LA PALMA AND EL HIERRO
• 45 long and short walks for all ages and abilities
• 1:50,000 topo maps
• official waymarked trails mapped out and highlighted
• 4 car tours, highlighting access to all the walks en route
• fold-out touring maps with walk locations – ideal for planning
• La Palma’s new road numbering featured
• plans of Santa Cruz de la Palma and Valverde on Hierro
• 30 picnic suggestions, many suitable as short walks and leg-stretchers
• timetables for local transport
• online update service
This new Seventh edition of La Palma and El Hierro was thoroughly checked – all the routes re-driven or re-walked – only three months prior to publication and it is very up-to-date. Weekly charter flights to La Palma from London and Manchester have made this an increasingly popular destination.
In natural beauty, La Palma rivals all the other Canary Islands put together. Its immense, abyss-like crater, the Caldera de Taburiente, is considered to be the largest of its kind in the world. Deep within its pine-speckled, towering walls is a year-round abundance of gushing streams, boisterous cascades, and a plummeting waterfall.
Outside the crater, high on the cloud-catching hillsides, 20 million-year-old laurel forests grow as dense as a jungle.
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 this guide reveals the island's hidden charms – as remarkable as any in the archipelago.
Whether you tour La Palma or El Hierro by car or discover them on foot, Noel introduces you to the islands' best beauty spots.
For La Palma: 3 drives (with accompanying touring map), 38 long and short walks (illustrated with 1:50,000 topo maps showing the official trail numbers), 22 picnic suggestions. For El Hierro: 1 drive (with accompanying touring map), 12 long and short walks (each with 1:50,000 topo map), 8 picnic suggestions.
This guide is part of the Landscapes Series, with 50 destinations – dubbed ‘the blue Bibles’ by the Sunday Times and chosen by readers of Which? as one of the four top travel guide series (from a field of 18) .
An excellent book... The size, the balance between text and images and facts and maps ... makes it perfect for getting out and about. (GCH, Amazon)
Walking La Palma was spectacular, marvellous... many other superlatives. (VH, Hyde)
The book proved a really useful (no, essential) addition to our holiday and made a good holiday really special. (HOH, Shrewsbury)
An excellent book... The size, the balance between text and images and facts and maps ... makes it perfect for getting out and about. --(GCH, Amazon) Walking La Palma was spectacular, marvellous... many other superlatives. --(VH, Hyde) The book proved a really useful (no, essential) addition to our holiday and made a good holiday really special. --(HOH, Shrewsbury)
