Most flights into La Palma in the Canary Islands are via charter connections. You can book direct charter flights from Manchester and Gatwick airports year-round. If you'd rather, you can choose to connect from Madrid, Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, Tenerife and Amsterdam. The best airlines to shop are Binter Airways, a Canary Island based company, and Iberia. Spain's national airline.

Known as "Isla Bonita," the pretty isle, La Palma is often considered the most beautiful and unspoiled of the Canary Islands. Its climate is stable, enjoying pleasant temperatures in all seasons with warm winters and comfortable summers.

You can get around on La Palma by hiring a car, getting a cab or use the airport bus service.

With great weather virtually guaranteed, you can be sure to enjoy the islands lush vegetation, interesting volcano cones and bright blue skies. In addition to all this natural beauty, you can experience a culture full of tradition, cuisine and folklore that has survived from the time of its aboriginal inhabitants.

La Palma is a small place packed with things to see. Santa Cruz, the capital city is no exception. Situated on the slope of a mountain and the edge of the volcanic crater Cala Cadereta, Santa Cruz' s Calle Real is the commercial and social center of the city. This street leads to Plaza Espana. Here you can visit the Cathedral El Salvador and the Museum of Natural History.

Though the cost of La Palma has steep cliffs of volcanic rock and small coves, La Palma offers a selection of great beaches. On the east coast you'll find Los Cancajos. Puerto Naos and Puerto de Tazacorte are on the warmer west coast. These beaches have natural black lava sand and clear waters.

In north La Palma near Barlovento are a series of natural rock pools and caves that have been adapted to create sun bathing areas and sea-water swimming pools called Piscinas La Fajana.

Puerto de Tazacorte has the longest beach on the west side sporting a large fishing harbor and deep sea fishing vessels and cruisers. Be sure to sample the local restaurants which are supplied with the catch of the day.

Puerto Naos, a traditional fishing village, also offers a good beach with a local diving base offering viewing trips to see the wealth of marine life this area has to offer. Exotic fish, black coral reefs, volcanic caves and underwater arches are part of the everyday here. Excursions from Puerto Naos or Santa Cruz will give you the opportunity to see dolphins, sea turtles and whales.

La Palma's version of an amusement park does not include traditional entertainments such as rides and arcades. Instead, these natural theme parks provide great wildlife and tropical vegetation. One of these, Maroparque is home to 300 exotic animal species that live in a diversity of vegetation, rocks and a waterfall.

If you're a shopper, you will revel in La Palma's tradition of craftsmanship in skills ranging from silk fabrics, embroidery, tapestry, woodwork, straw weaving, wickerwork and earthenware.