What to See in La Gomera: The Essential Sights
La Gomera is one of those islands you have to earn. It has no large airport and no big resorts; you reach it by ferry from Tenerife and travel it along roads that climb, drop and double back on themselves following dizzying ravines. But that very terrain, which seems designed to make your life difficult, is exactly what has kept it intact: a cloud forest that already existed when mammoths roamed Europe, green villages clinging to the mountainside and a language spoken by whistling that exists nowhere else in the world.
Not every place is here (for that you have the full map on islas24). These are the essentials, sorted by what you feel like that day: nature, history or the northern corners almost no one tells you about.
Garajonay National Park, the cloud forest
If you could only see one thing in La Gomera, it would be the heart of the island. The Garajonay National Park covers around 40 square kilometres spread across the six municipalities, and it holds the finest laurel forest in the whole archipelago: a subtropical jungle of laurel, tree heath and ferns that in the Tertiary period covered much of southern Europe and that survived here thanks to the moisture of the trade winds. It was declared a National Park in 1981 and a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1986, and when you walk among those moss-covered trunks, with the mist filtering through the leaves, you understand full well why.
The island's highest point, the Alto de Garajonay, rises to 1,487 metres, and from the top, on clear days, you can see the neighbouring islands outlined over the sea. There are trails for every level, many of them easy and well signposted. A local's tip: the most beautiful forest, along the El Cedro trail or the Raso de la Bruma, looks its best precisely when there is mist, so don't cancel your plan just because the sky comes in overcast. Wear shoes with grip, bring water and something warm, because up here it gets chilly. And a step away lies the Mirador del Morro de Agando, beside the road that crosses the park: an old volcanic plug of 1,246 metres that erosion has left bare, one of those monoliths that stays etched in your memory.
San Sebastián de La Gomera, Columbus's last stop
The capital, San Sebastián de La Gomera, is small and quiet, but it holds a great chapter of history. From this port Christopher Columbus set sail on 6 September 1492 towards the unknown: La Gomera was the last land where the Niña, the Pinta and the Santa María called before crossing the Atlantic, and that is why the island is known as the navigator's last stop on the way to America.
That past can be walked in a short while. The Torre del Conde is a Castilian fortress from the mid-15th century, the oldest military fortification preserved in the Canary Islands, and today it presides over a park facing the sea. Very close by stands the Pozo de la Aguada, the well from which tradition says Columbus took the water he carried to the New World ("America was baptised with water from La Gomera", they repeat here), and the Church of la Asunción, where custom holds that he prayed before departing. You need no more than half a morning to see it, and it is worth doing slowly, wandering through the old town.
Valle Gran Rey and Los Órganos, the wild west
In the west, the Valle Gran Rey awaits, a huge valley carved into the rock that descends in terraces of palm trees down to the sea. It was a refuge for the counterculture in the seventies and still keeps that relaxed air, with its black-sand beaches, its long sunsets and a rhythm that invites you to stay longer than planned. And since you're among so many palm trees, try the miel de palma, the island's sweet treasure: it isn't made by bees, but obtained by boiling the guarapo, the sap of the Canary palm, until it reaches the point of a dark syrup. It comes from La Gomera and nowhere else. It's also the best base for two plans you can't miss.
The first is Los Órganos, a natural monument that can only be seen in its full dimension from the sea. They are basalt columns that plunge straight down the cliff, more than eighty metres high, formed when the lava cooled slowly inside the mountain and erosion later carried away everything else. They look like the pipes of a giant organ, hence the name. The cliff that shelters them is very high and practically inaccessible by land, so the only way to really see them is on one of the boat trips that leave from Valle Gran Rey or Playa de Santiago; it's usually half a day on the water, with the odd dolphin sighting thrown in. That said, the north coast is wild and these outings depend entirely on the state of the sea: it's not unusual for them to be cancelled because of the swell, so keep a plan B up your sleeve and, if you get seasick, take pills. The second plan is the sunset from the valley itself or from one of its viewpoints, with that light that here seems made to measure. And if you're also after a beach, in the best beaches of La Gomera you'll find each stretch of sand with its access and its services.
Agulo, Hermigua and the greener north
The north of La Gomera is the wettest and, for many, the most beautiful. Agulo is a tiny village of whitewashed houses huddled on a promontory, with the green banana groves around it and, in the distance, the Teide peeking out on the other side of the sea when the day is clear. It's no coincidence that it appears on the official list of the most beautiful villages in Spain: it feels as if time stopped here decades ago, and you're grateful for it. And don't leave without climbing up to the Mirador de Abrante, right above the village: a walkway with a glass floor jutting out over the void, more than 600 metres above the valley, with Agulo at your feet and the Teide in the background when the day is clear. It impresses even those with no fear of heights.
Beside it, Hermigua spreads across a long, fertile valley, the greenest on the island, among banana plantations and a black-sand beach with a wild sea (lovely to look at, but with currents, so be careful bathing). Between the two villages there are several viewpoints from which the view takes your breath away, and from here some of the best trails towards Garajonay set off. A local's tip: drive the northern road without rushing and stop at every viewpoint, because the island is enjoyed as much on the way as at the destination.
The silbo gomero and how to plan your visit
No visit to La Gomera is complete without the silbo gomero, and it's no brochure attraction: it's a real language. Centuries ago the Gomerans devised a way of "speaking" by whistling to communicate from one ravine to another, bridging those impossible distances the terrain imposes. The silbo reproduces Spanish with whistles (two sounds for the vowels, others for the consonants) and is the only fully developed whistled language practised by a large community in the world. UNESCO declared it Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009, and since 1999 it has been taught in the island's schools, so it remains very much alive. Many restaurants in the centre offer a demonstration with the meal: if you come across one, stop to listen.
On the practical side: you reach La Gomera by ferry from Los Cristianos (Tenerife) to San Sebastián in under an hour, and once on the island a car is all but essential to reach the best corners. Bear in mind that distances are deceptive; they are few kilometres but a lot of curves, and crossing the island from one end to the other takes longer than the map suggests. With two or three full days you'll see the essentials (a day for Garajonay, another for San Sebastián and the west, another for the north), and a week lets you enjoy it calmly, which is how this island asks to be lived. Because the interior is so high and dark, La Gomera is also an excellent stargazing spot; if that plan appeals to you, in our guide on where to see the stars in the Canary Islands you'll find the spots and the dates.
On islas24 you have each of these places with its location, its opening hours and how to get there, so you can plan your route without surprises. Choose where to start and let the island, with its cloud forest and its whistled language, do the rest.