La Gomera is small, moist and green island
From Tenerife Island – No.2 route during our trip throughout the Canary Islands – we sailed to the next one, La Gomera, which is at the distance of 30 km.
A ferry departs from the resort town of Los Cristianos daily 3-4 times during the day. So, you can get to La Gomera quite easily and quickly. In one hour and 47 euros for two with the ARMAS Company. Traveling between these islands is described in more details in this article.
We handed over the car, which we rented in Tenerife, in the office at the port at once, put our luggage into the car from the carrier and went inside the ship.
Since it’s just one hour to sail and traffic is frequent, the ship is small. And if the ship is small – you will have a good rock on the waves.
We thought about working by the laptops during that hour, but we were rocking so much on the waves that we suffered seasickness. We sailed four times on the ferries during our trips on the Canary Islands and it was difficult all the times)
We liked the ports of the Canary Islands. Very comfortable and easy in terms of navigation. A parking lot and offices of the local car renters at once.
We took the keys to our new car from Cicar (a detailed article on car hire in the Canary Islands here) and went to the parking lot a few hundred meters away.
This time we were given Opel again, but of a family type, with lots of space. We got an impression that Cicar has an agreement with Opel and so this brand prevails in the company.
It takes 30 km to get to our hotel from the capital. The day we arrived, the island was covered with low clouds that were quickly flying from one hill to another. La Gomera is very different from Tenerife. Small, moist and green. Full of palms, banana plantations and other fruits.
We booked a hotel in the heart of the banana grove, with colonial buildings, in the middle of the mountains.
The town of Hermigua is not a tourist resort, you have to go several kilometers by car to the nearest beach or on foot, as most do. However, no other hotel on the island have such a location and view out of the window. And we had a car and had no problems to get to all the other locations from the hotel) So, here’s a landscape from the window on the mountains and banana plantations.
It’s such a pleasure to have a large window and such a beauty.
We were delighted) You can imagine being the owner of banana plantations, listen to the noise of bananas watering in the morning, and live like a banana tycoon 🙂 What concerns eating bananas, they are in the supermarkets, but small and green, and that’s not for everyone, because we are very accustomed to eating ripe and yellow)
What’s also very valuable was a very good quality wifi. We refused from breakfasts, because we were getting up before sunrise and cooked by ourselves in the kitchen in our room. What we liked about the Canary Islands is the fact that most hotels have rooms with kitchenettes as a rule. But here we were most fortunate because there were many different kitchen utensils, even a mixer)!
Everything around is very green, quiet and sparsely populated. It’s a quiet town, it seems that there’s one more hotel and that’s all, a supermarket and several small shops. Residents are living by gardening, i.e. bananas.
Actually, it’s very comfortable here, but we, as usual, rarely used the hotel infrastructure. But for shooting:)
If you would like to live in a banana plantation on La Gomera Island, here is the Los Telares.
And now a little about the island of La Gomera. The capital of San Sebastian is located so that Tenerife Island and the very Teide volcano are clearly visible from the location.
Teide is the highest point of the Canary Islands being 3718 meters high. What is more, Teide is visible from all the islands, while the closest and the best view opens from La Gomera.
The very capital does not look like the capital – it’s too small. Most houses are built in the rocks, they look like toy blocks. This island is very proud of the fact that it was the last stop Columbus did before he discovered America. Therefore, there are landmarks in San Sebastian associated with Columbus, and nothing else like that)
In general, there are no large supermarkets on the island – it was really a problem for us. There’s only SPAR and the range of food products does not suit us, and the prices are a bit higher for obvious reasons: one company on a small island. We would advise those who want to come here for a few days and will take a car from Tenerife to stock up with food in advance, and buy only bread or perhaps oranges on La Gomera:)
Once there used to be a restaurant on the island in such an interesting place – on the rock. But it’s closed today because of the threat of the rockfall from the surrounding rocks. We walked very quickly there, because the rocks lay everywhere, and there was a huge hole from the rock in the middle of the former asphalt road)
The town of Vallehermoso with a normal Gomerian life associated with tourism and agriculture.
Here is a rock, which Gomerians are so proud of. Something similar is on Gran Canaria with its Roque Nublo.
All settlements, as a rule, are located quite high from the shore, except for the capital and two famous resorts of Valle Gran Rey and Playa De Santiago with close access to the ocean and beaches. In general, the total length of the island beaches is not even 600 meters – small bays all around.
La Gomera beckons to rest even with such small beaches. While most people still come for hiking around the island, including through relict forests in the Garajonay National Park.
La Gomera totally consists of the hills and the gorges in between. The towns are built in the valleys, equipped with terraces for plantations, where people live from fruit export. Tourism is not so developed here, most people who come here – are ecotourists with backpacks and a desire to explore the island on foot. Or the older Germans to sit in the local bar, talking and drinking beer – for those who are tired of the island of Tenerife.
With love, RH.
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