La Gomera

Garajonay National Park was declared a World Heritage Site in 1986 for holding the most representative example of Canary laurel forest. This cloud forest, dominated by laurels, viñátigos and moss-covered heather, is a direct remnant of the subtropical jungle that once spread across southern Europe before the ice ages. Beneath its canopy little light penetrates and humidity stays constant year-round.

The island's structure is a textbook case of radial erosion: ravines descend from the central plateau towards the sea, opening deep and isolated valleys. That extreme relief explains the origin of silbo gomero, a whistled language that reproduces Spanish and allowed people to communicate from one hillside to another. UNESCO inscribed it as Intangible Cultural Heritage in 2009.

On the north coast, reachable only by sea, the Los Órganos cliffs display an imposing set of vertical basalt columns formed by the slow cooling of an ancient volcanic dome later dismantled by the waves. The result resembles the pipes of an organ standing more than eighty metres tall.

The whole island was declared a Biosphere Reserve in 2012. Among its valleys, Valle Gran Rey retains the terraces and palm groves that sustained centuries of subsistence farming based on the Canary palm, from which palm honey is still produced through the tapping of guarapo sap.

San Sebastián de La Gomera was Christopher Columbus's final stop before crossing the Atlantic in 1492, and again on his voyages of 1493 and 1498. The town preserves the Torre del Conde, a fortress dating from 1447 and one of the oldest military structures in the Canaries, along with the well from which the expedition took on water and the church of La Asunción, where tradition places the last mass before departure.

Agulo sits on a coastal shelf in the north of the island, with Teide dominating the horizon across the water. Its historic centre, with narrow cobbled streets and houses roofed in Arabic tile, is a protected ensemble and among the best preserved in the archipelago. The proximity of Garajonay National Park also makes it a gateway to the laurel forest.

At El Cercado, next to Chipude, a pottery tradition survives that reaches back to pre-Hispanic times. Pieces are built up by hand, without a wheel, from clay and red ochre sourced on the island itself, then fired in open kilns. It is one of the last places in Europe where this technique has continued unbroken.

La Gomera's most singular cultural asset, however, cannot be touched: silbo gomero. This whistled language, which mirrors the structure of Spanish and carries for several kilometres across ravines, was inscribed by UNESCO as Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2009 and is a compulsory subject in the island's schools.