The runway of the island's airport is too short for international flights, which helps explain the absence of tourist hordes - yet the ferry ride is a delight in itself.
We caught the fast Benchijigua Express (Olsen) with a top speed of 38 knots on our journey to La Gomera. The only place you can stand outside on the Olsen boat is at the stern as the speed of the boat will have you swimming the rest of the journey if you get caught in the wind!!!!
The coach ride from the harbour of San Sebastian, where we had arrived by catamaran, to Playa de Santiago was not for the faint-hearted.
As the vehicle climbed from sea level into the mountains every hairpin bend -and there were a lot of them - seemed to reveal a steeper drop than the one before down sheer-sided ravines.
The ravines, or barrancos, as they are known locally, are another one of the reasons that La Gomera has not fallen foul of the ravages of high-rise tourism that have blighted some of the larger Canary Islands. The second smallest of the 7 islands in the Canaries archipelago, it lies just 15.5 miles south west of Tenerife in distance - but in reality the two are world's apart.
Christopher Columbus stopped here to take on water and provisions before setting off to discover America.
The HPB complex, El Balcon de Santa Ana, sits atop sun baked cliffs in the south of the island and our villa looked out to sea with a mesmerising view across to Tenerife's Mount Teide, the highest peak in all of Spain, at the bottom of the garden. A quiet relaxing spot where we switched off completely. We would sit on the terrace in the evening and not hear or see a soul. However, we could hear these bizarre bird cries from overhead. They looked to be big white birds, but they sure didn't sound like seagulls. Words can't really describe the sound, but it was sort of a cartoony-muppet type wocka wocka noise. If you have heard it you will know it. They are the Shearwaters.
During the day we would sit by one of the many pools and enjoy the cooling breeze of the Atlantic.
There's a superb infinity pool which at certain times has inflatable pool fun. Excellent. We all had a go. I raced Emmie and managed to get to the end without falling in but she beat me!!! There's also a separate pool for serious swimmers where Emmie did 25 metres for the first time. She is now a serious swimmer. Well done Emmie. Not to mention the children's pool plus our shared villa pool. And all set in magnificent award winning botanical gardens.
And the Mother-in-laws Cushion:-
There is a lovely cliff path walk just outside of the complex and one morning we walked to the cemetary. A very peaceful, beautiful place.
The flat bit at the top of this photo is the island's airport.
Another cliff path from El Balcon leads to the sleepy little town of Playa De Santiago where there are a handful of restaurants, bars and shops.
Restaurant Junonia was a favourite. We sat on the balcony and enjoyed masterchef type food all washed down with lovely wines.
La Cuevita is in a cave by the harbour with good food. Emmie crossed the road with Grandad whilst waiting for her food and saw a stingray in the harbour.
La Chalana is a wonderful scruffy little place that serves superb sea bass. Beach shack with a big reputation.
and Lelo Bakery is brilliant. Just wish we had one at home but then again I would eat too much bread and pasteis de belem!!!!
For lunch one day we visited Tasca Pastrana. A 10/15 minute exciting drive by taxi up a windy road but it is worth it. Spectacular location, good food, lovely people. A gem.
The key activities are sitting in the sun and eating local produce - by which I mean fresh fish mostly with the Canarian potatoes and Mojo dressing, which is essentially olive oil and crushed herbs. Some of the best meals though were provided by Chefs Nigel, Phil and the bar-be-que king Alun.
We also had some lovely meals at the Shearwater Restaurant on the Complex.
The kids' club was the perfect solution for Emmie with her boundless energy. Action packed, full filled days in a safe environment full of new found friends. The staff, Lydia, Jenny and Steven were experts at creating the right environment where the children could thrive. Emmie especially loved the tennis, craft activities, waterpolo, pizza making, cookie making, mini golf. And in the evenings she spent ages getting ready to go to Movie night (she is only 5!) and the kids' disco........So after an afternoon soaking up some rays by the pool - in the evening we headed down to the terrace as the kids disco was in full throttle, belting out a medley of Europop songs as two dozen over-tired children and their beleaguered parents hopped about waving their arms. Sometimes though, with a playlist as gloriously naff as this, all you can do is roll with it. So we did roll with it doing the 'Macarena' and a whole host of other audible delights including 'the Birdie Song'. For Nanna it was soon time to head back to her Sangria, take a small sip and relax! I'd done the 'Macarena' twice. I considered my work here to be done, besides I can't shimmy as well as Emmie can. All fantastic. Great holiday. HPB keep doing what you are doing with the lovely young staff you have been fortunate enough to find. The key to a successful holiday with children is a great kids club.
Emmie decorated this t'shirt herself.
On the Thursday we decided to go on the Yani boat transfer from Playa de Santiago to Valle Gran Rey. The trip takes a bit longer than an hour and you get nice views of the coast. As the boat went quite slowly, and the sea was relatively calm, seasickness wasn't a problem for us but the "girls" did wear their Sea Bands on their wrists. The boat leaves at 9.15 am and the departure time from VGR is 13.45 hours. We had a lovely couple of hours on the volcanic black sand which is quite a novelty. On your way into the sea, you feel like a chimney sweep stepping through a hearth. Decided we definitely needed a revisit as we wanted to spend longer here so the next week hired a car.
The drive from Playa de Santiago to Valle Gran Rey (valley of the great king) is a cracker - a roller-coaster ride, through deep ravines tiered with palm trees and almost lunar expanses of rocky plateau.
Although extremely bendy with quite a few u bends it is well worth the drive. The scenery is stunning and ever changing, through different climate zones. Valle Gran Rey is a jewel of a seaside town at the bottom of a steep valley that winds down by a series of hairpin bends from the volcanic heights of La Gomera. A lovely Atlantic coast backed by enormous cliffs. I just cannot image how it was before the construction of the road. You probably arrived by sea. So a beautiful place, not easily accessible but I guess that's why it's so unspoilt. The black sand beach also has rock pools, great for Emmie. Alun left Nanna, Grandad and Mummy relaxing on the beach towels and, armed with a bucket and newly purchased net, led Emmie out onto the rocks. They put the rock pool creatures into the bucket for closer inspection then let them go again after showing them to Nanna.
The black sand makes amazing castles.
It requires little imagination to picture Jurassic Park beasties emerging from the half light but in fact the fauna of La Gomera is almost entirely benign. No snakes, deadly spiders, creepy crawlies. In fact we didn't see any mosquitoes and we slept with the windows open at night. No noisy air conditioning. Bliss. But there are micro ants. A real nuisance and if your bread isn't wrapped up they will manage to find it and get in.
Talking of air conditioning there was no electricity on La Gomera until 30 years ago and residents had to communicate by a special form of whistling language which carried easily across the barancos. And the first passenger ferry service linking La Gomera with Tenerife was not set up until 1974, so to some extent it's an island lost in the mists of time.
We returned to Tenerife on the slower Armas ferry Volcan de Teide with a top speed of 26 knots. This ferry has bar facilities and dancers on the top deck, which is a great place to soak up a bit more of the Canary sun and take a last look at La Gomera. We even saw a school of dolphins.
La Gomera is about peace and tranquillity. A Spanish gem hidden in the Atlantic Ocean.
Christopher Columbus had planned a four day stay in August 1492 to take on provisions, but fell in love with the Island's Governor, the superbly named Beatriz de Bobadilla, and couldn't tear himself away. I understand how he must have felt. None of us wanted to leave, we had all fallen in love with La Gomera.
