La palma. Bus or rental car to visitor center of caldera

[jean87510]

I have doing a lot of research for this port and have decided to either rent a car or take a bus if possible to visitor center of caldera. Has anyone done either or both and how did you do it. Our ship arrives on a Saturday at 11 am and every tour operator that has responded to me has stated their tours start earlier, or I have to arrange a transportation to the south...etc.. my husband and I decided to just go on our own rather than deal with the headache. If anyone can recommend either, it would be great

[LondonTowner]

When we went to La Palma we decided to negotiate a taxi tour at the port. When we got there there was a lot of low cloud and it was raining. We just had a look around the town and didn't bother going into the mountains.

 

If I was you I would hire a car. CICAR are a very reliable car hire company in the Canaries.

[tring]

I have doing a lot of research for this port and have decided to either rent a car or take a bus if possible to visitor center of caldera. Has anyone done either or both and how did you do it. Our ship arrives on a Saturday at 11 am and every tour operator that has responded to me has stated their tours start earlier, or I have to arrange a transportation to the south...etc.. my husband and I decided to just go on our own rather than deal with the headache. If anyone can recommend either, it would be great

 

The buses in La Palma are good and you can get info from the net or from the info booth near the port (see my post on the other thread on La Palma).

 

You can get a bus to the visitor centre for the Caldera and I have been told there are buses that you can get from there into the caldera, (which is very impressive but not walkable), but we have not used those buses (or perhaps they are mini buses), so I am not sure of the details. The traffic into the Caldera is limited as there is very little parking space there. We have been there when there were no time slots left for that day, so it is possible you could get there and not be able to get into the caldera. We have walked on to El Paso from the visitor centre via the quieter lanes and it was a lovely walk (about an hour downhill) and small town - then we got the bus back to Santa Cruz. Los Lanos is a larger town a bit further again on the same bus route. There are also buses to the south of the island. Distances are not that short, so make sure you leave plenty of time to get back to the ship. As I said on the other thread, once you are at the top of the mountain or on the other side of the island, it will almost certainly be sunny, though cloud is often around on the eastern side of the island. I am not just going on our experiences - we had a Thomson holiday rep who lived near Los Lanos and he said that was almost always the case.

 

We did hire a car for the week when we were staying on the Island, but the roads up hill and to the north have a lot of hairpin bends and the locals do like to travel quicker than was easy to drive as they were used to the roads. So they did tend to drive very close to the back of the car and there was quite a bit of traffic around - especially on the road across the island, which is a major route for locals. Hence we prefer bus if on a cruise visit. The roads to the south are straighter and quieter, but it is largely volcanic terrain down there so, unless you have not seen that sort of thing before and are interested in it, it can seem a bit plain and not so scenic. Lovely and quiet though when we have been.

 

I think you will find taxis very expensive if you want to go any distance and I am not sure there are a lot of them around.

 

If you have a short day, you may be better just going to Los Cancajos, which I have described in detail on the other thread, and then return for a stroll through Santa Cruz to make sure you do not miss the boat. If there is an accident on the road over the hill, I have heard the road up/down there can be closed and there is no quick way around the island to get back to Santa Cruz. We have arrived later in the day, but then been in port until late night, so we have taken that chance. You would probably be fine anyway, but we tend not to take the risk.

 

Enjoy La Palma

Edited August 12, 2016 by tring

[jean87510]

Ty for the information. This was exactly what I was looking for.

[tring]

I have just noticed that you have your location as nj. If that means you are from North America, then you will be used to driving on the right with a left hand drive vehicle. Our thoughts on driving is that we are not used to that, so if you would feel confident with hairpin bends, or want to go off to the south, then driving may be more practical than it would be for us. Hiring a car for a week and getting used to it before heading off on difficult roads is quite different to just hiring it for a day from a cruise ship from our point of view. Though in some quieter locations have hired a car and enjoyed it.

 

Getting a slot for the caldera national park may be an issue though if you are on a large ship, which is what you appear to travel on normally. When there we have been on a land holiday or a much smaller ship. The largest ships we travel on have a max of about 800 passengers in total and a some have a max of much less than that.

 

La Palma is a lovely island though, so I am sure you will enjoy whatever you decide to do.

 

Happy Holiday.

[jean87510]

I have just noticed that you have your location as nj. If that means you are from North America, then you will be used to driving on the right with a left hand drive vehicle. Our thoughts on driving is that we are not used to that, so if you would feel confident with hairpin bends, or want to go off to the south, then driving may be more practical than it would be for us. Hiring a car for a week and getting used to it before heading off on difficult roads is quite different to just hiring it for a day from a cruise ship from our point of view. Though in some quieter locations have hired a car and enjoyed it.

 

Getting a slot for the caldera national park may be an issue though if you are on a large ship, which is what you appear to travel on normally. When there we have been on a land holiday or a much smaller ship. The largest ships we travel on have a max of about 800 passengers in total and a some have a max of much less than that.

 

 

 

La Palma is a lovely island though, so I am sure you will enjoy whatever you decide to do.

 

Happy Holiday.

 

 

Thank you for that info. We will be using the bus this time to go to the visitor's center, choose a short trek in the park, take bus to Los Canjacos for a while, then either walk, bus or taxi up to the port. We are pretty athletic and 2 miles is not a big deal for us from Los Canjacos to the ship if we have to. We will be renting a car for our trip in November 2017 where we will arrive earlier (7am) as opposed to 11am in April and will try to get to the north portion of island or the extreme south.

[dawnskers]

Can anyone recommend a tour company that can accommodate a tour that will work within the timeframe we will be in port? I am traveling on Rhapsody of the Seas and we are scheduled to be on La Palma from 7 am to 5 pm on Friday 11/10/2017. Thank you in advance for any advice you can give.

[jean87510]

Can anyone recommend a tour company that can accommodate a tour that will work within the timeframe we will be in port? I am traveling on Rhapsody of the Seas and we are scheduled to be on La Palma from 7 am to 5 pm on Friday 11/10/2017. Thank you in advance for any advice you can give.

 

When we went to La palma in the spring we used taxi tours la palma. He had different itienieries for us and we chose to hike Roque Muschachos (sorry, bad spelling). He dropped us off at the top and we hiked down the road, and then he met us down the road. His English is not good but between my husband and I and our abysmal Spanish and hand gestures, we were able to communicate. Really great guide. Look at his website and see what interests you. It was just my husband and I and we had a wonderful day. I see we are on the same cruise as you ;p in November. We are actually going to drive to the south this time. I really loved La Palma. Everyone is very nice who we encountered there. My Spanish is much better for this go around so I won't be as embarrassed this time. Just look at his website. There are other companies that we contacted and they were all easy to deal with. I paid him when I got there in Euros if I remember correctly which was a big selling point to me.