Planning trip to Mallorca - help with basics of traveling!
 

My fiancé and I are planning to honeymoon in Mallorca in late June 2014 (though we're considering pushing it back to the fall). This will be our first time really traveling on our own and would love any advice on how to get started. For example...

- what is the easiest/cheapest way to travel there from East Coast, USA?
We've heard and read about everything from flying into London and taking a train/boat to get there, to just flying straight onto the island.

- Should we book our car rental before traveling there? How far in advance? (We hope to visit a few different sites on the island over the course of 14 days)

- is it feasible to do a nice, 10-14 day trip there for around $10K (including transportation to and from)?

- do you need to book a place to stay for every night in advance, or is it feasible to book our first few nights, then drive around the day of and find places to stay when we find towns that we want to stay in for the night?

Lastly, any other favorite spots/hotels/restaurants or words of advice would be appreciated! We're hoping for a relaxing honeymoon, with good beaches/pools but access to nice trails, cute towns, and good food. We're not so much into museums/shopping. We don't need places with spas and fancy amenities, other than a nice pool and nice rooms.

Unless you are touring London, one would probably fly into whatever country gave you the best rate.. with an ongoing flight directly to Palma.
Or you could fly into Barcelona and THEN take a boat or flight after touring a few days if you would like to see that city.

Palma is one of the busiest airports in Europe so you will have non stop flights form every capital across Europe. You may want to make a stopover going or coming at that transfer airport to add something to your honeymoon.

For a trip that long you may want to spend time in two parts of the island as it is very large. You will need a car. You can book with many companies and NOT use a credit card yet but secure a rental.

Maybe this will help.

http://www.secretplaces.com/hotels/spain/majorca/

a friend always stays here

http://www.hotelsispins.com/?lang=en_us

The end of June is the start of the really busy summer season on the island, so booking ahead both for cars and accommodation is recommended.

As mentioned, the quickest way is to fly straight into Palma airport. Trains from London would add a day wasted travelling across France etc. where the flight from London is only a couple of hours tops.

The large well known car hire companies will be more expensive than island based firms, but www.doyouspain.com is a broker who offers usually cheaper deals. Be wary however, as they only offer a full to empty fuel policy and ther rtaes take this into account. If you're keeping the car for the full two weeks, you'll be OK. Just take nit back empty.

As far as your $10K goes, as I'm in the UK so not sure about about the cost of the transatlantic flight, but assuming you stay in a reasonable hotel, then you should get away with food and room for around €250 per day. The rest is up to you for entrance fees to attractions, drinks etc.

The best place I've found to stay on the island is in Pollenca. it's up to the North, 5K inland, but is a lovely little town with good restaurants and hotels. I can recommend the Hotel Son Sant Jordi, having stayed there several times. It offers inclusive breakfast, nice rooms and a small pool in the garden.

http://www.hotelsonsantjordi.com/

Where from in The States?

I am not sure how much you know about European air routes but around 15 years ago our market was turned upside down by low cost operators. It is very easy to book well in advance and take fares of well under $100 return from Northern Europe to Mallorca.

Mallorca is a huge tourists destination but it is a pretty big island. It copes with and offers travel from the lowest of the low end to multi billionaires. Just be careful with planning and book well in advance, there are many average chain hotels which will have availability up to the last minute but the mid / high end hotels get booked up and late June is approaching high season.

I only ask about where in the US as Barcelona is well served and it would be fairly easy to fly from the US to London/Palma/Barcelona/US.

I haven't time to add more but will later. This is a good start

http://www.theothermallorca.com/

A really helpful booking agency, which cover most of the main mid/high end places.

Your budget should easily cover the trip, most mid range hotels come in at €200 a night tops and your airfare should be no more than $1200 at that time of year.

Please don't ask about the weather, as after 18 trips to Mallorca I have seen everything at anytime but generally late June should be lovely with daytime highs of 25oC. The south enjoys more settled weather than the north.

I just noticed your comment about the fall. We have had rain, rain, rain in October : it can be a wet period. It may be worth considering Malaga or Sicily.

Thanks for the info! The secretplaces and othermallorca sites are both very helpful! I think we'll be booking our flight and car rental soon. I'm just now trying to narrow down the locations.

I'm thinking about doing 2 days in Palma, 2 in Soller, 3 in Pollenca, and 3 in Arta. I'm a little bit hesitant at moving around so much, but I want to get a chance to see a lot of different places. Does that sound like a reasonable itinerary? Is there one city that warrants more or less time? Or a region that I'm missing out on and should try to visit instead?

Lastly, Dickie_Gr, I'm flying out of Pittsburgh and back into Philadelphia. I know nothing about European air routes, thus so far I've just been monitoring flights from PIT to PMI then returning to PHL on Kayak.com. So if there are better ways to track flights and get better prices I'm all up for recommendations!

Thanks everyone!

Too much moving around for such a short trip! As far as waiting until the fall, September is still considered hight season at destinations like Mallorca The prices tend to drop towards the end of the month, beginning of October, but the weather will still be great.

As an alternative to Mallorca, you might want to consider a private Andalucian hideaway for your honeymoon, El Carligto (www.carligto.es) in June or September. It's on the Condé Nasts Traveler's Gold List for 2012, 2013 and 2014.

Agree too much moving around. If you are flying directly into Palma from overseas with connections I'd stay 3 nights at first destination. A lovely estate home hotel would be special for you. ( IMO) Two destinations max. day trip s with the car will be nice. but packing and unpacking is a waste of time and energy.

Don't miss marc fosh restaurants. we found their lunch menu excellent price/quality.

http://www.marcfosh.com/index.php/en/

The island is not very big, I took a bicycling holiday there once and did the plan as you propose but with a car it does not make complete sense. I'd base in the centre and take day trips out

Oh and it has number of monesteries you can stay in, one or two with great food

You really don't need to stay in different locations as the island is not that big. Driving from Palma to the north coast at Puerto Pollenca would take less than an hour.

You would see all the other towns on the island by doing day trips out from your base and you may well get a better deal on your hotel with a longer stay. Certainly Jaime at the Son Sant Jordi in Pollenca is usually up for a "deal".

......and the road system is getting more developed. As has been posted above, moving around would be not be necessary in view of the size of the island. All areas are doable for day trips.

If I were honeymooning I would consider

https://www.caprocat.com/m/

It would place a pressure on the rest of your budget but should be memorable, Palma is then still fails close. Try to make the trip on the old train to Soller.

http://www.trendesoller.com/en/cms.php

Beautiful views of the countryside, then have lunch at the world famous

http://www.hotel-laresidencia.com/we...residencia.jsp

I don't think their budget (about €500/day after paying airfare) would cover spending more than one night at Cap Rocat (€625/night, without breakfast). It's our favorite destination on Palma but on the pricey side unless you can get a good discount.

A standard room at the Palacio Casa Galesa in Palma is going for €325/night in mid-June, again, without breakfast. They can check Secret Places for some additional options on the island.

http://www.secretplaces.com/hotels/spain/majorca/

In October when I looked for next summer the basic rooms were e350, I was going suggest 3 nights there after travelling then move north.

El Carligto looks interesting but it shold for that price, it doesn't leave anything for the airfare.

We stayed here, isolated, very quiet and not Mallorca but pretty much like a film set.

https://www.vintagetravel.co.uk/vill...s.cfm?p_id=160

On Mallorca we also liked

http://www.monnaber.com/luxury-bouti...orca/hotel.htm

saving