Alternative Gomera, a guidebook to walking in La Gomera (one of the Canary Islands), is out of print. It is available online, but hasn't been updated since 2004. These pages are not maintained.

Alternative Gomera

A guide to a fortnight's walking round La Gomera island near Tenerife

By Nicholas Albery

Alternative Gomera is the original guidebook to a 2 week walking holiday on the island of La Gomera, an exotic island which is a short ferry ride from Tenerife in the Canaries. Two weeks of barranco walking, going round the island from one village pension to the next, a low cost winter holiday.

'This book is crammed with useful and extraordinary information'
The Independent

'La Gomera is proving stunning thanks to your book. Yesterday was the marathon to Alajero fantastic! hank you so much for giving us access to all this wonderful information'
BBC2 Coast to Coast producer

Chapters in the book include:

• Accommodation in Gomera • Social experiments in Gomera • Money • Insurance • Cheap flights • Getting there • Ferry and hydrofoil • Language • San Sebastian • Hermigua • Agulo • Vallehermoso • Valle Gran Rey • Chipude • Alajero • Imada • Santiago • Map overview of all the walks • Detailed town maps • Walk descriptions for two weeks' walking

There are some updates and corrections to the latest 2004 edition - see the above menu. The list is not being maintained.

Out of Print

The last 8th (2004) edition of the book is now out of print and hard to find. You can download a pdf version (link above) with permission of the Natural Death Centre, a charity set up by the book's author, which now owns the copyright.

Unfortunately, along the way, the electronic version of the text was lost (the scanned pages in the PDF aren't good enough to convert into text). This, together with the need for a complete rewrite, and that there are now other competing guidebooks to the island, has led the charity to sadly decide not to produce a new edition.

We would have made it an online wiki, but for the lack of an electronic version of the text.

Suggested La Gomera guidebooks

These walking guide books are recent editions. Check the customer reviews before making your choice.

The Rother is best for serious walkers and the Sunflower for leisure walkers and hire car explorers. Alternative Gomera itself is long out of print.