La Palma offers countless opportunities to discover the beautiful landscape on its hiking trails. The small island has almost 1.000 km of signposted trails. That’s an impressive number compared to the overall size of the island. Surely you have already seen one or the other signage, but what does it mean. Because not every trail is the same.
When hiking on La Palma, the routes are divided into colours:
GR or large routes (red/white flags): These hikes consist of several daily stages.
PR or small routes (yellow/white flags): These hikes can be done within a day.
Altogether, there are 19 larger and 23 smaller PR.
SL or local paths (green/white flags): These trails are usually less than 10 km long and connect the larger hiking trails or are small local hiking trails. The marking of the route also tells you in which municipality the trail is located.
Always keep in mind: If you go down, you have to go up again! La Palma is one of the steepest islands in the world, compared to its size. Therefore: exhausting climbs are not uncommon. We recommended to book a transfer so you do not have to walk a path twice and manage to escape one or the other ascent.
For planning and orientation a hiking map will help.
How demanding and how long should your hike be? Which landscape interests you in particular? Would you like to get to know the original and green north? Excite you the volcanic and the young south or the imposing mountain landscape? A small overview of our walks on La Palma should be a small help with selecting.
