Hiking with children at La Palma

Everyone knows, that La Palma is quite suitable an island for hiking. But when I happened to travel there, I could not find any information about hkies with children over there. That is the reason why I want to share the good experience we made there together with 4 year-old Lian-Marie.

We had a hotel at Puerto Naos, and got to the starting places by rented car. Real hikers might prefer to live at Los Llanos de Aridane, because you can start several nice tours from there. But Los Llanos is situated up in the hills and thus has no beach. I would not have been able to explain this to Lian

Motivation

Lian-Marie has collected smal stars for her »Summit Pass«. We promised her that she could choose a day's program having collected three stars (which means threee absolved hikes). I produced the summit pass by folding it from a sheet of paper (see picture) and putting the single texts to it from time to time, so we could adapt the routes and places to our experiences in the meanwhile…

In a vacation of 14 days we did six »star hikes« without Lian getting incontent. Our biggest success: When Lian was in turn to select the program for her first three stars she chose "getting another star" (making another star hike).

Literature (German)

Hiking without a written guide is not recommendedd as at least I am not able to get all relevant information out of a map. For example you cannot realise, if the path is narrow and close to a cliff or so.
So far I dind not have the time to search for hiking guides in English so I can just recommend the German ones I bought. So maybe you may want to visit the German version of this page.

The hikes

The gemstone hike
from Puerto de Tazacorte in direction of Mirador del Time

An easy and well adjustable starter, because you return at exaxctly the same route. Collecting gemstones (olivines) at the beach at Puerto de Tazacorte was a real success.

This hike git its name because we searched for small green Olivines (gemstones) at the starting point, the beach of Puerto de Tazacorte. Maybe there also were some broken pieces of green glass among it, but we did not care about. Maybe it is better to put the collecting part at the end of the hike becaus otherwise your kid may not want to walk along with you: We have always spent hours over there.
The hike starts at the steep parts of El Time. The starting point for the Caminos reales (small pathways) is situated between a kiosque an the Restaurant Trebol. You cannot miss it. We did not reach the mirador (viewing point) del Time: Getting up to the firts part of the mountain was enough for us for that day, then we returned on the same path.

More exact description:
Börjes/Koch, Part of hike 6a »In die Steilwand«.
Wolfsperger/Wolfsperger, part of hike 27 »Von Puerto de Tazacorte zum Mirador El Time«.

Translation in progress: The rest will follow soon!

The pirates hike
Descent from Tijarafe in to smuggler's bay (Poris) and back again

Wir haben uns - trotz spannender Routenbeschreibungen von Tunneldurchquerungen mit der Taschenlampe - zum Direktabstieg in die Schmugglerbucht entschieden.
Praktisch sind wir die Fahrstraße, die nördlich des Ortszentrums von Tijarafe an dem Mini-Supermarkt sehr steil (wirklich sehr steil!!) zum Wasser hin abzweigt, bis herunter zur Küste gegangen. Der Aufstieg führt dann über schöne Wanderwege zurück nach Tijarafe.
Eben weil man zuerst ab- und dann aufsteigt, sind wir bei dieser Wanderung motivationsmäßig an Lians Grenzen gekommen, haben es aber geschafft.

Genauere Beschreibung:
Wolfsperger/Wolfsperger: Nr. 25 »Von Tijarafe zur Piratenbucht« (Variante).

The volcano hike
at Volcán Antonio and Volcán Teneguía

Lian tells the story of this hike, when she wants to impress her friends. Simple rout with certain possibilities to shorten the track. The terrain is the warm volcan you can fell and smell

Hike of the ancient canarians (guanches)
(From El Paso to La Fajana)

The spirals the ancient canarians have carved into the rock faces were the artistic hit of this vacation: Lian copied them again an again.

Get out of the city on the small Calle Capote down to the Barranco Tenisque in the direction of a big house with a large palm tree. At least after crossing the barranco you will see the signs towards the archaeological site.

More details:
Börjes/Koch »Felsbildstation La Fajana«, S. 220 ff.

Crossing the bridges (near La Cumbrecita)

This hike got its name because of the small catwalks you cannot even call bridge (see picture).

This hike starts at parking at La Cumbrecita (you can get there by car over an apshalt street starting near the visitors center El Paso close to the main route Santa Cruz de La Palma - Los Llanos de Aridane. This hike goes close alongside the hill with only slight differences in height. We followed the signs to Mirador de los Roques (east of the parking) and from there to the Mirador del Lomo de las Chozas (west of the parking and a bit down the mountain). It was a bit difficult to hold hands with Lian. If we had known the catwalks before, Mum would not have let us go. Later we were very proud of it.

Djungle hike in the fog
On the Cumbre Nueva, from Refugio El Pilar to the spring

A very easy walk (identical way back). In large part you may even be able to to it with a childs buggy (only the descent to the spring is a problem). Mind the weather!

This easy way is sensitive to the weather: You walk on the top of the mountain so there is almost no shelter or shadow by trees. On the other hand the clouds hang deep up there so you might walk in the fog!

This route starts at the parking near the Refugio El Pilar with all its pique-nique sites. It is situated at the Cumbre Nueva in the center of the island La Palma.