La Gomera and La Palma are two of the less-visited Canary Islands, especially by the lager-seeking tourists of Tenerife and Lanzarote. Along with the other western isle of El Hierro, they are as favoured by hikers as by beach-bunnies. This is partly down to climate (more rain and wind as they are more exposed to the Atlantic) and partly down to geography (more hills and deep valleys and fewer, if any, sandy beaches). I omitted El Hierro because it was hard to plan trails that ended in somewhere to stay and because it looked a bit boring when compared with the other two. I visited in March 2019 when the temperature is a pleasant 22C or so for hiking and the spring flowers have started to appear – not that they really have a winter in the Canaries. Forget about hiking in the high summer – it’s just too hot.