La Palma and El Hierro: 4 car tours, 48 long and short walks, Landscapes of (8th ed. Feb. 20)

In natural beauty, La Palma rivals all the other Canary Islands put together. Its immense, abyss-like crater, the Caldera de Taburiente, is considered to be the largest of its kind in the world. Deep within its pine-speckled, towering walls is a year-round abundance of gushing streams, boisterous cascades, and a plummeting waterfall. Outside the crater, high on the cloud-catching hillsides, 20 million-year-old laurel forests grow as dense as a jungle. In the southern half of the island, hills pitted with volcanic craters and mini-deserts of black lapilli speak of the island’s volcanic past. This stark, striking landscape, all the more dramatic for its stabs of volcanic reds, oranges, and yellows, is far removed from the lush and verdant, tree-clad north. El Hierro, the least-visited of all the Canaries, at first appears to be a dried-up, sprawling mountain of rock, rising straight from the sea, treeless and barren. But Noel reveals the island’s hidden charms — as remarkable as any in the archipelago. Whether you tour La Palma or El Hierro by car or discover them on foot, Noel introduces you to the islands’ best beauty spots.