Walking On La Palma

Guide to walking on La Palma. In total 45 day walks are described ranging from 7 to 32km in length, and covering a wide variety of terrain. Although La Palma is one of the smaller Canary Islands, there are routes of all types from easy strolls to hands-on scrambling, from simple day walks to long-distance treks on rocky mountain paths, including the GR130, which circumnavigates the island, and the island-hopping GR131. With full route descriptions, including custom-made maps, refreshment options and transport for each walk, accommodation, useful contacts and a Spanish-English glossary. The book also includes lots of background information on geology, wildlife, plants and flowers. The circular GR130 trail takes about a week to complete and can be started and finished at any point around the island. The GR131 trail is exclusively high level and mountainous, requiring careful planning. The dramatic volcanic landscape of La Palma, reputed to be one of the steepest islands in the world, is little-known outside the Canaries, but offers an ideal winter walking destination for walkers of most abilities, featuring rocky treks and mountain paths.

This guidebook provides a comprehensive and detailed description of the GR131, an island-hopping trail across the seven Canary Islands. The 560km (348 mile) route begins on Lanzarote and finishes on El Hierro and is presented in 32 daily stages. The route is well waymarked but some navigational skills are required, and the remote and occasional rocky sections need to be treated with care. Also included is an optional ascent of El Teide, the highest peak on Spanish territory at 3718m. The guide is split into seven parts, one for each island. Overview statistics, detailed navigational description and 1:50,000 mapping is provided for each stage and the guide also includes key information about transport to and between the Canary Islands and availability of accommodation and services. There is background information on the geology, history, plants and wildlife and notes on local points of interest. An appendix contains a helpful glossary. As a geologically young area, the Canaries boast rare wildlife across their dramatic volcanic terrain. The islands contain a number of national parks, and the landscape varies from semi-desert to forests and barren mountainsides. This month-long route is a great opportunity for walkers to fully immerse themselves in the diverse culture and scenery of the Canary Islands.

Includes 34 detailed walking route itineraries. Each of it includes: - walking route summary; ratings for Effort, Time, Distance, Ascents/Descents, Refreshments and Vertigo risk; and more. It also provides background information along with details of accommodation, buses, official walking routes, mountain biking, museums, and information offices

Walking guide to the islands of La Gomera and El Hierro. The 45 waymarked routes in this guidebook include easy strolls and hands-on scrambles, day walks and long-distance routes including the GR132 and parts of the GR131, which runs the whole length of the Canary Islands. Walks are spread in the guide roughly clockwise and where walks are located beside each other, links between them are often possible, giving you the opportunity to make your own alterations. The routes are described over both islands, with 27 walks on La Gomera and 18 on El Hierro, illustrated with clear contour mapping and inspirational photography. The two smallest of the Canary Islands are no less rugged than their volcanic neighbours, offering a wide variety of little-known walking terrain from steep-sided barrancos and dramatic cliffs to the gentler slopes inland cloaked in laurisilva and pine forests.

La Gomera can be considered the wildest of the Canary Islands. From the central highlands of the almost 1500-metre high island, countless, steep-walled gorges wind down to the sea, slicing the otherwise gently sloping island coast like a cake. La Gomera is made for nature-loving walkers, and offers an incredible variety in its countryside: Idyllic valleys with terraced fields and palm groves stand in contrast to precipitous cliffs and spectacular gorges; the magical laurel forests of Garajonay National Park are countered by pine forests and banana plantations. Thus, the hiker can expect a pleasant stroll like no other, between blazing lava beaches, lush, misty primeval forests, ridges shrouded in clouds – and the ever-present, deep-blue Atlantic. This Rother Walking Guide presents the hiker with a wide variety of entertaining tour recommendations encompassing all regions of La Gomera. These walks range from comfortable paths through palm-studded valleys, to tranquil mountain strolls, to panoramic summit climbs – hiking trails through the dreamy, misty primeval forest are mentioned, as well as the partly paved caminos, which once represented the main connecting roads between villages. Many of the 70 tour recommendations are ideal for less experienced hikers. Yet experienced mountain hikers who are not afraid of power hikes and can handle a shot of adventure and risk will also find a rich selection of routes. This excellently researched guide is enhanced by outstanding colour photos and map excerpts based on the Freytag&Berndt hiking map of Gomera (scale 1:35,000), and is highly recommended to all mountain fans of the island. Walkers also interested in the neighbouring islands should check out the Rother Walking Guides on La Palma, Tenerife and Gran Canaria.

Gran Canary not only enjoys a fabulous reputation as a paradise of sunshine and beaches; it can also be described as one of the most versatile hiking islands of the Canary Archipelago. Connoisseurs praise it as a miniature continent because of its diversity of landscapes: shimmering dunes in contrast with luscious subtropical valleys, deep ravines with palm tree oases and glittering reservoirs, next to which are extensive pine tree forests and green slopes with grazing sheep and goats. To the North West cliffs drop down 800 m deep into the ocean, while in the centre of the island serrated, almost 2000 metre high ridges and bizarre rock monoliths emerge, which the Spanish writer Miguel de Unamuno once interpreted as "fossilised storms of fire and lava". This Rother walking guide - following La Palma and Tenerife - is now the third featuring the Canary Islands: excursions to beaches and spectacular cave villages, walks through pine forests and atmospheric ridge paths. Due to the increased significance of hiking tourism, parts of what at times are more than 500 year old rocks have been carefully restored over the last years. These Caminos Reales (royal paths) stretch across the entire island and used to link remote mountain villages with coastal territory. Many proposed tours follow these mainly stone-paved hiking paths and are therefore also ideal for less experienced hikers. Experienced mountain hikers who are not afraid of "dramatic walks" will also find a rich offer of tours. The first comprehensive hiking guide on Gran Canary leaves nothing to desire! Coloured illustrations and excellent hiking maps at an ideal scale of 1:50,000/1:75,000 round off the picture and awaken the curiosity for ever new excursions into the charmingly bizarre world of the mountains.

This guidebook describes 21 walks on Lanzarote, 2 on Isla La Graciosa (off Lanzarote's northern coast) and 22 on Fuerteventura, including 14 walks on the GR131 long distance trail, which traverses all seven of the Canary Islands (including Isla de Lobos at the tip of Fuerteventura). The routes span a wide range of arid, agricultural and natural areas. Walks feature hill and mountain trails, Lanzarote's Timanfaya volcanic national park, coastal walks along Fuerteventura's golden beaches and ancient island villages. Routes are illustrated with the author's own clear, custom-drawn colour maps and inspirational photography. Full contact information is included for public transport and accommodation providers and tourist information offices as well as an extensive topographical glossary and route summary table to help you choose the best walk, or combine a couple of routes, according your requirements. Walking on Lanzarote and Fuerteventura is part of a five-volume series to the whole of the Canary Islands.

The greenest of the Canary Islands awaits the walker with more variety of landscapes than can be found in any other similarly small region in the world. WIde valleys, wild gorges and crater landscapes, pine- and laurel forests, banana plantations, cascades and waterfalls form a rich contrast with one another. THe walking here is superb and the dark-black beaches, beautiful as they are, pale into insignificance in comparison to the offerings of nature which in all corners of the island surprise you with ever-changing scenery. THe island offers incomparably pleasant strolls between gleaming lava beaches, lush laurel woods and cloud-ringed ridges. ANd ever-present is the deep blue Atlantic. LA Palma is made for the walker who loves nature and seeks adventures away from the noisy beach resorts and cheap tourist attractions. This guide presents the walker with a wide range of enjoyable walks incorporating every region on the island: from physically demanding excursions into the rugged barrancos in the north to the romantic scenery of the setting sun on the 2000 metre peaks, not to mention the truly phenomenal volcano route; from gentle walks through bright green pine forests and across dark lava streams to the most spectacular destination on the island: the giant unspoilt landscape of the Caldera de Taburiente, surrounded by thousand metre high precipices, one of the greatest erosion craters in the world. This Rother guide is the most comprehensive and popular walking guide to La Palma and has been the definitive guide for many years. THe present edition has been totally revised and now extended to include 69 walks - an all-round successful guide, excellently illustrated with maps (scale 1:50,000), which will arouse your curiosity and can be highly recommended to all mountain lovers on La Palma.