Hi Bo,

I think you'll find that you'll be made very welcome - if only because of your rarity value as a British visitor :-) Seriously, I think that most of the locals know that a different type of tourist chooses La Gomera over Tenerife and that they are looking for something different. They'll go out of their way to help and be friendly and it's very common to be given a complimentary glass of the local digestif or brandy at the end of your meal. Last time, on realising that my Mother didn't drink alcohol and that my youngest niece was only 13 (despite her appearance!) a tapas bar we frequented always went out of their way to produce and alcohol free equivalent for them.

Despite its proximity to Tenerife, I can't see things changing much as long as there are no direct flights to La Gomera. There is an airport but the runway is too short for anything other than the small planes used for the inter-island services. And as they only fly from Tenerife North, most visitors use the ferries from Los Christianos. The big TOs are never going to be bothered with the hassle of transfers from TFS in those circumstances, especially since they would be very vulnerable in event of plane delays.

There are very few hotels on the island and we always go DIY based on booking apartments in Valle Gran Rey via a local agency, though we have also used a UK agent who acts on behalf of some local owners who let apartments in the upper valley. If I can help with any further info let me know.

SM

PS Re the language - even just a few phrases in Spanish will go a long way so if starting from scratch ditch the German! Just one point to remember is that the local Spanish is closer to Latin American Spanish rather than mainland Castilian. The first time I went I'd been patiently working away at it with my BBC CDs just to reduce the locals to gales of laughter because Castilian pronunciation sounds very posh to local ears. So no lisping!

La Gomera gets direct air link from Gatwick

The first flights between the UK and the Canary island of La Gomera are to be run this winter.

Cadogan Holidays is to run packages to the sister island of Tenerife based on weekly Tuesday flights with Astreas from November 6.

The new itinerary will cut down transfer times from the previous 20 minute catamaran trip from Tenerife and further 35 minute transfer on the island to a 15 minute transfer from the airport to the hotel.

The catamaran service will remain available for people who arrive or depart on a different day or who would simply prefer this option.

Cadogan features the four star superior Jardín Tecina hotel with five swimming pools, an 18-hole golf course a health and beauty centre.

Seven nights starts at £566 per adult on a half board basis in November including return flights and transfers.

Cadogan commercial and product director John Riley said: "This new route means that our customers can enjoy this delightful gem amongst the Canaries without the hassle of transfers from Tenerife."

With permission from Travelmole

I didn't think the runway at La Gomera was long enough for big planes, I thought the airport was just for the little inter-island flights

I didn't either! And having seen the airport and the way the runway ends right at the cliff edge, I'm still not sure that I would want to land there in anything that was big enough for the direct flight from Gatwick!

More to the point for me, it could mean that this little gem of an island could be 'discovered' by other package TOs and change out of all recognition.

SM

The runway at La Gomera is 1,500m (4,921ft) in length which is just short of a mile.

Nice to have a new forum for the smaller islands, however some people may not realise there is a lot of info on the Tenerife forum HERE. Perhaps the mods could copy it over?

Thomson do package holidays to La Gomera now HERE

Moved Cyberspacekadette, and merged, - thank you
Kath x

La Gomera gets direct air link from Gatwick

This service was offered briefly by Astreaus during the winter 2007/08 season but was cancelled within months of it starting and there are apparently no plans to re-start it for the 2008/09 season. So once again it's back to flights to Tenerife South followed by the ferry from Los Christianos for us fans of this lovely, peaceful, little island. I have to admit that I had mixed views about this development anyway - it could have turned into the beginning of the end with greatly increased levels of development if it increased the number of visitors.

However, with regards to the ferry, anybody planning on travelling to La Gomera in the next few months should note that the Garjonay Express passenger ferry which serves Playa de Santiago (PS) and Valle Gran Rey (VGR) as well as San Sebastian (SS) from Los Christianos on Tenerife will not be operating after 15th May 2008. According to one of my contacts on the island this is because Fred Olsen ferries are planning to extend their catamaran car ferry services to include VGR even though they haven't published timetables yet (the current timetable on their website only goes as far as May 2008). I have been expecting this for some time - the creation of an outer harbour with a large ramp at VGR 2 years ago suggested that this was on the cards. This will result in a faster journey time but given that the current Olsen fare to SS alone already costs more than the Garojanay Express fare right round to VGR I think the probable fare will be twice the price eg in the region of 50 Euros per single trip). This will also leave PS without a direct link to Tenerife because the harbour there is not big enough for the large car ferries.

I find this development sad for a number of reasons:

1) It's a put a locally owned small company out of business

2) It's going to make life harder for many regular local people who use the foot passenger for their daily commute

3) The walk from GVR over the mountains to SS, returning to GVR on the ferry was extremly popular with visitors and it is now impossible and this will result in fewer walkers frequenting the harbourside bars and cafes in SS which are bound to suffer as a result.

Conversely, I would now expect VGR to grow and for the pace of development to increase - some of the locals will probably welcome this but it will change the character of this southwest corner of the island. If you are thinking about visiting this quiet little corner of La Gomera this could be the year to do it before it changes for ever. We are planning to go for our usual October trip but as my mother said - we might just have to find another island for next year - and La Palma is looking increasingly attractive!

SM

Since my last post above re La Gomera, it looks as if the Garajonay Express has been given a reprieve and it is still running - the note about services ceasing on May 15th has been removed from the website. It would appear that they are now accepting reservations up until the autumn - not that you actually need to do this. I understand from a local contact that it looks as if they have been given a subsidy so they can afford to keep running this service. As yet Olsen have still not published a timetable for extending their service round to Valle Gran Rey.

I've just booked everything up for our annual October trip and so looking forward to it. La Palma will have to wait for another year!

SM

Well it looks as if the reprieve to the Garajonay Express over the summer was shorlived. The service was drastically cut back in the autumn and has now ceased altogether. As yet nothing has happened with regard to extending the Olson ferry service round to Valle Gran Rey so it's back to landing at San Sebastian and having to trek over the top of the island or arrange a quite costly taxi transfer to get to the south of the island.

When we were there in October the area was the quietest I've ever seen in all the years we've been going. A couple of bars/restaurants had already closed down for good (not just for the end of the season) because of the lower number of visitors and the fact that those who were still coming tended to be 'New Agers' who weren't spending much money with the locally owned and run enterprises. Whilst we have always loved the area because it is so quiet and peaceful compared to elsewhere in the Canaries I fear that this could be the beginning of the end for the tourist industry in this lovely little corner.

SM

Lots of good stuff here. Thank you.

SMa: Has there been anything on a plan to revive Garajonay Expres? I understood the line was being subsidised, but lost its subsidy. Presumably the hoteliers in VGR are fuming, not to mention the locals who used the service simply to get over to Tenerife for college and the like. I've read a few snippets on plans to bring the ferry line back to life, but nothing concrete as yet.

Fred (Olsen) probably won't be pulling hard for a return of the Garajonay service, since it has no real interest in VGR and I guess a good many of the Jardin Tecina customers show brand-loyalty (and a measure of stupidity) in taking the fast FO ferries over to SS and then hiking across the island.

We've spent holidays in Jardin Tecina on a number of occasions, playing golf and loafing (though there ARE some good organised walks from there, both independent and guided), and naturally part of the charm of the island is the difficulty of access and the swift way this removes the "cattle" and "stella´n´chips" factors from one's holiday experience. But there are limits to everything, and the Garajonay ferry service was a very handy alternative to waiting for the later Olsen boat.

One of the key issues over Gomera, as you point out, is timing one's arrival in Tenerife Sud. A good many of the package operators are in bed with Fred, and since he's got a later departure, they make little effort to make even possible deadlines for the lunchtime departure. Hence hopping into a cab and braving the drive to Los Cristianos to take the Garajonay boat (and then a very short cab-ride at Playa Santiago) was an attractive option. I'm hoping against hope it is not a completely dead duck.

By the by, the Tecina golf course is very good. And so is the hotel. Not cheap by any means, but delightful.

Apropos of flights in on Binter Canarias. They, too, have reduced their supply, but it is perhaps worth noting that you do not HAVE to fly in to Tenerife Nord to pick up a connection. There are also flights (two a day, I think) from Gran Canaria. I suspect a good many of those who do make it over to Gomera are in fact taking a flight-only alternative from a package operator, and if you can get a cheap deal like that - or even a full package in some fleapit Maspalomas or Tenerife hotel that you do not use - it may not be THAT expensive a way to get to the island that time forgot.

In any event, lengthening the runway (pretty impractical) to allow direct flights in would be the death-knell of the place. Look what happened to paradises like Ko Lanta in Southern Thailand when they opened up Krabi Airport.

And I sign on 100% to your remark about seeing Los Cristianos disappear in the boat's wake. It couldn't happen fast enough.

Hi Slothrop!

To the best of my knowledge the Garajonay Express is still defunct - without the subsidy it was always going to be commercially unviable. So for the moment the only choice is still between the Olsen or Armas ferries. And the latter would still be my preference - it might be pretty ancient and slow but that's more than compensated for by the opportunity to sit out in the open nursing a G & T whilst watching the wake and the dolphins.

I hadn't thought of trying to go via Gran Canaria - I'll have to investigate that option too next time. We've previously used a variety of options - BA was always the best service but we have used the 'flight only' option with the charter operators too. My best deal was probably with Loco flights (now gone out of business) where we a got a really good price for a 10 day option (Friday out - Sunday back) one year.

As yet we haven't given much thought to our next visit - too many imponderables for us to be able to make firm plans for the moment. But I'm sure that we haven't yet made our final visit!

SM

You are of course in the enviable position of looking at flights into Tenerife or GC from the UK, where I would imagine they more or less grow on trees (or did until your economy tanked). We met English tourists (yes, there were a few among the Central Europeans and the Scandis) who had come in from exotic little airports like Exeter with no trouble.

Unfortunately we are coming in from the far north, from Finland, and so have to make do with grabbing a vacant seat on a Finnair leisure flight into one of the resorts, or taking a cheapo package and dropping the hotel, or alternatively going with an operator who actually lists Gomera (a couple do, on a "semi-independent travel" basis).

The shortage of alternatives naturally affects our scheduling - as it happens, most of the Finnair and TUI Nordic flights into TFS do come in around 12, allowing you to get the Fred boat if you get a move on and don't wait for transport, but Garajonay had the distinct advantage of allowing you to be by the pool sipping at a tall cold one while the Fredsters were still slogging over the hills from San Sebastian. We even arrived one time in the company of a sweet little old lady from Norway who was "of the family", but who swore us to secrecy about the fact that she always came in if she could on the Garajonay boat, rather than supporting the family business.

Since there are quite a few package operators flying in to the resorts in the south of GC, and to Puerto de la Cruz in the north of Tenerife, I figure if the boat doesn't make a return, the best bet will be to try and synchronise a Binter Canarias connection from one of those two. If my memory serves me aright, there was a morning and afternoon flight from each.

I'm still optimistic, however: there seems to have been quite a stink kicked up, almost as if the local government was seen as TRYING to sabotage the modest Gomera tourist trade. I'm not sure what else the island has going for it, so killing a "soft" but not "too easy" connection to one of the major tourist centres looks like somebody shot themselves in the foot, to be frank. In the absence of any means (or apparent desire) to have mass tourism, one would have thought they'd seek to encourage savvy independent travellers.

As for Fred Olsen, although they don't actually stand to gain MUCH from a connection to Playa Santiago, it can't hurt them much, either: anything that makes getting to Tecina easier has to help occupancy there, and it's a big operation with a lot of staff, and it also has a new villa complex: it isn't at all in their interests to have it sitting half-empty. I don't know how many people pop over for the day to play a round of golf, but you'd have to like the game a fair bit to bother, whereas longer-stay guests use the course quite a lot.

Fascinating place. I don't think I've come across anything anywhere quite like the difference in worlds that a short ferry hop can generate. Maybe Helsinki to Tallinn in the days when Estonia was part of the Soviet Union, though for different reasons, of course.

I'm still optimistic, however: there seems to have been quite a stink kicked up, almost as if the local government was seen as TRYING to sabotage the modest Gomera tourist trade. I'm not sure what else the island has going for it, so killing a "soft" but not "too easy" connection to one of the major tourist centres looks like somebody shot themselves in the foot, to be frank. In the absence of any means (or apparent desire) to have mass tourism, one would have thought they'd seek to encourage savvy independent travellers.

I think that one of the problems is that the local council on La Gomera does want to DIScourage the sort of savvy independent traveller that is on the increase in Valle Gran Rey. And does have some support from the locals in that aim. Rightly or wrongly, there is certainly the perception that Valle GRan Rey (VGR) is now attracting too many visitors - usually referred to as 'New Agers' or 'Neo-hippies' and mainly German - who aren't willing or able to spend money on the island. There has been an increase in the number of people camping out on the more remote beaches and who only venture into the towns and villages to buy very basic supplies. Local friends speak very disparagingly of families who come and do nothing but feed their children on plain boiled pasta and little else. In other words they are doing little to support local businesses. It's hard to tell on the basis of a one week stay but certainly in October the beaches around VGR had as many people on them during the day as on previous visits but the bars and restaurants were very quiet most evenings despite there being fewer of them open than in previous years. So there might be something in it.

For those in the know, getting to La Tecina via the Garajonay Express was an easy option but most UK visitors staying there would have arrived via a hotel arranged transfer from San Sebastian and of course the airport on La Gomera is ideally placed for visitors staying there. So I think that there is little incentive for Olsen to do much about supporting a direct ferry link to Playa de Santiago but I will await with interest developments re them extending their car ferry service round to VGR - the harbour extension looks as if it was purpose built for their catamaran service, complete with the ramp needed for a RORO ferry. I for one am convinced that this is what they are ultimately aiming to do. I haven't been to La Palma so don't know what the harbour facilities for ferries are like there but a stop at VGR on route to La Palma could be an attractive option for Olsen even though it would put the Armas and Trasmediterranea ferries to La Palma under pressure.

Either way, I think that I can detect a concerted effort on the part of the Ayuntamiento in VGR to try and attract a more upmarket or at least more free spending sort of visitor. Time and again it was made clear to us that visitors like us who stay in self-catering apartments but eat out every night (and most lunchtimes too!) are extremely welcome but are now few and far between. One way or another the sentiment that they needed more visitors like us and fewer of those who now dominate locally was expressed very frequently. In other words, there was little incentive for them to encourage the sort of visitor that is now in the majority in VGR. Our love affair with La Gomera is far from over and VGR is probably still the best place to base ourselves for what we like to do on our holidays there. So even if the Garajonay Express never gets afloat again it won't deter us from going again for the foreseeable future but either way it looks as if the character of both VGR and La Gomera as a whole is undergoing change.

SM

I think that one of the problems is that the local council on La Gomera does want to DIScourage the sort of savvy independent traveller that is on the increase in Valle Gran Rey. And does have some support from the locals in that aim. Rightly or wrongly, there is certainly the perception that Valle GRan Rey (VGR) is now attracting too many visitors - usually referred to as 'New Agers' or 'Neo-hippies' and mainly German - who aren't willing or able to spend money on the island. There has been an increase in the number of people camping out on the more remote beaches and who only venture into the towns and villages to buy very basic supplies. Local friends speak very disparagingly of families who come and do nothing but feed their children on plain boiled pasta and little else. In other words they are doing little to support local businesses. It's hard to tell on the basis of a one week stay but certainly in October the beaches around VGR had as many people on them during the day as on previous visits but the bars and restaurants were very quiet most evenings despite there being fewer of them open than in previous years. So there might be something in it.

Yep, that ought to do it. Interesting. We only went up the coast once, basically for a sniff around and a swim at a little beach just around the corner from the port (rather hard to get to - you had to scramble over the rocks). I did notice there was what looked like a makeshift shack tucked in under the very steep cliffs there, as though someone had been living rough for some time. I can see the local authorities' point. It sounds as though Playa Santiago is the baby tossed out with the bathwater. It's odd - VGR appears to be reverting to type. It was a hippie paradise in the 60s and early 70s, and only then did the hotels get developed. Tecina, meanwhile, attracts the comfortably-off who don't mind the "luxury gated community" type of thing - fundamentally there would be no need to step outside the place, though personally I shudder at the idea. It has considerable customer-loyalty in any case: we met countless people (even a few Brits) who were on something like their ninth visit, and I think the next time we go (whenever that is), we start picking up loyalty discounts for this and that.

We only went up the coast once, basically for a sniff around and a swim at a little beach just around the corner from the port (rather hard to get to - you had to scramble over the rocks).

Do you mean the one to the east of the harbour? Well, yes, there is quite a colony of little shacks tucked away in the caves under the cliffs and there is now an unofficial campsite in the disused banana groves further up that barranco. It's the fact that VGR appears to be reverting to type ie once more becoming the hippy 'paradise' of earlier decades and a period of tourism that the locals now thought they'd left behind for good.

We usually stay at the curved block of apartment right on the harbour - a two bedroom apartment with balcony costs us 45 Euros per night and is remarable value at 11.25 euros per head! And it's really hard for us to spend more than 100 Euros for 3 courses and drinks for 4 of us. And you can eat well for considerably less - it's hard to spend more than 10 Euros per head on a selection of tapas and drinks at the Cofredia de Piscadores on the harbour. So it's not exactly expensive - even with the current exchange rate for Sterling users - to eat out. I can't book annual leave too far in advance so we often miss out on the really cheap fares with the result that we usually spend far more on the travel getting there than we ever on the apartment and all our living expenses once arrive. Even if people can't afford to eat out every night I'm sure it would make a difference if every set of visitors patronised some of the local bars and restaurants just once or twice a week.

SM

Yes. That's the one. Las Arenas. Clothing optional.

Hi Slothrop (and any other fans of La Gomera!),

The passenger ferry service round to Playa se Santiago and Valle Gran Rey is back on - and being run by Olsen's! It looks as if they have bought the Garajonay Express boats and simply re-painted them in the Olsen livery. They are marketing it as the Benchi Express and are running 3 return journeys a day. Fares have gone up slightly but not a great deal, so for anybody heading round to the south of the island this still remains the best option for getting there.

We are off for our annual visit on 10 October and will be trying out the 'new' ferry for the first time so will report back when we return.

SM

Thank you. I had heard of the restart, which was apparently delayed a bit while they got the Italian-built (I think) vessel up to scratch. It didn't look any bigger than the earlier ones, meaning probably no cars...

I'll look forward to hearing your reports.