La Gomera or La Palma?

Neither island is a sand destination, and the beaches on both are dark volcanic coves exposed to Atlantic swell. The difference is where you swim. On La Gomera the beach life is concentrated in Valle Gran Rey, where you can choose between sheltered water at La Playa and the Charco del Conde pool, with calmer pebble shores at Playa de Santiago in the south.

La Palma spreads its swimming spots across two coasts. Puerto Naos and Tazacorte are in the west, Los Cancajos near the capital is calmed by a breakwater, and the rock pools of Charco Azul and La Fajana are in the north-east, so on La Palma a swim usually means a drive between walks.

Both islands eat simple Canarian country food, with wrinkled potatoes, mojo and harbour fish, and neither has fine dining. La Gomera's own flavours are almogrote, the spicy aged-cheese spread, dark palm honey and watercress stew, best eaten in the family places of Valle Gran Rey and Playa de Santiago.

La Palma's food is just as simple, but its wine is more distinctive. There is Malvasia grown on black ash around Fuencaliente and the piny vino de tea of the north-west, and with smoked goat cheese and almond sweets such as bienmesabe it rewards a slow lunch in the villages.

La Palma has more to see. Santa Cruz de La Palma is a proper historic town, with sixteenth-century churches along Calle Real, a Renaissance town hall and a seafront of carved wooden balconies. Outside the capital are spiral petroglyphs, the cave site of Belmaco and an archaeological museum in Los Llanos, enough for several half-days of sightseeing.

La Gomera's heritage fits into a day in San Sebastián, with the Torre del Conde and the church and house tied to Columbus's stop in 1492. What it has that La Palma lacks is Silbo Gomero, the whistled language still taught in its schools.

Both islands go quiet after dinner, so the difference lies in the few evenings that are livelier. On La Gomera that means the seafront bars of Valle Gran Rey at sunset, sometimes with drumming. On La Palma it means weekend terraces around the squares of Santa Cruz and Los Llanos, and the Los Indianos carnival, when the capital spends a day in white clothes and talcum powder. For clubs, La Gomera at least has the ferry to the south of Tenerife.

La Gomera's landscape centres on a plateau of cloud-wrapped laurel forest, while La Palma's is built around a giant crater and a volcanic spine, and both reward walkers equally well. On La Gomera the woods of Garajonay sit at the top, terraced ravines fall to the sea on every side below volcanic plugs such as Roque de Agando, and a long-distance path circles the island. Boat trips from Valle Gran Rey to the basalt columns of Los Órganos regularly meet pilot whales and dolphins.

La Palma is higher and starker. The Caldera de Taburiente holds streams, waterfalls and Canary pine inside its cliffs, the road to the Roque de los Muchachos climbs to about 2,400m, and the Ruta de los Volcanes crosses cinder cones to the lava fields of Fuencaliente and of the 2021 eruption. Its laurel forest is confined to the ravine of Los Tilos, a side trip rather than the heart of the island.

La Gomera is better placed for leaving the island. The ferry to Los Cristianos takes under an hour, so a long day can reach La Laguna or Garachico on Tenerife, although the driving on Tenerife adds a good deal of time.

From La Palma the crossings and connections are long enough that most visitors treat other islands as separate stays. Outings there mean the island's own towns, the contrast between Santa Cruz and Los Llanos, and the wineries of Fuencaliente.

Both are safe and calm, they suit children who like walking and boats more than those who need entertainment, and neither has a theme park. On La Gomera the easiest base is Playa de Santiago, with its calmer water and resort-style hotel, and the rock pools of Valle Gran Rey and the dolphin trips give children something to do.

La Palma adds a little more to fill the days: the small animal park at Breña Alta and the volcano and observatory visitor centres. A rural house with a pool on the west coast makes up for the lack of sandy beaches. On both islands the hairpin roads are hard on children who get car sick.

On both islands you will want a hire car, and buses are too sparse to plan hikes around. Reaching La Gomera usually means flying to Tenerife and taking the ferry, and on the island it takes about an hour to drive from San Sebastián over the plateau to Valle Gran Rey.

La Palma has its own airport, and the tunnel under the central ridge links Santa Cruz and Los Llanos in about half an hour. The north is still slow driving, and linear walks often end with a taxi back to the car.

La Palma offers rather more, though neither is a shopping island. Santa Cruz and Los Llanos have pedestrian streets, and the local crafts are unusual: hand-rolled cigars from a tradition brought back from Cuba, silk woven in El Paso and embroidered linen. On La Gomera the best things to take home are edible, such as palm honey, almogrote and goat's cheese, along with the wheel-less pottery of El Cercado.

The two cost much the same, with apartments and rural houses the usual places to stay and fair prices in village restaurants. Their extra costs differ. On La Gomera the ferry from Tenerife comes on top of car hire, and the few smart hotels near Playa de Santiago are expensive. On La Palma you can fly direct, but cheap rooms are scarce, so winter stays need booking early.

La Gomera's performance is its own and happens off the stage: the baile del tambor danced at fiestas to drums, large castanets and old ballads, the processions and music for the Virgin of Guadalupe, and demonstrations of the whistled language put on for visitors.

La Palma has the one real stage of the two, the historic Teatro Circo de Marte in Santa Cruz, along with concerts during the winter music festival and the pageants of the Bajada de la Virgen every five years. Still, on most evenings on either island nothing is scheduled.

Neither island offers much in the way of spas, so both are about pace rather than treatments. La Gomera has the more established culture of retreat, with yoga and meditation houses on the terraced slopes of Valle Gran Rey and sunsets over the Atlantic as the evening ritual. La Palma's calm is more solitary: a rural house among vineyards or avocado terraces, a long walk by day and a dark, starry sky at night.