Hiring a car on La Palma or favourite ship excursions

[ChizzQatar]

Hi all - will be taking a Christmas cruise on Azura this year and wondered whether anyone has rented a car on La Palma v's doing a ship excursion? Have done several cruises before with different companies, but have never hired our own car for the day. Any personal recommendations for the ship excursions?

Many thanks

[tring]

7 hours ago, ChizzQatar said:

Hi all - will be taking a Christmas cruise on Azura this year and wondered whether anyone has rented a car on La Palma v's doing a ship excursion? Have done several cruises before with different companies, but have never hired our own car for the day. Any personal recommendations for the ship excursions?

Many thanks

 

We are very keen on La Palma and have spent two weeks there one February some years back, during which time we spent a week with a hire car and have called there as a cruise port numerous times.  We stayed at Los Cancajos, about two miles south of Santa Cruz, where the ships dock for the hotel holiday.

 

There is a lot there, the focus being on be the beautiful volcanic landscape, but imo the most spectacular was the caldera national park, (now covered with greenery as a very old caldera).  There are also newer volcanic areas to the south of the island.  The far side of the island, the west, is also very nice and pretty unspoilt.  Driving up to the caldera means driving along a road with many hairpin bends and it is quite busy, so we did find we regularly had locals on our tail wanting to go faster than we were, but we did do it, and also many other parts of the island over the week, including the highest point and right around the island with side trips and taking walks.  We were younger then and DH did drive on easier routes for the first couple of days, I did not want to drive there.  There is very limited car parking space actually in the caldera, so there is a system where you have to go to the visitor centre and then request the permission to go there and you will get a timed ticket, though at busy times, especially if there is a big ship in port, then it may be nigh on impossible to get a slot.  When we stayed,  there was just the occasional very small ship in port and it was low season for land hols, but the visitor centre itself is interesting and walks can be taken from there, though walking to the caldera is a very long way over difficult terrain.  We walked to the next village (they are possibly small towns), from the visitor centre once and then caught the bus back from there.  A lovely day.

 

There is a third alternative as you can take a bus to many places.  The buses going up towards the visitor centre for the caldera is fairly regular, poss every half hour and we have often taken it on cruise stops.  It is a scenic route and goes on along the main road across the island through smaller villages to Los Llanos, another town with a very different character to Santa Cruz.  It is often cloudy on the East of the island in winter, but almost invariably sunny on the west side, so once you reach the visitor centre at the top and beyond, it will very likely be sunny and pleasant, though not super warm at the top, because of the altitude.  The bus always was fairly well used, so again with a big ship in port and the time of year, it may be a bit risky taking the bus in case you do not get back, though perhaps less risky if you re board the bus in Los Llanos.  We generally had late nights in port in La Palma, so it was  less of a risk for us,   Another risk is that I understand, if there is an accident, then that road across the island could be closed and the only way back would be a really big detour around the south of the island, (the road around the north is even longer), so on balance it may be better to take an excursion, yet I must admit our hearts are always for just going it alone in La Palma.

 

The trip advisor forums for La Palma may be useful to get better advice regards just how busy everywhere will be at that time of year.  I also suggest you look at Google Earth to see various parts of the island and the photos posted there as well as perhaps going into street view in some places.

 

 

Edited June 30, 2023 by tring

[ChizzQatar]

Thanks so much Tring for your reply! I think we will probably take the ship excursion to the caldera national park, which is half a day and then look around the town for the other half. Would definitely have gotten a car if we had longer and we can always go back if we like it and spend more time there.

[Fionboard]

13 hours ago, ChizzQatar said:

Thanks so much Tring for your reply! I think we will probably take the ship excursion to the caldera national park, which is half a day and then look around the town for the other half. Would definitely have gotten a car if we had longer and we can always go back if we like it and spend more time there.

Good excursion. Found long walk from visitor centre to caldera was not too strenuous and very enjoyable. Would not want to drive there though as the roads are pretty scary, particularly with coaches on them! 

[9265359]

On 6/30/2023 at 3:23 PM, ChizzQatar said:

Hi all - will be taking a Christmas cruise on Azura this year and wondered whether anyone has rented a car on La Palma

 

I have rented cars plenty of times on all the various Canary Islands, but only use two specific companies (which this forum will not allow me to name), but both operate with a proper 'what you see is what you pay, no excess at all, no messing around' policy - you pay, they give you the car, you return it, and that's it finished - no unexpected bills for damage that was there to start with. Only one of them has an office at La Palma cruise ship port.

 

As for a trip to the old caldera, I thoroughly recommend it, and it can be done by bus if you want to but you need to be a little adventurous to do it. The number 300 bus runs from near the cruise port every hour to the caldera visitor centre, taking about 40 minutes to get there, and from there you can get a taxi for the 10 minute drive up to the Mirador de La Cumbrecita (it would take two hours to walk there, so don't). The taxis tend to be mini-buses taking six people or so, and so people arriving on the bus tend to informally group themselves to split the cost.

 

If you plan on hiring a car to drive to the caldera you now need to pre-book a parking space for a specific time, and there are only 20 spaces available.

[Host Hattie]

There's no problem naming hire car companies, it's Travel Agents that can't be discussed. 

[9265359]

3 minutes ago, Host Hattie said:

There's no problem naming hire car companies, it's Travel Agents that can't be discussed. 

 

Ah, well in that case then its Cicar and AutoReisen, but AutoReisen tend to only have offices at the airports, whereas Cicar has them at the airports, in the towns, and usually at the port terminals (they are the one with the logo designed by César Manrique, the artist, sculptor from Lanzarote).

 

When I hired from Cicar in February in Fuerteventura I booked the car, went to their office in town to collect it and they said "it's in that street up around there, it's half-full of fuel, bring it back the same, and here are the keys". A week later I go back to the office, hand over the keys and tell them it is parked in a street a few hundred yards away and they are "that's fine".

[ChizzQatar]

8 hours ago, 9265359 said:

 

Ah, well in that case then its Cicar and AutoReisen, but AutoReisen tend to only have offices at the airports, whereas Cicar has them at the airports, in the towns, and usually at the port terminals (they are the one with the logo designed by César Manrique, the artist, sculptor from Lanzarote).

 

When I hired from Cicar in February in Fuerteventura I booked the car, went to their office in town to collect it and they said "it's in that street up around there, it's half-full of fuel, bring it back the same, and here are the keys". A week later I go back to the office, hand over the keys and tell them it is parked in a street a few hundred yards away and they are "that's fine".

Thanks for the info! Did use Cicar/Cabrera Medina last year in Lanzarote and agree, they are very good and we liked that there were no extra fees.

[tring]

16 hours ago, ChizzQatar said:

Thanks for the info! Did use Cicar/Cabrera Medina last year in Lanzarote and agree, they are very good and we liked that there were no extra fees.

 

We have used cicar in La Gomera and El Heiro on cruise visits and having now driven in Lanzarote on a land holiday, would be happy to use one there as well, but on reflection, probably best to skip the idea on La Palma, unless you just wanted to pooter around the south of the Island. 

 

I did write a lot for my previous post, getting a bit carried away, reminiscing about our really good holiday in La Palma.

 

Edited July 3, 2023 by tring

[ChizzQatar]

On 7/3/2023 at 11:38 AM, tring said:

 

We have used cicar in La Gomera and El Heiro on cruise visits and having now driven in Lanzarote on a land holiday, would be happy to use one there as well, but on reflection, probably best to skip the idea on La Palma, unless you just wanted to pooter around the south of the Island. 

 

I did write a lot for my previous post, getting a bit carried away, reminiscing about our really good holiday in La Palma.

 

Which is your favourite Canary Island Tring? Which cruise did you do that included La Gomera and El Hierro for future reference please? Thanks

[tring]

3 hours ago, ChizzQatar said:

Which is your favourite Canary Island Tring? Which cruise did you do that included La Gomera and El Hierro for future reference please? Thanks

 

Will reply tomorrow, tried now and just lost the post  Grrrr....

[tring]

20 hours ago, ChizzQatar said:

Which is your favourite Canary Island Tring? Which cruise did you do that included La Gomera and El Hierro for future reference please? Thanks

 

Our favourite has got to be La Palma, partly because of how well we know the island and the bus routes, so we can get around easily even on a port stop.  It is still a beautiful, unspoilt island though.  At the end of the time when we went regularly, they started to take bigger ships and construct a man made beach in Santa Cruz de La Palma.  A bigger ships were quite a shock, having been used to arriving with just our small, (700 pax max), ship.  On one visit the QM2 was there with us, so we looked at each other and said, "Los Cancajos" (the nearby small resort where we stayed on the land holiday).  So we hopped on a bus to there, took a stroll around including along the quiet scenic coastal path and had a small relaxing lunch in a local restaurant, before, walking back to Santa Cruz as we had done a number of times previously.  We then took in a bit more of Santa Cruz and went  into our favourite bar there in the evening before our late departure.   On a visit since the pandemic, we have sadly found that friendly, local bar has changed hands and become a very different type of place. 

 

We went to La Gomera regularly and El Hierro once on Fred's Braemar about 6-7 years ago when she was sailing out of Tenerife to Cape Verde, the Canaries and Madeira, each November/December before going over to the Caribbean.  We went for three years on a back to back basis, getting really good deals by using his "buy two get one free" deals at the time.  We really like the bigger Canary ports at that time as well, with the Christmas lights on - particularly Tenerife and Madeira and there was so much variety of what we could do in each port, at a pleasant but not popular and touristy time of year.  We only went to El Hierro once and it was not popular with most passengers as it was a cloudy, drizzly morning with the tours all returning about lunch time and the small local "town" was largely closed as it was a Sunday.  With the hire care we did have restricted views in the mountainous part of the island in the morning, but then went over to the far side of the island, near the coast, arriving at a visitor centre just before a tour group left.  The weather cleared whilst we were there and the views along the coast were brilliant.  We then went on to some very quiet, remote parts of the coast along some small roads, finding a local bar where we had some Tapas.  A really good day for us, though Fred has not been to El Hierro since then.  I presume because of the unpopularity with most passengers, though that is sad, since it is a very quiet, very unspoilt, but beautiful island.  Just not a lot there apart from the scenery.  Fred does call at some unusual ports, though sadly his three smallest ships are no longer sailing for him.

 

Barbara 

 

 

Edited July 7, 2023 by tring

[ChizzQatar]

On 7/7/2023 at 1:15 PM, tring said:

 

Our favourite has got to be La Palma, partly because of how well we know the island and the bus routes, so we can get around easily even on a port stop.  It is still a beautiful, unspoilt island though.  At the end of the time when we went regularly, they started to take bigger ships and construct a man made beach in Santa Cruz de La Palma.  A bigger ships were quite a shock, having been used to arriving with just our small, (700 pax max), ship.  On one visit the QM2 was there with us, so we looked at each other and said, "Los Cancajos" (the nearby small resort where we stayed on the land holiday).  So we hopped on a bus to there, took a stroll around including along the quiet scenic coastal path and had a small relaxing lunch in a local restaurant, before, walking back to Santa Cruz as we had done a number of times previously.  We then took in a bit more of Santa Cruz and went  into our favourite bar there in the evening before our late departure.   On a visit since the pandemic, we have sadly found that friendly, local bar has changed hands and become a very different type of place. 

 

We went to La Gomera regularly and El Hierro once on Fred's Braemar about 6-7 years ago when she was sailing out of Tenerife to Cape Verde, the Canaries and Madeira, each November/December before going over to the Caribbean.  We went for three years on a back to back basis, getting really good deals by using his "buy two get one free" deals at the time.  We really like the bigger Canary ports at that time as well, with the Christmas lights on - particularly Tenerife and Madeira and there was so much variety of what we could do in each port, at a pleasant but not popular and touristy time of year.  We only went to El Hierro once and it was not popular with most passengers as it was a cloudy, drizzly morning with the tours all returning about lunch time and the small local "town" was largely closed as it was a Sunday.  With the hire care we did have restricted views in the mountainous part of the island in the morning, but then went over to the far side of the island, near the coast, arriving at a visitor centre just before a tour group left.  The weather cleared whilst we were there and the views along the coast were brilliant.  We then went on to some very quiet, remote parts of the coast along some small roads, finding a local bar where we had some Tapas.  A really good day for us, though Fred has not been to El Hierro since then.  I presume because of the unpopularity with most passengers, though that is sad, since it is a very quiet, very unspoilt, but beautiful island.  Just not a lot there apart from the scenery.  Fred does call at some unusual ports, though sadly his three smallest ships are no longer sailing for him.

 

Barbara 

 

 

Thanks Barbara for all the info and good to know that La Palma is your fav! Yes, sadly mass tourism is invading every corner of the earth these days and making everywhere so crowded, which takes a little bit of the enjoyment away! Hope to visit all the canaries in time.  It's a shame Fred no longer sails to El Hierro, as I like quiet and unspoilt locations and a chance to get away from the crowds for a short time, as least.

[Hlitner]

We have rented a car (several times) on Palma and always enjoyed our DIY freedom to go where we want, when we want. without being stuck with 60 or our "friends."   We generally rent from CICAR (you can walk to their downtown office from the port) although we suggest checking out the competition.  It took us 3 visits to have enough to explore most of the island.  Like most places, it is very helpful to have a working cell phone to use as a GPS.  Otherwise, you might want to rent a GPS system from the car dealer.

 

Hank

[Harters]

On 7/2/2023 at 10:38 AM, 9265359 said:

then its Cicar and AutoReisen

I regularly play on the Tripadvisor Tenerife forum (which we visit annually) where these two companies are consistently recommended. Mentioned almost as often as the "one ot avoid" - Goldcar.

[ChizzQatar]

On 7/10/2023 at 12:03 AM, Hlitner said:

We have rented a car (several times) on Palma and always enjoyed our DIY freedom to go where we want, when we want. without being stuck with 60 or our "friends."   We generally rent from CICAR (you can walk to their downtown office from the port) although we suggest checking out the competition.  It took us 3 visits to have enough to explore most of the island.  Like most places, it is very helpful to have a working cell phone to use as a GPS.  Otherwise, you might want to rent a GPS system from the car dealer.

 

Hank

Yes, we too love our freedom and prefer to do our own thing on our trips. Really not a fan of coach trips and spending such limited time at each stop, then taking 2 hours for lunch (when we'd rather be exploring). We are just a bit wary of hiring a car on a cruise, as I'd be scared about getting back to the ship on time. We will do it on this trip in Tenerife as we do an overnight there, so can get back to the ship late evening. It's a shame some of the port car hire places are closed over the Christmas period too and you have to hire from the airports, which takes up valuable time getting to and from said airports to pick up/drop off the car. Thanks for your reply though Hank and will surely hire a car if we go back to La Palma.

[ChizzQatar]

On 7/10/2023 at 12:21 PM, Harters said:

I regularly play on the Tripadvisor Tenerife forum (which we visit annually) where these two companies are consistently recommended. Mentioned almost as often as the "one ot avoid" - Goldcar.

Yes, Cicar is good and have heard good things about AutoReisen. Tried to rent a car for this Christmas period from Santa Cruz Port and the only company I could find open over this period at the port was a company called Comauto. Well, their customer service is terrible and I'm still awaiting a reply to my queries over a month later! Tried to call them at every office in Tenerife in June and they had gone on holiday for a month, I found out later from their Facebook page. Unfortunately the Cicar office is closed at the port when we are there, so we have had to rent from them at the northern airport.

[yeswehave]

We love La Palma and rent from CICAR when we are in the Canaries.  A favorite restaurant in Santa Cruz on La Palma is Bar Restaurante Parrilla Las Nieves Barrio Nieves, 2, 38700 Las Nieves, Santa Cruz de Tenerife, Spain.  It is very slow driving on the island due to the winding roads so a short distance can take a lot longer than expected.  The Caldera is great as are the telescopes.  The silk museum, Museo de la Seda Las Hilanderas, in El Paso is interesting