My thoughts on Mallorca
 

Hey!

When most people think of Mallorca, thoughts of the crowd filled beaches and nightclubs of Magaluf often emerge. However, I was shocked to see another side to the Balearic island when I visited last year - I saw a fair bit of the island and I loved it. My thoughts on Mallorca, and some pictures are in the blog post in the link below

http://passionforplaces.blogspot.co....ny-people.html

and the complete photo album is on the facebook link below

https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?...0706572&type=1

Thanks for reading!
Elis :-)

I enjoyed reading about your trip

I have very fond memories of Mallorca because it was the first place I ever visited outside the U.S. My husband was a Navy pilot aboard an aircraft carrier and Mallorca was one of the ports I visited him. I loved it. The year was 1967 in January.
So long ago.....

Hello!
I agree wholeheartedly. Mallorca has a beautiful side to it. Valldemossa and Pollenca, Port de Soler and the mountains are lovely with tiny beaches. I honeymooned in the small village of Deia, staying for a week at La Residencia. It is so beautiful. We did lots of walks and hikes and explored that side of the island by car.
If I went back I would spend some time in the old section of Palma as well.
Your photos are lovely!

Thanks for sharing. I love Majorca and cant wait to return and visit areas I have yet to see. Did you stay in Palma? How did you set up your travel blog?

Very pleasant island, pity it is no longer British :-)

Elis, love your photos and all the different places you go to. If you don't mind my asking, how are you able to arrange the time and finances to pull this off? Keep up the good work.

I agree, Mallorca is more than beaches and nightlife. We spent a week in Palma (old town) this April and made daytrips to Valldemosa, Sóller (with the old train, and walked to Port de Sóller), Port d'Andratx, etc. But Palma old town was nice, too.

Been there a few times, last one a couple years ago. One of my most favorite places. Soller especially, what a sharming place!

http://ukka.co/Sóller--Balearic-Isla...Spain--ES.html

Thank you for the responses. :-)

Stevelyon – I stayed in Palma Nova, I’m really disappointed I didn’t get to see Palma itself, the old town looks lovely from the pictures I’ve seen! I set up the travel blog using a free program (Blogger), it was a lot easier than I thought (for someone like me who is rubbish with computers!). I have always loved travel and seeing different places, ever since I was young. And the blog allows me to talk about travelling with other people who share the same interest.

Robincal – This particular trip to Mallorca was a research trip, I was studying in the mountains so the university funded the travel cost and accommodation. I was very lucky! But for the other trips, I keep the costs very low – I’ll always use budget airlines (so I’d never pay more than £40 for short flights around Europe) and I stay in cheap hostel accommodation (I’d never pay more than £10-£12 a night). The trick is to dedicate hours and hours searching budget airline websites, and visit places when they have the best deals! It can be a bit tedious, but is definitely worth it – there are some excellent deals out there!

MyriamC and Alex_Sha – I agree, I absolutely loved Soller!!

Thanks elisgriffiths
Has your hours of research enabled you to learn a few simple tips you could share - or are you keeping them top secret? I'm hoping to do Malaga for new year ... my friends have paid a fortune for flights but think I'm mad to hang off booking.

We have racked up about 20 trips to Mallorca and are about to buy a house in Pollensa.

Actually, I would say the opposite as the image of drunken clubbers is very dated. Most of them have moved to Ibiza or the Greek islands, Mallorca is up market with some of the expensive property in Southern Europe and vary developed cultural scene.

The Mallorquins be always had wealth through farming and trade but that wealth has increased since the 1950s through tourism. The classic music, arts and food scene matches anywhere in Europe.

There is a great Finca hotel market offering accommodation in country mansions with high end rooms and great food.

One of life's great little train journeys is the old train from Palma to Pollensa. We too love Soller, its much greener but this is a function of the fact that the weather isn't as good as other parts of the island.

Steve : Malaga is a beautiful "local" city which is often by passed. Well worth a visit, great food scene.

Thanks BritishCaicos. I am a regular visitor to Malaga, indeed, I try and persuade people not to bypass there for the usual suspects: Seville and Granada. I'm trying to find space for a holiday back in Majorca and have my eyes on the area around Pollensa (you would obviously recommend it) - although bilboburgler has done a good job of attracting me to the Southeast of Majorca.... life's too short....

Steve, I really don't think you can go wrong if you avoid Palma Nova, Magaluf and Arenel.

They constitute around 2% of the island. The rest has so much to offer.

We actually prefer the SE but for property ownership it is more like Hamburg while Pollensa is simply Wilmslow in the sun!

Thanks BritishCaicos
I get confused when it comes to choosing a destination in the south east: Cala D'Or (?too busy); Porto Petro sounds pretty; Colonia de Sant Jordi with its miles of beach -Es Trenc? Too much choice.

I love Colonia but we have never stayed there, always visited.

It's very Spanish and a big destination for the money classes of Palma. In summer there are some great casual restaurants which offer incredible fish lunches along the beach front. Full of Spanish families eating mountains of seafood.

Es Trenc beach is famous but we love the beaches to the south of Colonia. The March banking family own the southern sector of the island from Colonia over to Cala Santanyi and up to Llombards. It is a huge area but thankfully they can't own the beaches. It's possible to walk for 15 miles down to the Cap Salinas.

How much do you want to pay?

Hotel or villa?

Steve, we stayed for 2 weeks in Pollensa and never ran out of things to do.

one thing to look out for is how easy it is to get to other places - I seem to remember that some of the most beautiful had only one way in or out, and that long and windy.

one great day I remember [and this must have been nearly 20 years ago] was a trip up into the mountains to visit a monastery - and we had a great lunch in the restaurant afterwards. I recall it particularly as there were people at a neighbouring table who were dismayed to see that for their Sunday lunch they had ordered fried eggs.

Thanks annhig and BritishCaicos
At my age I am more concerned with making the best choices than cutting back on price but then again my frugal roots wont allow me to be too generous to myself.

I have had my eye on a hotel that came as highly rated in the Sunday Times: Hotel Illa D’or, Pollensa, but will keep on looking for the right spot in South East (or confine myself to a day trip there to "recky" the joint, first).

We stayed in a largish hotel at Porto Pollensa very close to the beach because we were on a "package" which came with transfers to the hotel, nightly entertainment [taught me that Scrabble in german can be fun!] and surprisingly good dinners. [my excuse is that we had small children so packages were an easy option]. I've looked for it on google maps and can't find it, so i can't steer you in that direction even if I wanted to.

Nowadays we go for more comfort too - so your Illa D'Or looks good, if this is it:

http://www.hotelillador.com/en/

Thanks annhig - yes that's the one.

Hi all,

Last May I stayed with my family for one week in Felanitx (southeast Majorca). At this time we decided to go away from hotel packages and we picked a villa called Puig Pelat on Felanitx outskirts. We really enjoyed its private pool for our children, its Majorcan decoration and its amazing views as well. We did also enjoy going to es Calo des Moro, Cala d’Or and few other wonderful calas less than 20 minutes far from our villa.


https://www.yupihome.com/en/villa-in...uig-pelat.html