Approached on the ferry from Tenerife, La Gomera – the second smallest of the Canaries – looks like "the island of King Kong", with its lush green mountainsides and "chimneys of volcanic lava" encircled by "doughnuts of mist". Close up, it is yet more awe-inspiring, said Mark Stratton in The Sunday Times. Its vegetation is amazingly varied (some claim it was Herodotus's Garden of Hesperides); its peaks are studded with strange rock formations, and their "dark volcanic flanks" are scored with yawning ravines.
No less "fierce" are the island's beaches, their black pebbles raked by the tide "as noisily as shaken ball bearings". Their harshness has protected the island from mass tourism: people don't come here to sunbathe, but to walk, especially off season, when the landscape is at its greenest.
The ferry docks at the capital, San Sebastián, which Columbus visited in 1492. On a week-long trip with On Foot Holidays, you're driven from there to the village of Hermigua, where the hiking begins, with nights at a series of hotels around the island and luggage transfers booked in advance. One of the loveliest stops is the mountain town of Vallehermoso. There's a good hotel, the Añaterve, in a "cubist-looking mansion" overlooking the plaza, where you can sit in the evenings with a glass of gomerón (a "honeyed" aperitif) and watch local life go by.
The Week
Escape your echo chamber. Get the facts behind the news, plus analysis from multiple perspectives.
Sign up for The Week's Free Newsletters
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
From our morning news briefing to a weekly Good News Newsletter, get the best of The Week delivered directly to your inbox.
The landscape is ever-changing. One hour you are crossing a ravine "rampant" with fruit trees (bananas, papayas, dates, figs, avocados); the next, "toiling through desert in dry gullies of prickly pear". Vines flourish on lava terraces piled up like ancient ziggurats, and high in the misty mountains grow La Gomera's laurel forests – the island's most distinctive ecosystem, where the ancient trees, with their "trailing beards of lichen and mossy trunks" might remind you of the "wildwood fragments" of Britain's own Atlantic shores.
A seven-night trip costs from £980pp (onfootholidays.co.uk). When you make a purchase using links on our site, The Week may earn a commission.
Sign up for The Week’s Travel newsletter for destination inspiration and the latest news and trends.
-
September 14 editorial cartoonsCartoons Sunday’s political cartoons include RFK Jr on the hook, the destruction of discourse, and more
-
Air strikes in the Caribbean: Trump’s murky narco-warTalking Point Drug cartels ‘don’t follow Marquess of Queensberry Rules’, but US military air strikes on speedboats rely on strained interpretation of ‘invasion’
-
Crossword: September 14, 2025The Week's daily crossword puzzle
-
A tour of Sri Lanka’s beautiful northThe Week Recommends ‘Less frenetic’ than the south, this region is full of beautiful wildlife, historical sites and resorts
-
Giorgio Armani obituary: designer revolutionised the business of fashionIn the Spotlight ‘King Giorgio’ came from humble beginnings to become a titan of the fashion industry and redefine 20th century clothing
-
Downton Abbey: The Grand Finale – a ‘comfort’ watch for fansThe Week Recommends The final film of the franchise gives viewers a chance to say goodbye
-
The Paper: new show, same 'warmth and goofiness'The Week Recommends This spin-off of the American version of The Office is ‘comfortingly and wearyingly familiar’
-
Rachel Jones: Gated Canyons – ‘riotously colourful’ works from an ‘exhilarating’ painterThe Week Recommends The 34-year-old is the first artist to take over Dulwich Picture Gallery’s main space
-
Born With Teeth: ‘mischievously provocative’ play starring Ncuti GatwaThe Week Recommends ‘Sprightly’ production from Liz Duffy Adams imagines the relationship between Shakespeare and Christopher Marlowe
-
Art review: Lorna Simpson: Source NotesFeature Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York City, through Nov. 2
-
Jessica Francis Kane's 6 favorite books that prove less is moreFeature The author recommends works by Penelope Fitzgerald, Marie-Helene Bertino, and more
