After visiting El Hierro, the smallest of the Canary Islands, I have been approached several times by people asking us how much time to spend there. Obviously, it all depends on your holiday style. If you love spending quiet days at the beach you can stay there forever. But if you are interested in visiting all the popular corners recommended in travel guides, I’d say 1 week is perfect, especially if you travel with kids and don’t want to (read can’t) go at a crazy speed.

Here are my personal highlights from our week in El Hierro. Please click through the gallery to read the captions for more details…

A stunning sunrise above the sea as seen from Las Casas. Morning magic!

View over Las Casas and El Pinar from the Mirador de Tanajara. This is where we stayed for a week in October 2017.

I really like the burnt look of El Hierro’s pine trees near El Pinar. Don’t get me wrong. There was no fire here. It’s all natural.

Pine tree close-up.

Mirador de Las Playas is best visited in the morning to witness the sunrise or the beauty of the sea under the sun.

The Western part of El Hierro feels like a volcanic wonderland with its fierce-looking rock formations. It’s practically uninhabited from the North till the lighthouse of Orchilla, Spain’s most southwesterly point.

If you’d ask me what I am thinking of when I see the volcanic landscape of El Hierro, I’d probably say an underwater scenery, just without the water. Don’t you see corals here?

A “coral” close-up.

More corals ;)

That’s how official beaches in El Hierro look like. So much for the sand. Here you see the beach at the Lighthouse of Orchilla, the most southwesterly point in Spain.

This pretty white chapel is the home of El Hierro’s patron saint, Nuestra Señora de los Reyes (Our Lady of the Kings). You can find it after a long and curvy drive to La Dehesa, the western part of the island.

Juniper trees, wind-twisted like this one, have become the symbol of El Hierro.

You can find them at El Sabinar in the western part of the island.

Beautiful La Restinga in the South. Come here for a great snorkel experience. I can recommend the Playa de Tacorón to see heaps of fish.

El Golfo is known as misty region on El Hierro where clouds easily get stuck on the mountains, but I didn’t imagine to get to see something like this!

Same location as on the previous photo (El Golfo), just a few hours earlier.

Frontera as seen from El Golfo.

Go down there and do the board walk between La Caletilla and Maceta.

Or visit the Ecomuseum of Guinea to learn how the first settlers survived here.

Gotta be sturdy to grow in El Hierro ;)

What are these? They were everywhere, but they aren’t regular earth worms…

A rather easy hike around volcano craters and through some forest can be done at La Llanía.

The red-sand beach at Playa del Verodal.

The public pools of La Caleta are pretty cool for kids too! (Not so much the sea; check out the video below.)

I simply love this graffiti that I discovered in Valverde. It’s about love, family, generations and it fills me with warmth each time I look at it ❤️

This art installation is one of the first things you will see after leaving El Hierro’s airport by car. It’s a bit creepy I find, but I like that it’s made out of recycled bottle caps.

And here is a short bonus video of some crabs in La Caleta, fighting against the strong waves of the sea. I filmed this on our way out from the public pools in La Caleta. Who’s up for a bath?

If you like this post you might also like Weekend Wanderings: La Palma’s Salinas De Fuencaliente…