Leisurely Cycling in Majorca
 

We are a family of 4 (children are in their 20s though) and we would like to do a 10-12 day leisurely cycling holiday in Majorca this coming June - moving from town to town and carrying our own luggage. We are not cyclists in the form of racing cycling - we are a fit family who enjoy doing very relaxed cycling holidays and having plenty of time to spend in the various villages / towns that we travel through. Our bikes are merely a means of getting us from A to B. We don't cover huge daily distances either - normally 25 -30 km with the maximum per day being around 50km - our focus is definitely more on the journey than the distance.
We have been researching various routes and I have downloaded all the suggested routes from the www.seemajorca.com website but was interested to hear from people who have down this before and what route they travelled and any suggestions/advice they might have.
Also, if you have stayed at any great B&Bs or Agriturismo on your cycling travels, I'd love to hear about these as well.

We didn't stay at a B&B or Agriturismo, we stayed at a club resort, but I thought I would attach the link anyway, just in case your interested. I'm not usually a fan on these places but it was VERY family oriented, clean, well organized, and have to admit I enjoyed it:

https://www.clubpollentia.com

In terms of biking, I enjoyed this area. The city of Pollenca and the port were easy, we did a bike tour ourselves. In fact there is a bike path around the port of Pollenca that was lovely. My only word of caution, if you stop along the country roads keep away from barbed wire; they are electric (and they don't always post signs), and I learned that the hard way :)

Be aware that the north part of Mallorca is more mountainous. I'm not saying there aren't necessarily bike routes, but in driving it I remember thinking this would be hell on a bike.

Have fun, and enjoy the Calas they have there, they are incredible. I really enjoyed Cala Sant Vicenç and Cala Carbo, but there are even more beautiful areas as you had slightly south from Pollenca.

Best,

Laura

We basically started in Palma, headed up towards the the north east (there are local military maps you can buy in Palma's best bookshop which have all the real back roads), stayed the odd monestry.

From the North East we went along the coastal resorts of the north coast and then cut down to one of the monestries in the middle/east side before cycling back to Palma.

Advice, keep off the big roads, book the rooms at the start of the day at least (tripadvisor is your friend) depending on when you are going. High season book now.

I admit that I had not been bicycling. We were so lazy to rent mopeds.

Unfortunately, the most beautiful part of Mallorca is the mountain chain on the northwestern shore - with places like Valldemossa, Deya, Soller, Fornalutx and, above all, Sa Calobra.

Also, on the inland side of the mountain chain, you find beautiful places, like the small village Orient (be sure to eat the suckling pig in the local restaurant) and the Castle of Alaro.

However, this makes biking quite strenuous. So, seriously think about renting e-bikes.

Otherwise, you will love cycling on Mallorca. Enjoy almond and orange tree groves, vineyards, inland villages, hills, mountains, coastline and hidden coves.

Thank you southeuropetravel1 for the heads up on the barbed wire - must've been a shocking experience! We'll definitely be heading into and exploring several calas.

bilboburgler - you must've read my mind as I had initially thought of cycling from north to south but then thought it might be nicer to end in the north and spend a few days there before making our way back down to Palma.Your post effectively answered my unasked question.
We'll definitely buy those maps - did you have a more or less idea of the route you'd like to take or did you decide as you went along? Do you remember some of the towns / villages you stayed in? How long did you cycle for?

traveller1959 - we cycle so that we can fool ourselves into believing that we've earned all the food and wine :)
Thanks for the detail ito villages - maybe we might just have to work a bit harder on this trip (We have done Tuscany and that was pretty hard work!)

Hi All
I'm not quite sure what has happened but my original post and all subsequent replies have been flagged as 'Report Abuse'
I have just messaged Admin as I am not sure how this happened and I don't know how to undo it.
My apologies to you all for this.
Regards

I think my holiday is too long ago to give accurate info but we found the 1:50,000 military maps which we bought from Palma. The worst climb is North East out of Soller which is crowned by a tunnel (check you can still ride through it). In those days farmers marked public roads as private to keep tourists out etc so good maps are vital

I'd start with google and its iso-cline map. In the following years I've done a lot of touring and I (and my knees) know that a little dip down can be worth avoiding

Thanks bilboburgler - I've started looking at the various contour maps and hopefully a more or less route will start to develop :)