La Palma Walking holiday

Planet

La Palma, one of the Canary Islands, is famed for its biodiversity. This led to UNESCO declared the whole island as a World Biosphere Reserve in 2002. Also In order to avoid excessive light pollution, the island has been protected by law, becoming the first Starlight Reserve in the world, and in 2012 being designated a Starlight Tourist Destination. If offers an attractive landscape to discover with the giant Caldera de Taburiente and the beautiful Laurisilva forest, famed for its biodiversity.

We believe the best way to experience such a precious destination is on a low impact walking holiday; and have planned this trip to include public transport (paid locally) where possible to keep your impact on the environment low.

The slow style of a walking holiday, not only affords you more time to appreciate the natural beauty of the region but, just as importantly, positively contributes to the regions that host you. To help avoid erosion, we recommend you stay on the marked footpaths at all times.

We are aligned with “Leave No Trace”, an international organisation that has set the global standard for outdoor ethics. Through targeted education, research and outreach, its mission is to ensure the long-term health of our natural world while maintaining sustainable recreation in nature.

Our Waste Management Policy encourages our travellers to take their own reusable water bottles, coffee cups and reusable stuff sacks to avoid single-use plastics. We follow this same philosophy in our office as well as on the trail: in our London office we have banned single use coffee cups and water bottles. We use recycled paper in our office and we are working towards reducing the amount of paper we use, as well as recycling all of our paper and plastic waste.

People

Our preferred accommodations we use on this trip are locally owned small hotels; this way we ensure your tourist spend is staying within the area and benefiting local people. For example, when available, we book the Hotel San Telmo in Santa Cruz, where the original building is 350 years old, and the owners will provide a warm welcome.

The trip has been planned on a bed & breakfast basis only, leaving you free to choose a neighbourhood restaurant for the evening, and to help your tourist spend spread further in the community. During your tour we encourage you to purchase your lunch/snacks from local shops; it will give you a chance to meet the local people, and can encourage genuine cultural exchange. Tip : if you choose to do the circular walk from San Pedro during your stay, be sure to visit the ’Artisanos Helados Taburiente’ which makes excellent locally made ice cream, possibly the best in the island!

In 2000 we developed the award winning Responsible Travel Guidebook, which presented our Travel Group’s comprehensive policies on sustainable travel. Over the years our Responsible Travel Guidebook has evolved to meet the ever-changing landscape of sustainable travel. In March 2018 The Thoughtful Traveller booklet was launched, which is an easy-to-read document that empowers travellers with suggestions about how they can be part of the solution and collectively make the world a better place when they travel. Everyone is encouraged to read the Thoughtful Traveller ebook before departure.