Planning to explore La Palma was my husband’s idea, as he fell in love with the beauty of this island when exploring it on internet. However, my husband, daughter, and I visited this island a few months ago. I must say, this island is a hidden treasure! It houses several stunning tourist attractions and beautiful beaches and offers bundles of opportunities for visitor to participate in different adventurous activities.
La Palma, also named Isla Bonita – beautiful island, is the greenest of all the islands of Canary. The exceptional scenery and the ecological treasures this island holds left us surprised. From lush green forests and volcanoes to black sand beaches hidden behind the steep cliffs, everything adds to making it one of the most beautiful islands of Spain. The pleasant temperature of this area and the minimum number of tourists make it ideal for visiting.
In this article, I have explained everything you should know about La Palma; where it is located, how to reach this island, the best time to go there, and the best places to visit in La Palma, Spain. In short, it’s a tour guide to exploring most of this beautiful island.
Where is La Palma?
La Palma is located in the North Atlantic Ocean off the northwestern coast of Africa, northwest of the Canary Islands in Spain. It is the 5th largest island of the range of eight Canary Islands and covers an area of 708 square kilometers. Its important neighborhoods include Palma Centre, Santa Catalina, La Lonja, Palma’s Old Town, Plaza Cort, La Calatrava, and Paseo Marítimo.
According to the 2020 census, the population of La Palma was 85,840. It houses Roque de Los Muchachos – the second highest mountain of the Canary Islands. The capital city of this island is Santa Cruz. This island’s official languages are Canarian, Spanish, and Catalan. However, English, French, and German are commonly spoken by inhabitants.
How to Get There?
Santa Cruz de La Palma is the nearest international airport to La Palma and is mainly used to get to this island. Major airlines operating at this airport are Iberia, EasyJet, Canaryfly, Vueling Airlines, Turkish Airlines, etc. Other nearby airports include Tenerife (TFN), Tenerife Sur Apt, Gran Canaria, and Arrecife.
There is no airline offering direct flights from the U.S to Santa Cruz de La Palma. We booked a connecting flight from Istanbul to La Palma, Spain via Zurich. The airline we opted for was Turkish Airlines. We reached La Palma after a long tiring journey of around 10 hours and 10 minutes.
The Best Time to Go There
With hot summers and mild winters, the climate of La Palma is subtropical, and the island enjoys sunshine around the year. The best time to go to La Palma is from June to September; however, due to the perfect climate, the summer and winter months are equally popular among visitors. We traveled to this island in September, when the days were longer, and the weather was sunny – perfect for enjoying most hiking and beach visits.
9 Best Places to Explore in La Palma, Spain
Referring to my experience of the visit to La Palma, I have shortlisted the nine best places one should not miss out on. If you plan to travel there, do keep these places on the top of your list. Let’s explore them and find out what made these places list in my top 9!
Caldera De Taburiente La Palma
Our first stop was Spain’s natural park, Caldera De Taburiente La Palma! It’s indeed the best place to go camping. We obtained a permit online and went to the park with all our camping stuff. It was a great experience indeed! This park’s main flora is the Canary Island Pine forest, which is home to the endangered Canary Island Juniper, red-billed choughs, laurel pigeons, and island canaries.
It features several worth-visiting spots including Mirador Lomo de las Chozas, Roque de los Muchachos, Cascada de Colores, Playa de Taburiente, Mirador de la Cumbrecita, etc. The most stunning viewpoints were La Cumbrecita, Los Brecitos, and Roque de Los Muchachos. From these points, we witnessed wonderful panoramic views.
After hiking, we went swimming in the stream to relax our muscles in the water and then returned to camp. We spent a day and night camping in this divine park.
Roque de Los Muchachos
A rocky mound right at the top of La Palma Island (at an altitude of 2423m), Roque de Los Muchachos, was our next destination. It is one of the globally famous places for astronomy. Below this unique viewpoint were substantial volcanic craters, all covered with trees and volcanic rocks, resulting in a beautiful formation. It has been declared a national perk and is a must place to visit.
What else we enjoyed was walking along the edge of the Taburiente crater. Before that, we went to the information desk to get to know about the history of this rift; how this rift formed. Parking, public transport, hiking trails, and interpretation centers are the facilities provided here that ensured to make our visit worth memorable.
All tired, we stayed there for a while and then returned to our rental car. From there, we went to a nearby restaurant for dinner to ideally end our day.
Playa De Los Cancajos
Playa De Los Cancajos is a volcanic black sand beach located in the east of La Palma island, and it is well known for being an ideal spot for diving, snorkeling, and swimming. It is a bay protected by breakwaters of volcanic rock, which guarantees a rich selection of marine life and tranquil waters throughout the year.
The striking rock formation of this beach can be blamed for its immense popularity. We were provided facilities like parasols for hire, sunbeds, shower rooms, and dressing rooms there. It’s indeed the best family-friendly black sand beach on the island.
This beach has well-known restaurants located nearby serving a variety of food. After spending a great time on this semi-urban beach scuba diving and sunbathing, we went to one of the restaurants and enjoyed eating seafood while witnessing the spectacular sunset views.
San Antonio Volcano
The next place we went to was San Antonio Volcano, where we had an amazing star gazing experience. This viewpoint is located in Cumbre Vieja in Fuencaliente, south of La Palma. We visited this place twice, once during the day to witness the beauty of the crater and slope of the volcano and then at night to get lost in the mesmerizing views of the stars. There, we also enjoyed the camel ride.
The last eruption of this volcano, accompanied by earthquakes, the emission of sulfurous gases, and the thirteen lava vents, left this place with such a striking formation. We also found information panels and a visitor center with a café and shop. Moreover, car parking facilities are also provided there.
We rented a car to go there; however, you can also access this spot via bus connections. Besides all this, what we enjoyed the most was the star gazing experience at this site’s star gazing viewpoint and astronomy viewpoint (located at an altitude of 633 meters).
Naval Museum (Plaza Alameda)
How could we have skipped the most visited museum of La Palma, Spain, the Naval Museum? This museum is housed inside Barco de la Virgen—a boat. Featuring an important collection of objects symbolizing naval history, this museum has summed up five centuries, and we went through these in a minimal-time tour.
Here, we went through the models, navigational instruments, and endless historical worth graphic documentation. We used the guide system for more in-depth knowledge, which provides information in several languages. This guide system helped a lot in getting to know about each and every object featured in the enormous collection.
We enjoyed exploring this beautifully furnished museum. Parking and Wi-Fi facilities were also provided there. It opens for visitors from 10 AM – 6 PM daily, and the entry ticket costs 3 to 4.5 dollars.
Linden Tree Forest
Linden Tree Forest was where we observed nature closely. This calm forest is located north of La Palma, Spain island. This subtropical laurel forest is one of the most extensive and oldest of its type. Our adventurous tour to this beautiful forest was worth joyful.
This forest also has spectacular trekking sites, including the Cascada de Los Tilos and the springs of Marcos and Cordero de La Palma. The diverse flora of this forest adds to its popularity making it one of the top tourist attractions of La Palma, Paris.
Knowing about the challenges we had to deal with, our tour guide informed us to be well prepared. We had great fun, passing through 13 dark tunnels with flashlights in hand and enjoying the incredible landscape views. Though we didn’t want to get wet, we preferred to wear mackintosh.
Port of La Palma
To enjoy the eye-catching views of Santa Cruz, we went to the Port of La Palma. The splendid view of blue waters and beautiful city houses with mountainy backgrounds left us screaming “WOW”! Let’s get to know more about this port below.
The marina of La Palma is located in its capital city, Santa Cruz de La Palma. It is close to the city center, old town, and shopping areas. However, the port itself contains fashion shops, restaurants, and supermarkets that provide everything, including the ship accessories – it’s indeed a mini world located at the shore.
It offers a total of 10 berths for boats up to 120-meter long, and each berth is equipped with the facilities of free internet connection, drinking water, and electricity.
Calle O’Daly Street
Wandering along the streets of Calle O’Daly Street was another joyful thing we did in La Palma, Spain. After spending time in major tourist attractions, we just went out of our hotel on the last day of our tour to explore these streets and taste the street food of La Palma.
Calle O’Daly Street is the central street in Senta Cruz, the second largest city in La Palma. We went through several historic churches and building with unique balconies and felt like we had stepped back in Spanish history. Moreover, we came across several food stalls, cafes, restaurants, and other shops. We shopped some goods from there and had lunch at one of the local restaurants. Then we bought ice creams to satisfy our sweet cravings and enjoyed them while exploring more of this street.
We also visited La Molina Artesanía, a local art and craft shop, to get some paintings for my home. Their art on-site art gallery was worth admiring. Besides this, there were several other leather, shoes, cloth, and furniture shops too.
Restaurante Chipi-Chipi
Though La Palma is home to several restaurants offering meals, one we found to be the best was Restaurante Chipi-Chipi. It offers both indoor and outdoor seating. The beautiful turquoise and white color pallet used to decorate the interior of this restaurant has made its ambiance worth pleasing.
The scrumptious dishes we ordered during our dining experience were Cheese and Ham, Canarian vegetable soup, Sweet blood sausage, and Pork steak, paired with the sweet goodness of Bienmesabe and Príncipe Alberto. All these dishes were super delish, but if we had to choose one out of these, we would have picked Sweet Blood Sausages! Those were worth drooling over.
Other dishes featured on their menu were Scalding gofio, Croquettes, Noodle Soup, Cod with onion, Beef steak, Young Goat, etc. Coming to desserts, Gofio Mousse, Homemade Cheesecake, etc., were other salivation-worthy options.
Conclusion
La Palma, Spain, is indeed a must place to visit whether one plans a solo or a family trip to Spain. It’s home to some of the best black sand beaches, stunning underwater volcanic landscapes, and many species unique to this island. Our tour of this beauty lasted for a week, during which we visited most of this island and had a great time there.
This article covers all the best places you should visit during your stay at La Palma, Spain, referring to my own traveling experience. You will surely find this article much helpful.
