La Palma

La Palma's beaches are black volcanic sand and pebble, few in number and modest in size. The sheltered ones gather on the west coast around Puerto Naos and Tazacorte, with Los Cancajos near the capital on the east side, where a breakwater calms the water. Elsewhere the island drops steeply into open Atlantic, and many coves have strong currents and heavy surf.

The sea stays swimmable all year, from about 19°C in late winter to 23°C in early autumn, and the natural rock pools at Charco Azul and Fajana in the north-east are a pleasant alternative to the shore. Still, beach days are a break between walks here rather than the reason to come.

Eating on La Palma means Canarian country cooking: wrinkled potatoes with red and green mojo, grilled smoked goat cheese, rabbit in salmorejo, fresh fish at the harbour in Tazacorte and gofio in many forms. The island's own almond sweets, such as bienmesabe and almendrados, are worth seeking out.

The wine is the more distinctive part. Fuencaliente in the volcanic south grows sweet and dry Malvasia on black ash, while the villages of the pine-covered north-west make vino de tea, aged in barrels of resinous Canary pine heartwood that give it a sharp, piny, retsina-like taste. The cuisine is simple and the restaurant range is narrow, with little fine dining, so this suits those happy with grilled fish and a carafe of local wine.

The capital, Santa Cruz de La Palma, holds most of the island's heritage. Its Calle Real runs past sixteenth-century churches, the Renaissance town hall on Plaza de España and stone mansions, while the seafront Avenida Marítima has a row of brightly painted houses with carved wooden balconies. A concrete replica of Columbus's ship houses the naval museum.

Beyond the capital, Los Llanos de Aridane has a pleasant old centre, and the Benahoarita pre-Hispanic past appears in the spiral petroglyphs of La Zarza and La Zarcita, the cave site of Belmaco and the archaeological museum in Los Llanos. It is a pleasant half-week of sights, not a reason to visit on its own.

La Palma goes to bed early. Santa Cruz and Los Llanos have a few bars and terraces around their squares that stay busy at weekends, but there is no club scene and the resort areas are quiet after dinner. The exception is carnival, when the Los Indianos parade on carnival Monday fills the capital with people dressed in white throwing talcum powder in a day-long street party. Otherwise, evenings are for dinner and stargazing.

This is among the steepest islands on earth, and the landscape is the reason to come. The Caldera de Taburiente national park is a huge erosion crater ringed by cliffs and pine forest, with trails down to streams and waterfalls; the road to the Roque de los Muchachos climbs to about 2,400m on the crater rim, often above a sea of cloud. The Ruta de los Volcanes follows the island's spine south over cinder cones to the lava fields of Fuencaliente and of the 2021 eruption.

In the north-east, Los Tilos holds dense laurel forest in a deep ravine. The whole island is a protected starlight reserve, and the skies around the observatory are among the clearest in Europe. Spring and autumn are best for long walks.

Outings mostly stay on the island. Santa Cruz and Los Llanos make a contrast with each other, and smaller places such as San Andrés, Tazacorte, Tijarafe and the wineries around Fuencaliente fill a few gentle days. Leaving the island takes more effort: ferries run to Tenerife and La Gomera, but the crossing and connections make a long day, and most visitors who want other islands plan them as separate stays.

La Palma is safe, relaxed and mild all year, and families with older children who like walking will find plenty to do: short trails in Los Tilos, the natural pools at Charco Azul, whale and dolphin boat trips and the visitor centres for the volcano and the observatories. The small animal park at Breña Alta covers younger children for an afternoon.

The limits are real, though. There are no theme parks or big attractions, sheltered sandy beaches are few, and the island's winding mountain roads make long drives hard on children prone to car sickness. A rural house with a pool on the west coast is the easiest base.

A hire car is the practical answer. The island is small on the map, but roads climb in hairpins up and down deep ravines, so the north in particular takes far longer to drive than its distance suggests. The tunnel under the central ridge links Santa Cruz with Los Llanos in about half an hour, and the bus network connects the main towns, but services to trailheads and villages are too sparse to plan a hiking trip around. Linear walks often need a taxi back to the car.

Shopping is limited to the pedestrian streets of Santa Cruz and Los Llanos and the farmers' markets in the villages. What is worth taking home is local: hand-rolled cigars, a craft brought back by emigrants from Cuba, silk woven in El Paso, embroidered linen, honey, goat cheese and Malvasia wine. Fashion and design shopping is essentially absent.

La Palma costs less than most of Western Europe. The Canary Islands' low sales tax keeps fuel and drink cheap, village restaurants serve plain local food at modest prices, and accommodation is mostly apartments and rural houses rather than resort hotels. The main added cost is a hire car, which nearly every visitor needs, and the choice of budget rooms is small, so stays in the busy winter months are best booked ahead.

The performing arts are a small, local affair. Santa Cruz has a historic theatre, the Teatro Circo de Marte, and the island hosts concerts during the winter Canary Islands music festival. Village fiestas bring folk groups with timple guitars and traditional dances, and the great religious festival of the Bajada de la Virgen, held every five years, adds pageants and theatre. On most nights there is nothing scheduled to attend.

La Palma has no bathing tradition or thermal baths to visit, and spas are limited to a few hotels on the coast. Its strength is the pace. The island is quiet, uncrowded and unhurried, and staying in a rural house among vineyards or avocado terraces, with long walks by day and clear night skies, is genuinely calming. It suits visitors who want to switch off, not those looking for treatments or a spa resort.