Hiking report from La Gomera, Canary Islands, Winter 2006/2007

See where it is on Google maps.

Go here if you just want to see a slideshow from La Gomera.

La Gomera is a small, unexploited island in the Canaries, protected from mass tourism by its crappy beaches, and thus ideal for hikers looking for a quiet but civilised holiday. It is much lusher than its more famous neighbours, and is renowned for its verdant laurel forests. We got a lot of inspiration from other people's trip reports on the web, and hopefully this short report will also provide some tips for what to do on the island.

Busy with work and travel in the run-up to Christmas, we wanted a holiday that was quick and simple to plan, and easy to get to, so we chose a package tour with Fritidsresor. Perhaps the planning was a bit too easy, as we somehow failed to notice that the connections and stopovers added up to a 16 hour journey after a 3:30 am wake-up, so we were a little the worse for wear when we arrived at our appartment in Valley Gran Rey, on the west side of the island. But the town is peaceful and quiet, and seems to be low crime too, considering all the unlocked bikes we saw parked.

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For day 4 we rented a car for 30 Euros because we were unsure where the best laurel forests were, and wanted flexibility. The roads on La Gomera are excellent. Huge amounts of EU development money has spawned perfectly-surfaced roads with motorway-style barriers, but there is as yet no traffic to fill them. So driving is a dream compared to the nightmare of rural roads on the mainland.

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Buses on the island are infrequent, and so day five was supposed to involve an early start to catch a bus to just past Las Hayas, but after our alarm failed it became another taxi journey, which ended with our driver getting into trouble with the police for being so helpful as to drop us in a no stopping zone.

From the town we took a bus up to Chipuda, with plans to hike back to del Rey. The guidebook said that the path was no longer passable due to rock slide, but a transplanted Brit that we had talked to assured us that it was now fixed. He was wrong. So after an hour's hike down towards home we were confronted by 100m of 60° scree, and so headed back up to the road, but veering off to neighbouring El Cercado for a change. Here we learned about the airport bus, which soon deposited us back home.

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Conclusion :
At the moment, tourism in La Gomera is exactly as it should be, with good service, no crowding, no exploitation of either the island or visitors, and not enough competition to force vedors to cut prices and thus corners. This will no doubt change soon, but I think the cooler climate and the subtlety of the attractions there will mean that La Gomera will retain a lot of its attraction in the future.

Links :
The most useful link I found on the web was Jørgen Aabech's Gomera.

(MRH homepage)