Isla de La Palma Favorites

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Favorite thing: Puerto Naxos is another developed beach resort, this time on the sunnier west side of the island. Often the most sunniest place to be - just not so when we visited. Good promenade lined with beach bar cafes and shops on the pavement side. Big hotels and many apartments and souvenir shops. Not my choice of resort, bit too touristic for my liking but good amount of sand. I preferred the beach at Cancajos but the weather is more consistent on the west side. Was a popular spot for paragliders to jump off the cliffs behind the resort and land on the beach.

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Favorite thing: El Paso is the largest council area on the island and is the only one which does not have a coast.
Its virtually in hte centre of La Palma Island. Its a pretty colourful town with its houses, churches, open air arena for festivals and silk museum. Also good for shopping with a large superstore. There is a good tourist office here with plenty of information on what to do and whats going on in La Plama.

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Favorite thing: InOn the nothwest of La Palma in the Puntagorda area you can see some really colourful bus stops - works of art not graffitti. In 2007 the Puntagorda Council asked local artist Goretti to decorate all the bus shelters within the council area with scenes typical of Puntagorda. She designed and, over a period of months, painted all 8 bus shelters with different designs.
We saw a few and of course just had to stop to photo one - this one is on the main road past Puntagorda just before the turn off to El Fayal and the market (Mercadillo). It shows scenes from the farmers market, which is held every Saturday afternoon and Sunday morning.

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Favorite thing: Just a few km above Puerto de Tazacorte is the Mirador El Time - a popular lookout point at 510m above sea level. You could take the path up bit its easier to take the path down, zig-zagging down the cliff to the harbour. We didn't do either but we did stop here a couple of times in the car for the views, especially good at sunset. A cafe is here too if you want a snack/drink.
The path is clearly signposted at either end of the walk.

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Favorite thing: Pretty town, very colourful. One of the best area for growing bananas in the Canaries. Below the town via a winding road up and down a ravine is its port area - Puerto de Tazacorte. The views across the plantations and to the ocean are beautiful. Colourful houses, some with balconies and a quaint church add to the delight of this town.

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Favorite thing: Los Cancajos is the main tourist centre on the east side of the island of La Palma and where we were based. Having said that its not over developed and retains a pleasant low key atmsophere. Shops and tapas bars line the main road. There is also a coastal path along the front linking the bays and black volcanic sand - unfortunately the path does not extend all the way into Santa Cruz. If the path is chosen you have to climb many steps to get up to the road to continue the walk into the capital - takes about 30 minutes from the hotel. The beaches are pleasantly situated in small coves and never looked crowded.
There are a couple of excellent bars at the back ot the beaches and the food being served up there looked authentic and tasty.

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Favorite thing: Many walking guides are available for La Palma.

Since the island is subjected to continuous change and development, it is also good to buy a detailed map with the walking trails, indicated with the letters GR (long distance), PR (medium distance) and SL (local trails).

We mainly used the Dutch "ANWB Wandelgids La Palma", second printing 2005, originally written by Susanne Lipps. This guide mainly describes hikes with the same start and finish. This is very easy because you can park your car somewhere and get back to it. However, some of the walks in the second printing were not fully correct anymore due to changes in roads etc. Be warned, the first tunnel in walk #18 was closed with a gate when we were there in Januari 2008 (however, we went under the gate :-)

We also had the Sunflower La Palma and El Hierro guide by Noel Rochford. This guide describes mainly walks that go from one point to another (different start and finish) and therefore is very suitable for people that want to use public transport. This guide also uses a web-based update service to make sure you can always have the latest information about the hikes. See for public transportation: http://members.virtualtourist.com/m/6117e/40867/9/

Favorite thing: In the north-east there are two swimming pools built in the ocean.
One of them is called Charco Azul, near San Andrés. It has two pools, a large one, deep enough to dive into, and a smaller one, where fish also swim in. The sea fills the pools, each time a wave comes in, but there are no real currents, so that swimming is save for everyone. The real ocean is often to wild to swim in. Sometimes, when the wind comes from the right direction, the waves can be very high.
The entrance is free. There is also a restaurant/bar.