La Gomera

old hippy

Off to LG in November, anyone got any recommendations? We're mainly going to be lounging about and hiking. It's relatively quiet compared to the rest of The Canaries - which suits just fine.

IRLConor

I've been twice, both times over the New Year break. Last New Year we stayed in the La Playa end of Valle Gran Rey and the year before we stayed in San Sebastian.

The hiking is really beautiful and there are lots of marked trails. Depending on where you're planning on staying you can either just walk straight out of where you're staying or use one of the local buses to get up into the national park and work from there.

The food and drink is cheap and good but not amazing. The coffee is almost universally terrible.

If you're in the Valle Gran Rey area there are quite a number of Germans and the locals are about as likely to start talking to you in German as they are in English or Spanish. Or maybe I just look like a German. There were very few tourists in San Sebastian when we were there.

I preferred Valle Gran Rey, despite the fact that it's a bit of a trek to get there. Fly into Tenerife, bus to Los Cristianos, ferry to San Sebastian, bus to Valle Gran Rey. I tell a lie, I cracked and got a taxi for the last leg.

Roughly where were you planning on staying?

old hippy

Staying in Valle Gran Rey, all booked and ready to rock. It's a bit of a trek alright! But am in search of a bit of tranquility, you know? And it's usually worth it when you find it

IRLConor

old hippy wrote: »

Staying in Valle Gran Rey, all booked and ready to rock. It's a bit of a trek alright! But am in search of a bit of tranquility, you know? And it's usually worth it when you find it

Yeah, and Valle Gran Rey was pretty quiet, even when there were plenty of people there.

There's a nice loop to hike out of there too. Go to Vueltas and follow the path below the cliff towards Finca Argaga. Follow the road up the canyon until you get to the gates. Just short of that point there's a marked trail (painted rocks) that starts off to the right. Follow that up the canyon (some scrambling required) and you'll pop out at a little village on a mountain road. I can't remember the name of the village, but if you get a map when you're there it should be obvious which one I'm talking about. From the village, follow the road to a little church. There's another trail that starts there going down (NW) into a valley and up the other side. Once you crest the ridge on the far side you can see down into Valle Gran Rey and if you follow the trail you come out onto the main road near Casa de la Seda. From there it's all down hill back to La Calera and the beach areas. It took the two of us about 8 hours and neither of us were in particularly good shape. If you have a look at the main chunk of photos in http://www.flickr.com/photos/91242583@N03/sets/72157633543110581/ you'll see a bunch of stuff from that trail.

old hippy

That looks stunning! Exactly the sort of thing I love. Nice one.

I'm not in the best of shape but I did a 7 hour hike up the mountains in Yakushima in May and survived to tell the tale