Hiking on La Palma
Hiking on La Palma
La Palma is lovingly called 'La Isla Bonita' and is well-known as a hiking island. Those who come to the island to hike will find incomparable landscapes on a well-developed and marked network of hiking trails. Whether laurel forests, the summit of the Cumbre Vieja with volcanoes, the highest peak on the island, the Roque de Los Muchachos or the Caldera de Taburiente, each of these landscapes has its own magic.
There are routes for all fitness levels - from small excursions up to hiking tours completely around the island. The island's government has prepared along the most popular hiking routes houses, where you can rest, cook, wash your clothes and even spend the night.
If you want to discover La Palma on foot, it is always a good idea to get an actual hiking map. An actual and detail map in the 1:25.000 scale is on sale in the La Palma 24 office in Todoque.
Useful information are available in the i-Points on the island. Information about the routes is an absolute must, especially for those who are planning a trip to the famous caldera. Because the volcanic crater basin in the north of La Palma can turn during the winter quickly into a cauldron. Hikers start at mornings with beautiful weather and find themselves in the heaviest rain in the middle of the caldera.
Then it can be dangerous. Reason is the earth of the crater walls from the Caldera. They are saturated from previous rain. The rain forms small streams which gets over into larger streams and finally the water is flowing over the riverbed of the popular hiking trail “Barranco de Las Angustias” into the Ocean in Tazacorte. Depending on the intensity of the rain it could be that within a very short time, it gets over into a tidal wave.
Therefore is hiking experience in Germany, Austria or Switzerland not enough. The professional hiking guides from La Palma know every stone, see dangers and react properly and in time. Even when it is foggy, they know the way.
Professional and certified hiking guides are characterized by the fact that they form manageable groups, depending on their condition and wished routes of the participants.
We wish you a lot of fun on the hiking trails of the island!
Select a day to see the different options for guided hiking tours: