: 922 49 72 77/922 49 74 00. This visitor centre is easy to get to from Los Cancajos and Puerto Naos, and makes a good starting point to exploring the park. Videos, exhibits, books, walking guides and more are all here! Open 9am to 2pm and 4pm to 6.30pm daily. The government published guidebook is certainly worth purchasing!
Of all the Canary Islands La Palma is the most volcanically active! It's in the Ajuvenile state of volcanic development. Lanzarote is often mistaken for the most volcanic of the Canary Islands, but the eruptive activity in the Cumbre Vieja to the south of La Palma far exceeds that of Timanfaya on Lanzarote. The volcanic history of Tenerife too has been much less intense than La Palma, and historic eruptions on Tenerife have not generally seen lava flow reaching the sea, as on La Palma. Tenerife is now entering what is called the juvenile state of volcanic development and moving into eruptive quiescence which has been the dormant state of La Gomera for a long time!
Across all the Canaries in the last 500 years volcanic eruptive activity has been mostly localised in La Palma, and specifically the Cumbre Vieja. The 1677 eruption of San Antonio was moderate in the scheme of things, but it gave rise to the lapilli cone situated to the north of San Antonio, as well as a selection of eruptive vents to the south. The lava flow reached the sea and buried the Fuente Santa (Holy Spring) on 25 and 26 November 1677. The lava flow today is covered with banana plantations.
More recently it's the Teneguia Volcano to the far south of La Palma that's been particularly active. It last erupted as recently as 1971. The eruption was not explosive and posed little danger to local residents. All volcanic activity in the Fuencaliente area of La Palma is closely monitored by the Spanish Research Council (see weblink right, currently being translated into English). They also produce highly informative pamphlets on the volcanic history of the Fuencaliente Volcanoes - available in the Visitor Centre adjacent to Volcan San Antonio (Tel: 922 44 4616. Open 9am to 8pm June to September and 9am to 6pm from October to May).
The walk around the rim of the San Antonio volcano is a highlight of the area and takes around 20 minutes. This cone last blew in 1949, and today it's looking relatively sedate with Canary pines establishing themselves precariously on the slopes and the base. Volcanic trails branch out from the visitor centre here to Volcan Teneguia and elsewhere, and trails are excellently well marked - good news for walkers.
La Palma's resorts are strictly laid back - and Puerto Naos has one of the best beaches on the island. Expect black sand, whooshing waves, quiet bars lining the promenade, palm trees providing natural shade and artesan shops just off the prom. If you're looking for a quiet resort with a stunning beach and easy access north into the Caldera and south to Los Canarios and the volcanoes - Puerto Naos will do just fine! Just north of Puerto Naos is pretty Puerto Tazacorte. This is a good spot for taking boat trips. Contact Excursiones Maritimas Agamenon, Tel: 650 777 748.
Los Cancajos and the Brena Baja area just south of La Palma's capital - Santa Cruz de la Palma, is the other main resort area situated on the east side near La Palma Airport. Los Cancajos is a relatively new and modern resort area, quiet and low key but with all the resort facilities you'd expect including a Spar, cashpoints, and ample bars and restaurants. The beach area here is excellent too, and blue flag. Airport noise is minimal as only a few flights come in to La Palma daily. This is the perfect location for visits to beautiful and historic Santa Cruz, La Palma's capital. You can either walk to Santa Cruz along the coast from Los Cancajos or take one of the frequent buses which run into Santa Cruz from the resort centre.
The Tourist information centre in Los Cancajos is situated right on the beach front (adjacent to the Beach area). Tel: 922 181 354. A selection of watersports are available in Los Cancajos, particularly diving. (see Diving weblink right for details)
La Palma's diverse terrain means a considerable variation in climate within the island. The low lying coastal areas can be hot and sunny, but move inland and higher and you could be facing mist, cloud and the inevitable lower temperatures.
In La Palma you might see warm sunshine in Puerto Naos, but thick cloud and cooler temperatures as you move into the National Park. The average annual temperature for La Palma is around 20 degrees centigrade. La Palma, like all the Canary Islands, experiences a mild climate due to it's proximity to the Sahara desert which is off set by moist trade winds coming down from the north. In the heights of the Caldera you can expect plenty of cloud all year round, so come prepared if you're planning a walking holiday here.
On the star gazing front, La Palma is home to an important Astronomical Observatory positioned high up in the Caldera near Roque de los Muchachos. This observatory is home to the largest telescope in Europe, and currently the Gran Telescopio Canarias is under construction - this will be the largest telescope in the world. The Roque de los Muchachos Observatory is operated by the Instituto de Astrofisica de Canarias based on Tenerife. This location on La Palma is considered the world's second best sight for astronomy after the Mauna Kea Observatory on Hawaii.
Incidently, you might wonder about the dimmed yellow lighting used across La Palma during your stay on the island. It's deliberate as the residents of La Palma have agreed to abide by the laws of the skies, hence all public lighting is yellow tinted enabling better night observation. Large factories are also banned from being built above 1000m.
La Palma together with Tenerife was one of the last of the Canary Islands to be conquered by the Spanish. When De Lugo and his entourage finally landed on La Palma it was divided into 12 provinces including Aridane, Tihuya, Tamanca, Ahenguare-me, Tigalate, Tedote, Tenegua, Adeyahamen, Tagaragre, Tagalguen, Hiscaguan and Acero. All were rulled by different leaders.
La Palma had come under attack several times but had proved hard to conquer. When Lugo arrived he landed on the Tazacorte beaches, and with the help of Gazmira la Palmense who had been captured previously and now served as interpreter they convinced the Benahoares original settlers to peacefully submit, offering them numerous false promises. The settlers of Aridane, Tihuya, Tamanca and Ahenguareme then surrendered. The settlers in Tigalate however decided to put up a fight. They lost the fight there unfortunately, however the Acero region (today the Caldera de Taburiente) ruled by Tanausu proved too much for De Lugo.
De Lugo eventually tricked Tanausu into a meeting again offering false promises that he could remain on his lands if he submitted peacefully. Tanausu, together with other Palmeros, were put on a ship heading for Spain, however Tanausu preferred to die of hunger after he lost sight of his beloved homeland La Palma, crying Vacaguare, Vacaguare - I want to die. There are many stories of heartless betrayals such as this by the Spanish - De Lugo was renowned for it.
Post Spanish colonialism, La Palma was not included in the Crown of Castilla until as late as 1493 - De Lugo had pretty much conquered La Palma in 1492. Under the Spanish, La Palma became a centre for sugar and Malmsey wine as well as honey, and the Canary Pine were used for building Spanish ships. Santa Cruz de la Palma continued to develop as an important Spanish port - by the 16th century is was up there as a key Spanish port alongside Seville. Today bananas are the top crop on the island, and cigars are another important produce.
Across La Palma there are numerous prehistoric archeological sights, many of which are now open to the public. La Palma is probably the best island for accessible guanche or in this case Benahoares archeological sights. Two of the best are the Belmaco Archeological Sight in Villa de Mazo and the Parque Cultural La Zarza in Villa de Garafia in the north.
At the Belmarco site you can view the first petroglyphs (rock carvings) discovered in the Canary Islands! These caves and carvings were discovered in the 18th century. The site contains a network of 10 spectacular natural cave dswellings and one of the best selection of rock engravings on the Canaries. Well worth a visit, and easily accessible from Los Cancajos particularly.
Another superb site is La Zarza and La Zarcita to the north in the municipality of Garafia.The La Zarza Cultural Parque sits in a spectacular ravine with a mix of fayal-brezal (mixed laurel and tree heather forest) and pine forest. The whole area smells magnificent! The rock carvings here were discovered in 1941, sparking off in-depth research into rock carvings across La Palma. There are 29 panels of rock carvings at the La Zarza site and 18 panels at La Zarcita
Parque Cultural La Zarza, C/Los Guanches sn/n, 38787 Garafia, La Palma. Tel: 922 695005. Open in the winter daily from 11am to 5pm, and in the summer from 11am to 7pm. Parque Arqueologico De Belmaco, Carretera Hoyo de Mazo A Fuencaliente, Km7, 38738 Lomo Oscuro, Villa De Mazo. Tel: 922 4400 90. Open Mondays to Satrudays 10am to 6pm, and on Sundays from 10am to 3pm.
Tourist Information Centre La Palma, Santa Crux, Cabildo Insular De La Palma, Avda. Mar’tima, 34, E-38700 - Santa Cruz de La Palma (Islas Canarias). Tel: (+34) 922- 42 33 40.
Top