Hi

I stayed in La Palma in November a few years ago. It's a small quiet island very green and mountainous, there are a couple of resorts with black sandy beaches where there are a few hotels but lots of people stay DIY in apartments/villas in the villages and small towns around the island.
I am not familiar with the hotel you mentioned but for more info about the island check out http://www.islalapalma.com/en/

I have only just spotted this post, and one about La Gomera, hidden away in this forum. All the extra Canary Islands should feature somwhere other than with Australia and Brazil !
Back to La Palma. Scenically it is magnificent. The walking is superb if you enjoy that sort of thing. We loved it so much we went back 6 months later. There isn't a great deal to do otherwise.We stayed at the Sol de La Palma in Puerto Naos and they put on evening entertainment which is OK. I would recommend staying on the west coast as it is much drier than the east coast . Tourism is still very much in it's infancy. The British tour companies ignore it. The German companies don't. That said we loved it.

As a fan of the smaller Canary Islands I agree with you about this not being the ideal forum for discussion on them. You'll find a lot more about La Gomera on the Tenerife forum, mainly on the pragmatic grounds I think that most people go to La Gomera via either the ferry from Los Christianos on Tenerife or via the inter-island flights from Tenerife North airport. However, now that direct flights from the UK to La Gomera are about to start that logic falls down a bit!

SM

SMa wrote:

As a fan of the smaller Canary Islands I agree with you about this not being the ideal forum for discussion on them. You'll find a lot more about La Gomera on the Tenerife forum

There is a thread HERE with a bit of info about La Palma, perhaps the mods could copy it over?

Thomson do package holidays to La Palma HERE

Moved for you CSK.

luci

We are thinking about going to La Palma for New Year. I am expecting the weather to be variable so was wondering what 'indoor attractions' the island has in case we need something to do. We are interested in musuems etc but not really bothered by shopping. Any advice welcome!

I don't think you'll find much on offer to be perfectly honest. Not even shopping.
Hopefully you won't need to find indoor attractions anyway. I would hire a car, it wasn't expensive when we went , and explore the island. Remember the weather can be better on the west side of the island...we drove from rain, through the tunnel in the mountains and came out the other side in what appeared to be the lost planet in brilliant sunshine. Quite amazing,

Having had a poke around some other websites, it looks like there are about 7 museums on various themes so hopefully some of them would be interesting. We would prefer to spend the whole week outside though!

Car hire is definitely something we're considering - do you have any tips and suggestions to pass on?

Thanks!

Hi Corinne
Hiring a car is a must, the scenery around the island is stunning and very varied. The best way is to get out and see it is on foot but you need a car to get you to the various starting points of the walks.The top of the island is often in cloud but if you get the right conditions you can drive up through it and into the sunshine above. Looking across a snowfield of clouds you can see Mt Teide rising to 16000 feet in the distance.
Looking down into the Caldera de Taburiente you can see the clouds being pushed up towards you and falling back into the abyss below. Fabulous.Try a walk to the Pico de la Nieve. There is an obvious car park on the road up there from Santa Cruz ( probably leaving you a walk of 3-400m height) and the reward is the stunning view. We did feel cheated though when we discovered the main road joins the path further along !
Another favourite is the walk from Puerto de Tazacorte to the Mirador El Time 510m. Again stunning views and a superb mirador cafe for a deserved beer at the top !
The walk from Fuencaliente to the lighthouse on the south point via Volcan Teneguia has some really different volcanic scenery. The down side is that the half way point is at the bottom and having had that refreshing beer, you have to walk back up again !
I think my favourite though is the walk inside the Caldera de Taburiente. You have to get to the car park at the entrance to the NP where you can get a jeep taxi to the top of the caldera.Then it's all downhill back to the car park. A full day out and one to be avoided in rain as the river can rise and trap you inside the caldera. Very unlikely though !
We went for a week in November and had superb weather. We enjoyed it so much and decided a week wasn't enough so returned for a fortnight the following March. That was a mistake, we should have waited a while longer before returning. The weather wasn't as good and the top of the island always in cloud.
We tried the shopping in Santa Cruz and Los Llanos but it doesn't have much on offer IMO.
If you have detail of 7 museums I'm amazed ! I think you will find they are very small ones.
We loved the island, it's different from the other Canaries. The most likely tourists are German but I have noticed it's appeared on some British travel companies guides again this year. We stayed in Puerto Naos at the Hotel Sol de La Palma which is highly recommended. Excellent food in their buffet restaurant. We will go again one day. It's the only place I have ever been to twice, well until this weekend when we are off to Goa for a second time. Hope it's as good 2nd visit this time !
PS You need to take walking boots !
A good walking guide is "La Palma" by Klaus & Annette Wolfsperger. A Rother walking guide.

Hi Dave

Thanks for all that info - most appreciated. We are flying out on 29th December from Manchester for a week, staying at the Taburiente Playa in Los Cancajos. I've got some guidebooks and a map ordered from the library. Did you pre-book your hire car or did you just sort something out when you arrived? And can you remember who you went with and how much it cost?

Thanks again,

Corinne

Hi ,I pre booked the car to pick up at the airport. It saved me 30 pounds on the airport transfer too ! Your hotel is minutes away from the airport if I remember.
Can't think who the car was hired from....I'm away from home at present. Could have been holiday autos or similar. Try looking on line for car hire. good luck
Dave.

Car hire is now all booked - we'll have it for 6 days to make the most of the island - unfortunately transfers were included in our package so wouldn't save any money picking the car up at the airport.

Will let you know how we get on!

Just to say that we got back yesterday and had a lovely time. Will post my report as soon as I can.

Here you go.......

La Palma Review - New Year 2008

We spent 7 nights in La Palma over New Year 2008. Here follows an account of our trip:

The Journey

We flew out from Manchester Terminal 2 to La Palma with Thomsonfly. The outbound flight took off on time and we had no problems until we tried to land in La Palma. Due to cloudy weather, the pilot was unable to see the runway and the landing was therefore aborted at the last minute. We were instead flown to Tenerife and then sat on the tarmac for an hour, awaiting further news. You can imagine how pleased everyone was when we were told that the plane would not be attempting another landing in La Palma and instead we would be transferred there by ferry that evening! We were then taken to the Princessa Dacil hotel in Los Christianos where we were given lunch, before being picked up much later that day and being taken to the port to get the ferry. The crossing took 2 ½ hrs over very choppy waters, meaning that we finally arrived in La Palma 11 hrs later than planned. In some ways we were lucky though - the passengers due to fly back to Manchester ended up leaving a day late (via Tenerife), and the Gatwick return flight was delayed by 2 days due to a technical fault. Our return journey was delayed by an hour as the plane left Manchester late due to snow and ice on the runway. What really annoyed me about the return flight was that it took the crew 2 hrs to serve the in-flight meals - rather than giving priority to those who had pre-booked meals, they spent their time on selling snacks and drinks to those who had not bothered to book any food. It also took the return crew ages to start off the in flight entertainment and they ran out of a lot of the duty free items so there were a lot of disgruntled passengers that day too!

The Weather

We didn't actually get to experience the weather in La Palma on the day we were due to arrive - but it was windy, cloudy and grey in Tenerife so it can't have been very good. The next day it rained very heavily until mid afternoon and we were beginning to wonder if we had made a bad choice of holiday destination. Luckily the weather greatly improved the following day and was mainly warm and sunny the rest of the week (20c on average). We had heard that the climate was much sunnier on the west side of the island and definitely found this to be the case while we were there. The day we went to La Cumbrecita, we didn't see a single cloud once we had come through the road tunnel under the mountain, but on the way back we drove straight back into thick cloud and mist. Also bear in mind that La Palma is very hilly and it can be chilly up in the mountains, even if it's sunny.

The Hotel

H10 Taburiente Playa, Los Cancajos
(http://www.h10hotels.com/eng/la-palma-hotels/h10-taburiente-playa.php)

We only booked our holiday six weeks before departure (with Portland Direct), so there wasn't much choice of accommodation available. We picked the Taburiente Playa because it had good reviews on Trip Advisor, was near the airport and Santa Cruz and therefore looked like a sensible base for touring the island. This turned out to be a very good decision as we found it to be a fantastic hotel. The staff are probably the most helpful people we've ever met on holiday. The service in the restaurant deserves particular mention - we barely had to wait any time for drinks service or for our table to be cleared. We loved the way the hotel has been constructed and decorated - in particular the atrium area with the waterfall and pools and greenery hanging from the balconies. As we were there over New Year, the Christmas decorations were still up and carols were being piped through the entertainment systems, which seemed very bizarre when it was hot and sunny outside.

The food in the restaurant was just as impressive as the service - I'm a fussy eater but never had any problems finding a variety of stuff to eat at every meal - I particularly liked the freshly cooked pancakes at breakfast and the chilli roasted potatoes at dinner. They really pulled out all the stops for the New Year's Eve Gala dinner though - 6 courses and 4 different types of alcohol - all delicious, topped off with a fantastic fireworks display at midnight. Definitely a night to remember!

The only criticisms we had were to do with our room - the décor could definitely do with an upgrade and the tiled floors meant that we could hear noise from the room above. Our room had a great view of Santa Cruz, and we were happy to not be on the sunnier side of the hotel as the room was pretty warm at night anyway. We only used the pool area on one day but had no trouble getting sun beds - we weren't brave enough to swim in the pools though! The hotel entertainment wouldn't win any awards, but it kept us amused for the week. The drinks service in the bars is generally quicker if you order at the bar itself, rather than waiting for table service.

Calling Los Cancajos a ‘resort' is a bit misleading as it's really just a small selection of hotels and restaurants next to a beach. We really liked it though - it may be very low key compared to resorts in the other Canary Islands but it had everything we needed. We ate twice at the Tiuna restaurant - the pizzas weren't great but the pasta was lovely and the portion sizes were huge. We went to the Lambada beach bar one night and were amused to hear them actually play ‘The Lambada' amongst other cheesy pop songs. The small Spar supermarket near the hotel also proved to be very useful - we bought fresh bread and cheese etc everyday to make up a picnic to take with us on our travels. As others have noted, the airport is only 5 minutes away but the noise wasn't a problem as there are only about 10 flights a day.

All in all, we really liked Los Cancajos and the Taburiente Playa and wouldn't hesitate to recommend them both to anyone who wants a convenient base to see this island.

Things to do

One of the first things you need to decide on if you are going to La Palma is how you are going to do your sightseeing (unless you expect to spend the entire time by the pool). If you prefer organised trips, Portland/Thomson offer a number of excursions, ranging from 30-65 euros - there is a list of trips and prices at the bottom of this review. Another option is using the local bus network to get around the island, although you will have to change at Santa Cruz to get to most destinations. The final option is car hire - which was what we went for in the end. This was the first time we'd ever hired a car, or driven abroad so it wasn't a decision we took lightly, but we decided it would be the most convenient and flexible way to do things. After checking out prices on the internet, we finally booked with a local company, Oasis La Palma (INVALID URL as they had the best price and their main office was a few minutes away from our hotel. We paid 181 euros to hire a category C car for 6 days - this included a New Year supplement, Super CDW and an additional driver. We paid in advance over the web - which turned out to be a good idea as the euro exchange rate had reduced by 10% by the time we actually arrived in La Palma.

Despite our trepidation at ‘driving on the wrong side of the road', we didn't have any major problems while we were there. We found the roads in the south were generally narrower and not as well maintained as the roads in the north and centre. Most of the roads are very winding due to the geography of the island so you have to drive pretty slowly and we didn't really have any problems with the speed of the local drivers. We were given a very basic road map by Oasis, but it was only useful for the town plans. We were very glad we had taken a more detailed map with us as well - we managed to get a Freytag and Berndt one from our local library - some recent road building made it slightly out of date but still useable. We also took copies of Lonely Planet's ‘Canary Islands', Sunflowers Books' ‘Landscapes of La Palma and El Hierro' and ‘Walk! La Palma' by Discovery Walking guides - we found that the Lonely Planet guide was the best one for non-hikers.

Because the weather was generally quite kind to us, we were able to do a lot of outdoor things while we were there. There is not a huge amount of stuff to do if the weather is bad - something to bear in mind if this is likely to spoil your holiday. Here's a list of what we visited in the space of a week:

Parque Ecologico de Belmaco - about 30 mins drive from los Cancajos. It's not a big place but the caves are interesting to see and there is also a museum. The circuit around the caves takes about an hour and would not be suitable for anyone with walking difficulties. There are toilets but no café. Admission is only 2 euros so it's definitely worth a visit if you're passing.

Volcan San Antonio & Volcan Teneguia - about an hour from los Cancajos. It's easy to miss the turning for the volcanoes as there aren't many signs, but they are on the same road as the La Palma Princess & Teneguia Princess hotels. The main car park and visitors' centre is at Volcan San Antonio - admission is 3.50 euros. The exhibition is only in Spanish but you can ask for the 10 minute information film to be shown in English. There is a small café there and toilets. The short walk to Volcan San Antonio and back took us about 30 minutes and was well worth doing. We also walked to Volcan Teneguia - this is advertised as a 2 hr walk but it took us nearly 3. It was hot and dusty and we didn't even manage to get to the top as it was a real scramble so I wouldn't really recommend it. There is a gravel track that will cut out a lot of the walking but most hire car companies won't let you drive on non-tarmaced roads. For other good views near here, try Mirador Las Indias on the road to Los Llanos.

National Park Visitors Centre & Mirador de la Cumbrecita - about 30 mins from los Cancajos. There is currently a queuing system in operation to restrict the number of vehicles at the Mirador de la Cumbrecita. Go to the Visitors Centre first and ask the staff in the entrance for the waiting list. Once you've got your name down then you can have a look around the visitors centre - the information film is shown in Spanish on the hour and English or German on the half hour. We ended up waiting an hour and a half before getting to the top of the waiting list (there were about 20 cars before us). The road up to the Cumbrecita itself is picturesque but full of hairpin bends, and the car park at the top is tiny so you can see why they have to restrict access. Once you get up there, the views of the Caldera de Taburiente are amazing - definitely worth the wait. There are lots of walks that start from this point - we did the easy one to the Mirador Lomo de las Chozas, coming back via the slightly more difficult one past the Mirador de los Roques. We spent a couple of hours walking around before heading back to the Visitors Centre to use the facilities (there are no toilets at the Cumbrecita). Afterwards we drove a little further west to visit Los Llanos de Aridane - this is a nice little town and worth a short visit. There is a good car park at the north end of Avenida Dr Fleming which is a short walk from the main square - Plaza Espana.

Los Tiles Forest & Visitors Centre - about 45 mins from los Cancajos. The visitors centre is right at the end of the road, past the first car park and the restaurant. We did the ‘easy but steep' walk to the Mirador Topo de las Barandas which took much longer than the stated 45 minutes - allow at least twice that unless you are very fit. The view from the top is worth it though. The visitors centre exhibitions are in Spanish but there were translation cards in some of the rooms. It has toilets and is open all day apart from 2-2.30.

Laguna de Barlovento - about 50 mins from los Cancajos. We found this really disappointing - it's a reservoir surrounded by a fence with not much else to see or do. We used the toilets and left!

Museo Insular (Island Museum) - this is in the centre of Santa Cruz and admission is free. There are exhibitions on various aspects of island culture which are ok - the wide selection of stuffed animals was quite amusing though! They also have temporary exhibitions - there was an excellent one about how the Nativity is depicted in various countries while we were there.

Museo Naval - this is inside the life size model of Columbus' ship at the north end of Santa Cruz. It was closed for repairs while we were there but looked like it might be reopening soon.

Maroparque Zoo - about 20 mins from Los Cancajos. This wasn't very good to be honest. Admission is 11 euros each and we only managed to find enough to keep us occupied for an hour. It wouldn't be a good place to go if it was raining as it's built on a hill and the paths are very slippery.

Overall, we had a great time in La Palma - it's definitely our favourite out of the 3 Canary Islands that we have visited so far. It's much greener and prettier than the others and has definitely not been subjected to the same tourist invasion that the bigger islands have. A week is enough to see most of what the island has to offer - so it's perfect for a short winter sun break. We would recommend it to anyone who wants to see the ‘real Canary Islands' especially if they don't mind the ‘fresher' weather.

Portland/Thomson excursion costs from Los Cancajos (December 2008)

Northern Reserves - 30 euros
Garafia & Roque de los Muchachos - 39 euros
Panoramic South - 34 euros
Whale watching - (excluding transport) - North - 35 euros, South - 45 euros
Whale watching - (including transport) - South 65 euros
Hiking - Caldera de Taburiente - 46 euros, other routes - 42 euros

As a footnote to my review, La Palma is always going to hold special memories for us as my partner proposed in the middle of the fireworks display on New Year's Eve. This means that one of my next holiday planning projects will be our wedding and honeymoon!