Up, up and away

Chris Leadbeater visits La Palma and discovers a treasure trove of hidden spaces. Plus – from family fun to sand and surf, we reveal which Canary Island will deliver the perfect holiday for you

The clock has ticked past 9pm, the sun is long gone behind the ridgeline, and the Faro de Punta Cumplida is standing alone in the dark. I can see it in the distance as I approach the top end of the east coast of La Palma, its beams strafing the upper flank of the land mass – intermittently illuminating the hamlet of La Fajana, then dispatching it back to blackness.

Alas I am late, having tarried too long in the island capital Santa Cruz – and I am as grateful for the position-fix the lighthouse provides as any ship at the mercy of the swells.

Even with its guidance, I struggle to locate the turning off the LP-1 highway. And when I do chance upon it, the road down is determined to be of no assistance to a stranger. It is defiantly steep, unevenly surfaced, and a shape-shifter with mischief in mind – breeze-block walls, there to shelter the precious banana crops that cover this portion of the shore from the wind, looming suddenly in my headlights.

The ocean does not seem to be in a welcoming mood either. When I finally identify the driveway and pilot my hirecar to the door, I can hear the ocean thrashing behind the building; a wild animal loose in the fields.

Only when I wake the next day do I see that I’m further out on a limb than I had realised.

The Faro is a gorgeous exercise in renovation, its base structure transformed – via the visionary labours of German lighthouse renovators Marc Nagel and Tim Wittenbecher, and Spanish architect Olimpia Isla – into three suites of luxury accommodation. Opened as a boutique retreat in March 2019, it is a thing of wonder – soft beds, designer kitchen, a pool to the rear. But the reason it still turns up to perform its