El Hierro is the smallest Canary Island, but has a great nature. The island is located west of La Gomera and can be reached by boat from Los Christianos on Tenerife, or by plane, Binter Canaris, from Tenerife or Grand Canaria.

There are no more than about 8000 people living on the island, and there are no large hotels or tour operators that have the island as a destination. But there are many private apartments to rent scattered across the island. The largest towns are Valverde and Frontera. None of these have beaches, but you can find one south of Puerta de la Estaca where the ferry docks. Also north of La Restinga there is a small beach.

Then it is not beaches you seek on this island, but those who want to escape mass tourism and those who love nature and hiking. There are countless hikes here.

There are limited bus routes on the island. The routes run along the sea, between Valverde and Frontera, and to El Pinar on the other side of the island. And local routes around these cities. Up on the mountain with the best hiking opportunities, there is no bus so you are dependent on a taxi or rental car to get there.

For buses see: Guaguas El Hierro
Taxi: taxis-en-el-hierro Here you can also pre-order by email in English.
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If you are primarily going for hiking in the mountains, San Andres is a nice place to stay, with many opportunities right outside the door, and a short way to other areas. San Andres is a tiny little pleasant village with three restaurants / bars. There is a bus from Valverde to San Andres and on to El Pinar.

Click on a picture for carousel.

Frontera

I stayed in Frontera, a small town with a main street and a few thousand inhabitants, and some tourists. It is convenient to live down in the center with a short distance to shops and restaurants. If you want a view of the sea, it is better to move a little up the hill, but then you have to climb home after a city visit.

Frontera is located at about 300 meters with views of the sea and steep mountains up to 1200 meters behind the city. The old main road to Frontera zigzags up from the center. Today you can get here more easily through a long tunnel from Valverde. But the old road is fine to get to the mountains quickly.

There are two trails up the mountain from Frontera. REH2 starts in the center, and it is just over 1000 meters to the top. And then you must down again. Or you can call a taxi. You start with steep asphalt roads before continuing on the path between high stone fences through old cultivated land. Eventually the forest takes over. First shrubs, then larger trees. The nature is beautiful and you have a view down towards Frontera and the sea. It is steep uphill all the way, but easy to walk, except in some places there is very loose gravel. If you do not want to reach the top, you can break off in several places and follow forest roads to the west. After a while you come to another path you can follow down again to Frontera.

Then you have the spectacular Camino Jimana which starts at the very visible church on a mountain top and ends at the mirador Jimana on the top. If you start from the bottom, you have an 850 meter ascent in front of you, partly very steep. But there is a nice path, cobbled in the steepest parts. And you have a great view. But certainly not for those with a fear of heights, even though there are railings in the most exposed places.

On the top / San Andres

Unlike La Gomera, the top of El Hierro is relatively flat along the island. At La Gomera it goes either up or down, but here you can follow the top in an east-west direction. You can walk the whole island along, from Valverde in the east to the lava landscape in the west, along the path GR131, or Camino de La Virgin as it is called. Every four years there is a procession here that carries the Virgin to the chapel Eremita Virgen de Los Reyes.

A good starting point is San Andres if you want to skip the climb up from Valverde. The trail goes through very varied landscapes. A flat plateau with pastures and farmland with kilometer-long stone walls first, then through forests. One can not help but admire the incredible work that has been put into building all these walls, not to mention the construction of the old roads that all the paths on the island originally are.

Laurisilva

The forest at the top is laurisilva (laurel), the same as on La Gomera, and is unique in that it is watered directly from the clouds. Further west, after Fuente de La Llana, the path passes through a mixture of black lava landscape and tree clusters. It passes over the island’s highest point, Malpaso at 1501 meters.

There are also other trails in the area around San Andres that are well suited if you want a quiet day and do not want cover many meters of altitude. I walked the orange trail south of mirador Jimana and planned to take a little round trip via the yellow trail. It was a nice little walk, but the paths here are poorly marked, and the yellow track was suddenly completely overgrown with bushes. So then you have to improvise, and it is important to have a good map. I followed a dry creek for a while and avoided walking the same route back.

As a map, I use the Locus Maps app on the phone, from which the maps here are screenshots. Read more here Navigation apps for hiking.

If you want to walk more in the laurisilva forest, the Camino Circlar de La Llana can be recommended. It is a round trip that goes down the slope towards El Pinar. Here you can experience the magical atmosphere in this dense forest with ancient trees overgrown with moss. Often the clouds are low, but if you are lucky you get to experience the play of light from the sun’s rays that penetrate through the foliage. The trip is adapted for children and the elderly as it says on a sign, so no problems with fear of heights here.

El Pinar – Pine forest

I really like walking in the pine forest, and at El Hierro I found the most beautiful pine forest I have seen. Here were many really big trees, and large, open areas where the sun shines. Many of the old trees have been burned by forest fires, but they withstand that well. A moderate forest fire burns dry needles and small trees and fertilizes the soil, while the large ones survive and thrive after the fire. The forest begins at El Pinar, which means pine, and continues west on the southern slope of the island, and up to the top where the laurisilva takes over. There are two paths up through the forest, PREH1 and PREH2, the latter is the continuation of the one I walked parts of up from Frontera. Unfortunately, these old roads are partly gravel roads today, but there are also many old overgrown forest roads you can follow. And , you do not have to walk on a road or path. In the pine forest, there is a complete lack of vegetation in the forest floor, you can walk wherever you want on a soft cover of dry pine needles and short grass, which is almost like a freshly cut lawn.

A starting point is the Hoya del Morcillo camping area just above El Pinar.

You can also stop along the road where a gravel road takes off, see “Parking” on map. From here you can follow the dotted orange road which is probably the old road to El Pinar. It is very easy to walk where it winds between the trees. Not gravel, but old forest floor. You can continue on the brown paths and make a small round trip. Very beautiful, and much nicer than the green-marked paths up from Hoya del Morcillo.

Southern coast – Lava

If you have a rental car, I would recommend driving along the south side of the island. There is a wide road to El Pinar, but from here the road becomes very narrow and curvy. It is quite vertiginous so it is not suitable for those with a fear of heights. Calculate good time, speed will be 30-40 km per hour, and you have to sneak around the curves. In return, the trip offers fantastic nature. It starts with pine forest. Then the forest get thinner and you get a view of the sea 1000 meters below you, before ending in some extreme hairpin turns through lava landscapes that are very reminiscent of Iceland. Finally down by the sea you can admire huge rock formations with lava bridges where the sea sends cascades of foam spray into the air.

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