What to See in El Hierro: The Wildest Island of the Canaries
El Hierro is the island almost no one names first, and therein lies much of its charm. It is the smallest and westernmost of the Canaries, the one fewest people set foot on and the one best preserved. The whole island has been a Biosphere Reserve since the year 2000 and a UNESCO Global Geopark since 2014 (the first in the Canaries), and it is no empty label: here a forest of juniper trees twisted by the wind, a seabed that divers rank among the best in the world and pools of lava all fit within the same half-hour drive. The question is not so much what to see in El Hierro, but how calmly you will let the island show it to you.
Not every corner is here (for that you have the full map on islas24). These are the essentials, ordered by what your body asks for that day: the viewpoint, the rawest nature, the sea and the history that stays with you.
The Mirador de la Peña and the El Golfo valley
If you only had time for one place, it would be this balcony. The Mirador de la Peña is the work of César Manrique, the Lanzarote artist who taught the Canaries to look at themselves, and it sits some 700 metres up above Guarazoca, in the north of the island. Manrique designed it in the early eighties, respecting the traditional El Hierro stone architecture, with large windows and plants everywhere, and it opened in 1996. It was declared an Asset of Cultural Interest.
What you see from here explains half the island: the El Golfo valley, an enormous green horseshoe open to the Atlantic that is in fact the scar of a gigantic landslide, with its vineyards and banana groves dropping down to a sea that is almost always blue. Visiting the viewpoint is free and needs no booking, but if you want to eat at its restaurant while gazing at that landscape (papas arrugadas, fresh fish, island cheeses), reserve a table in high season. A local tip: go mid-morning with a clear sky, because late in the day the haze rises up the valley and blocks the view just when you were about to take the photo.
El Sabinar and the highlands: the island the wind bends
El Sabinar is the image of El Hierro that stays with you when you close your eyes. In this corner of the west grow the sabinas, junipers that the constant wind has bent over the centuries until they lie almost flat on the ground, twisted as if combed to one side. It is not pruning or a whim: they were born in one of the windiest areas of the island and grew by stooping. They have become the symbol of El Hierro, and seeing them up close, in silence, with the wind whistling, is one of those things a photo cannot quite capture. One plea, though: the sabinas are extremely delicate natural monuments, and the craving for the perfect photo is harming them. Do not climb on their branches or step on their roots; contemplate them with respect and from a distance, so that they remain standing for another hundred years.
Nearby, towards the centre, is the roof of the island: Pico de Malpaso, the highest point of El Hierro at 1,501 metres. It is not a spectacular peak like Teide, but from the island's heights, well away from the coast, a landscape of heathland, pine forest and mist opens up that you would not expect on such a small island. And since there is barely any light pollution here, El Hierro is one of the best places in the archipelago to look at the sky: if you are going with a plan in mind, our guide to where to see the stars in the Canaries has the best spots and the key dates.
La Restinga and the Mar de las Calmas: the best diving in the Canaries
At the southern tip of the island, La Restinga is the southernmost fishing village in Europe and the mecca of Canary diving. Off its coast stretches the Mar de las Calmas, a strip of water protected as a Marine Reserve since 1996 that lives up to its name: clear, calm and mild waters almost all year round, with volcanic seabeds full of life where it is not unusual to come across groupers, shoals of fish and, with luck and in season, manta rays or whale sharks. Divers place it among the best diving destinations in the world, and they are not exaggerating.
Diving here has rules, and it is good news: being a marine reserve, access is regulated and at many points there is a maximum of twelve divers per dive, which keeps the seabed healthy and the water clear. You always dive with the village's authorised centres, which handle the permits and the slots. Even if you do not get in the water, La Restinga is worth the stop for its seafaring atmosphere, its fish market and the freshly landed fish in the harbour restaurants. If bathing is more your thing than the diving tank, in where to swim in El Hierro: beaches and natural pools we tell you where to take the best dip on the island.
The natural pools, the Faro de Orchilla and the Garoé
El Hierro has almost no sandy beaches, and it makes up for it with something better: natural pools of lava. In the bay of El Golfo, in the north, are the best known. Charco Azul is a small pool half hidden under an arch of basalt that gives the feeling of bathing inside a cave, and it is one of the most photographed corners of the island. Unlike La Maceta, it has barely any protection from the open sea, so access can be temporarily closed due to rockfalls or heavy swell: check the state of the sea before heading down. A little further on, La Maceta is several pools at the foot of a low cliff, sheltered from the swell. They are beautiful spots, but the sea of El Hierro is fierce: bathe only at low tide and calm water, respect the flags and do not trust it if you see a swell, because when the Atlantic comes in with force these pools stop being a game. And if you are after something even more genuine, take the detour to Pozo de las Calcosas, a tiny fishing hamlet wedged beneath the cliff in the north, famous for its volcanic stone houses roofed with colmo (straw) and its natural pools that fill with the tide. The access, along a path with sections of steps down from El Mocanal, is not easy, but the place is out of this world.
And at the far southwest, at the end of a long track between flows of black lava, is the Faro de Orchilla, one of the most historic sites in the whole archipelago. For centuries, this cape marked the end of the known world: from the time France decreed it in 1634, and following a tradition that came from the geographer Ptolemy, the Prime Meridian passed through El Hierro, and so it appeared on more than a thousand old maps. It was not until 1884 that the world agreed to move that meridian to Greenwich. Being here, where for so long the planet's longitude 'began', has something that takes your breath away.
Do not leave without learning the story of the Garoé, the Garoé Tree, the sacred tree of the bimbaches, the ancient inhabitants of the island. Legend has it that it was a tree that 'gave water': its leaves trapped the moisture from the mist and let it fall drop by drop, and on an island with barely any springs it was its most precious asset. Tradition says the conquerors only managed to subdue them when they discovered where the tree was. The original fell centuries ago, but in its place another laurel tree now grows, and the site, among ferns and mist, still has something sacred about it.
How to plan your visit
El Hierro is explored slowly, and that is the key to enjoying it. It is small (you cross it in little more than an hour), but its roads are narrow and full of curves, so the map's distances are deceptive: allow plenty of time between one place and another. Broadly speaking there are three worlds: the green north of the El Golfo valley, with the viewpoint and the pools; the south of the sea, with La Restinga and the diving; and the interior of peaks, sabinas and stars. With two or three full days you see the essentials without stress, and the whole island invites you not to rush.
There is a story that sums it all up, and it is one that makes the herreños proud: here is Gorona del Viento, a plant that combines a wind farm with a hydroelectric station and that, in 2015, made El Hierro the first island in the world able to supply itself entirely with renewable energy. It does not always work at a hundred per cent, but the idea of an island that aims to live off its own wind and its own water says a lot about this place: small, stubborn and ahead of its time.
A car is practically essential to reach the best corners, many at the end of a dirt track or a winding road. On islas24 you have each of these places with its location, how to get there and what to expect, so you can put together your route without surprises. Choose where to start and let the wildest island of the Canaries do the rest.