The Canaries and Azores have been a familiar name to travellers for many years, on the route from Western Europe south round Cape Horn to the Far East. They provided the discoverers of the New World with a last taste of home; they saw merchants and traders bustling back and forth to Africa, India and South America, and now they’re on the tourist map. Gran Canaria and Tenerife are favourite holiday spots for North Europeans, yet many people forget that there are five other islands: La Palma, Hierro, Gomera, Fuerteventura and Lanzarote. Between them these seven islands provide such a variety of attractions, from snowy peaks to sun-baked beaches, great cities to tiny hamlets, sophistication to utter simplicity, that the visitor is spoiled for choice. Will it be Playa de las Americas, with sun and sand and shining white hotels? Or the university town of La Laguna, so dignified and assured of its place in history? Or the peaceful national park of Las Cafiadas, high in the mountains? And all this in just one island.
What the Canaries have in common is an extraordinary volcanic beauty, a superb climate, and a continual stream of surprises, scenic, historical, geological, cultural. Though they are all part of Spain, some islands seem more like splinters from North Africa whereas others recall places as far apart as Scotland and tropical Central America. Gran Canaria is called ‘a miniature continent’, because of its diversity of landscapes and attractions, while Lanzarote looks like something on the moon.
This is the island-hoppers’ paradise. So much to see, so easy to get there. If there’s a problem, it’s a sweet one, how to drag yourself away from one place to visit the next. No wonder Pliny called the Canaries ‘the Fortunate Islands’.
The seven main Canary islands and nine Azores Islands of Santa Maria, São Miguel, Terceira, Graciosa, São Jorge, Pico, Faial, Flores and Corvo, lie off the north-west coast of Africa, forming a rough W shape in the Atlantic Ocean, 300 miles east to west. The nearest land is Cape Juby, westernmost tip of Morocco, while Spain is 600 miles to the north-west.