We spent the most amount of money on the excursion for this port of call. We figured that the rest of the stops, there’s a good chance at some point we’d end up back there, but for La Palma thought it might be a bit of a one off visit. We booked the excursion through P&O, and went for the luxury coach tour, in order to fit in as much as possible. The plan for this was lots of stops in a luxury coach with bar on board, sounded perfect!! We booked before departure on the P&O website, and at the time of booking there was a message on it saying that it was down to the last few places available. Imagine our disappointment when a few days into the cruise we had a letter delivered to our cabin saying that the trip had been cancelled due to insufficient numbers! We looked at the positives though, we had a nice sum of money winging its way back to our account, perfect for a bit of shopping!!
The port of La Palma was very modern and looked like it had
recently been built/refurbished. We didn’t
even make it into Santa Cruz itself and instead preferred to have a lazy day
mooching around the marina. This consisted
of a handful of shops and restaurants, all of a good standard with a seating
area outside looking out over the yachts.
Our first stop was a restaurant/bar called Scooters. It had an American theme, with photos of
music and big screen icons such as Elvis and Marilyn Monroe. Comfortable red booths added to the
ambience. There was a mixture of cruise
passengers and locals, which is always a good sign! The menu reflected the America theme, but
also had an Italian edge. Mr Roadtripper
went for one of the tasty pizzas, whereas I chose a starter portion of the
mouth watering parmigiana, accompanied by some garlic bread. 
Next stop was the Spar shop! We used this opportunity to stock up on magazines, toiletries, water, cans of pop, some cans of beer and a bottle of white wine that cost about one and a half Euros! We saved it until we got home and last night did the taste test. I can honestly say it was really nice, and as drinkable as any £5-10 bottle of plonk from the supermarket. For little more than a pound, complete bargain!
Final stop before we took our haul back to the ship was a shop called “Natura”. I’ve not come across it before but from my research it seems that these are dotted throughout Spain and the islands. I absolutely adored this shop, from retro themed bun cases, to tweezers, to passport covers, to pretty storage. Lots of vintage inspired and shabby chic items. I also bought a beautiful scarf with a peace sign, that I wore as part of the 60s/70s evening on the ship.
It’s a pity we didn’t get to see more of La Palma, and due to that we do feel the need to keep it on the “to visit” list. Still a little bit disappointed that P&O cancelled the excursion, and out of the ones still available nothing took our fancy. We were also slightly misled by one of the tour guides on board, I asked her if there would be taxis available in port and she categorically said no, because it was a very under-developed island. There was a queue of taxis on arrival, and I was pleasantly surprised by the port area, out of all the stops on our itinerary it was easily the nicest, hardly under-developed! The photo below was not taken by us but shows the modern waterside development.
Santa Cruz de La Palma can be found by going through the marina development, and is clearly signposted, they also have like a painted walkway on the ground, which you just follow. There did appear to be a volcanic sand beach across the port, which you may be able to just see in the photo below. Anyone wanting to make the most of the weather could have a wander over or even take a taxi around to it.
Santa Cruz de La Palma was our second stop, and after rejoining the ship for the day's sailaway party, we waved goodbye ready to head to Las Palmas, Gran Canaria.
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