Los Llanos
Highlights: Traditional Spanish Town
- Shopping
- Plaza España
- Walk to the coast
- Old style wooden balconies throughout the town
Well worth a visit, Los Llanos is a large, lively but charming town with many old features that will appeal to all. The shops offer a good mixture of both modern and traditional and the many cafes and bars give you a welcomed opportunity to sit in the sun and watch the world go by.
Los Llanos is located central west and has grown larger in population than the island’s capital city of Santa Cruz de la Palma. The lower areas are dominated by bananas with the main part of the town being developed in the higher regions.
The main Plaza España is popular with young and old alike and the church, Iglesia de Nuestra Señora de Los Remedios, is well worth a visit with beautiful stained glass windows and carved wood throughout. Just behind the main plaza is the Plaza Chica, offering colourful boutiques and cafe’s in a tree-lined area.
With a bus station in the town, regular bus services to Puerto Naos, Tazacorte, El Paso, Santa Cruz, Tijarafe, Puntagorda and Garafia are available so it’s easy to get around. It’s also a popular base for those exploring the Caldera de Taburiente National Park.
For the active explorers, Los Llanos is a good place to spend a couple of hours before walking down to the coast of Puerto Tazacorte. You can continue round in a circular route by returning up a steep track through the banana plantations (see our route), double-back towards the town at a suitable point or catch a bus to return from where you began.
Taking the Bus
We travelled to the town by bus from La Palma Princess Hotel, changing at Fuencaliente, then onto Los Llanos bus station and back again later in the evening. The roads are a little windy at times but the bus journey offers an interesting and fairly inexpensive option for travelling that enables everyone to enjoy the scenery without the need for a car. The cost from the hotel with a change at Fuencaliente was around 8 euros per person for a return journey (Feb 2008) and the bus trip was an interesting and enjoyable one with very few passengers!
Honest Reviews by Outdoor Views
We caught the bus to Los Llanos on a lovely, hot sunny day in February and loved it, exploring the area around the main plaza and wandering through some of the shopping areas before starting our (long!) walk to Tazacorte and back again in a circular route.
The interior of the church at Plaza España was beautiful and is well worth a visit. It’s just a small church but with many outstanding features and the surrounding streets and plazas are all worth a look too with beautiful carved balconies and stone walls.
All in all, Los Llanos seemed a very clean, tidy and relaxed place and we liked the general look and feel of it although we didn’t have time to see it all. Similar to Santa Cruz de la Palma, I think it would appeal to all but is a slightly ‘younger’ and more vibrant town in general.