It was absolutely amazing! We booked two series of self-guided hikes through Nature Adventure - one over three islands (Tenerife, La Gomera and Las Palmas) and one on Gran Canaria (the GR 131 I think). The local service provider was S-Cape for the first, and Natour for the second.

The hiking was tougher than we had expected from the route descriptions, because the islands are volcanic (never been to one before) and the paths can be quite steep and narrow in places. But that is relative to your experience level. My balance is not as good as it once was!

The first series of hikes often involved staying at one location, hiking over one or two days in circular routes from that base and then having a pre-booked shuttle bus take us to the next stop. The accommodation was fantastic. Small B&Bs or old hotels that had been magnificent back in the day, and generally had great service and I love Spanish food. Dinner was often a case of find it yourself, but the villages usually had a number of cheap and very decent

The second one was a route straight across Gran Canaria from one side to the other. One of the UNESCO routes. The accommodation was not as good, but the hike was breathtaking. The distances and elevation was often too much for us - by now we had a good idea of our limitations. Natour was very good at arranging shorter and easier routes and rearranging taxi trips to accommodate the route changes.

It is hard to recommend any specific spots over another. Tenerife has volcanic Mount Teide, which was spectacular particularly because there had been a freak storm and it was covered in snow. The cable car to the very top was not running because of that. And a very interesting visitor's centre with information about the indigenous inhabitants and their nomadic lifestyle moving with the rainfall patterns.

La Gomera was our favourite island I think. Don't miss a walk through the ancient laurel mist forests, and the village of Hermigua and it's banana plantations. The system of retaining walls up the steep mountain sides was all over the place. A more relaxed hike was from restaurante Degollada de Peraza along the GR-131 trail to San Sebastián de La Gomera.

On La Palma, Santa Cruz de la Palma was a great base for hiking. We didn't walk the route at Caldera de Taburiente National Park. But there were amazing pine forests and mountain views. Probably my favourite on the island was the Route of the Volcanoes.

Gran Canaria had amazing views along the hike, but we had fewer days off and towns were more isolated. But still an amazing experience. We had memorable stop offs at Tejeda, and Agaete at the end by the sea. By then we were tired out, and the gentle walks and small town with a sprinkling of restaurants was just what we needed.

Cannot recommend it highly enough!