Contrasts of Gran Canaria

• Dazzling ochre cliffs, forgotten white villages, plunging gorges, spectacular ocean views
• Totally undiscovered walking: sweeping plateaux, lush green valleys, wonderful ridge top trails
• Exclusive hotels: beautiful gardens, delightful pools, gorgeous rural settings
• Fantastic plants and wild flowers - many found nowhere else in the world; outstanding variety of birds and wildlife

Tourism to Gran Canaria is almost wholly concentrated around the buzzing beaches of the southern coast, with few visitors venturing into the island's mountainous interior. Those who do are rewarded with the most spectacular natural beauty: born of volcanoes and crafted by the elements, it's little wonder that nearly half of the island is protected in Nature Reserves.

On this independent twin-centre walking holiday, you follow ancient caminos reales - centuries-old trading paths linking the mountains and the sea - through panoramic open rock plateaux, across lush green vineyards and down into secret valleys cloaked in the most amazing array of colourful wild flowers.

The first 4 nights of your holiday will be spent in the 9-room boutique-style Hotel Las Calas, nestled high in the heart of Gran Canaria's rugged mountains in the tiny hamlet of La Lechuza. Once a C17 manor house, it has been lovingly restored by owner Magui Carratala, and is now a delightful countryside inn furnished in traditional Spanish style and oozing African-Arab flair. The rooms are built around exotic Mediterranean gardens - almonds, lemons, oranges, palms - and meals, weather permitting, are taken on the pergola-shaded terrace by the pool.

You'll then drive north (hire car included) to the fertile valley of Arucas and the luxuriously elegant Hacienda del Buen Suceso. Beautifully positioned among 50+ hectares of banana trees, this colonial style finca dates to 1572 and is the oldest on the island. Each of its 18 rooms is exquisitely crafted, and the restaurant is in the converted stables and carriage yard. The island's coastal capital, Las Palmas, is just 15 minutes away.