Mallorca: what to see, where to stay and how to get around
Behind its golden cathedral on the sea wall, Palma keeps a Moorish palace, a Gothic exchange, Arab baths, and in a few narrow lanes the memory of a Jewish community whose descendants were set apart for five hundred years. Two hours, flat, through the old town.
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A short history of Mallorca
Ancient stone towers from the Talayotic period, of the first millennium BC, are scattered across the island of Mallorca. In 123 BC the Romans conquered it, and at the beginning of the 10th century it passed to the Muslims. In 1229 King James I of Aragon conquered it, and in Palma work began on the cathedral by the sea. The island's Jews were forced to convert at the end of the 14th century and in the 15th century, and their descendants, the Xuetes, suffered discrimination for centuries. In the winter of 1838–1839 Frédéric Chopin and George Sand lived in the monastery at Valldemossa. From the 1950s the island became a mass tourism destination.
The ten best sights in Mallorca
1La SeuPalma’s Gothic cathedral on the sea wall, with a Gaudí canopy inside
2Almudaina PalaceThe Moorish fortress that became the royal palace
3Carrer del CallThe lane of the medieval Jewish quarter of Palma
4Arab BathsA domed bath of the tenth century in a garden
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5Sa Llotja
The Gothic merchants’ exchange on the old harbour
6Passeig del BornThe shaded main promenade, once a jousting ground
7Bellver CastleA round castle on a pine hill over the bay
8Miró FoundationJoan Miró’s studio, left as it was when he died in 1983
9Valldemossa CharterhouseThe monastery where Chopin and George Sand spent a wet winter
10DeiàA stone village on the mountain where the poet Robert Graves lived
Scan with your phone camera to open the map there
What is an audio walk?
Tours in Mallorca →A guide in your headphones: open the walk on our site, walk from stop to stop, and at each one your phone tells its story. No guide, no group, and free. This is the first walk in Mallorca:
Free walking tours in Mallorca
Palma behind the cathedral
Behind its golden cathedral on the sea wall, Palma keeps a Moorish palace, a Gothic exchange, Arab baths, and in a few narrow lanes the memory of a Jewish community whose descendants were set apart for five hundred years. Two hours, flat, through the old town.
- La Seu · Begun after the Christian conquest of 1229 on the site of the great mosque, and built for three hundred years, right on the sea wall so that it rises out of the water seen from a ship. In 1904 Gaudí was brought in to reorder the inside and hung a strange crown-like canopy over the altar; in 2007 the painter Miquel Barceló covered a side chapel in ceramic fish and loaves.
- Almudaina Palace · The fortress of the Moorish governors, rebuilt by the Christian kings of Mallorca as their palace. It is still an official residence of the Spanish king, used for receptions, and its Gothic halls and chapel are open.
- Carrer del Call · The Call was the Jewish quarter of Palma, and its great cartographer, Cresques Abraham, drew the Catalan Atlas here in 1375 — one of the most important maps of the Middle Ages, now in Paris. The quarter was attacked in 1391, and in 1435 the last Jews of Mallorca were forced to convert; the Jesuit church of Montesión nearby stands on the site of the main synagogue.
- Arab Baths · One small domed room on columns that do not match — taken from older buildings — is all that is left of the Moorish city of Madina Mayurqa above ground. It stands in the garden of a palace, and it is the oldest building in Palma.
- Sa Llotja · The merchants’ exchange built in the fifteenth century, when Palma traded across the Mediterranean, by the architect Guillem Sagrera: a single hall whose vaults rest on twisted columns like palm trunks. It is used now for exhibitions.
- Bellver Castle · Built around 1300 for the kings of Mallorca, and one of the very few completely round castles in Europe: a circular courtyard ringed by two storeys of arches, with a tower joined by a bridge. It served for centuries as a prison, and from the roof the whole bay of Palma opens below.
The mountains of the north-west
The Serra de Tramuntana runs the length of the north-west coast, a world heritage landscape of limestone peaks, terraced olive groves and stone villages, and it drew the artists of Europe: Chopin, the poet Robert Graves, an Austrian archduke. A full day; the wooden train to Sóller is the way to begin.
- Sóller Train · Opened in 1912 and paid for by the orange growers of Sóller, who had been cut off from Palma by the mountains and sent their fruit to France by sea. The wooden carriages still run, through thirteen tunnels and over a viaduct, in about an hour.
- Sóller · A town in a bowl of orange and lemon groves, so tied to France by the fruit trade that it once had a French consulate and its wealthy built modernist houses in the style of the time. A wooden tram, running since 1913, takes you on down to the port.
- Deià · The English poet Robert Graves settled in this village of stone in 1929, wrote I, Claudius here, and drew painters and musicians after him for half a century. He is buried in the little cemetery behind the church at the top of the village, under a plain stone.
- Son Marroig · The Austrian archduke Ludwig Salvator fell in love with this coast in the 1860s and bought a long stretch of it to protect it, writing a seven-volume study of the Balearics. From the marble temple in his garden you look down on Sa Foradada, a rock headland pierced by a great hole.
- Valldemossa Charterhouse · Chopin came here with the writer George Sand in the winter of 1838, hoping the sun would cure his lungs. It rained for weeks, the locals shunned the unmarried couple, his piano was held up at customs — and he finished his Preludes in a monk’s cell. Sand wrote an angry book about the winter afterwards.
- Sa Calobra · A road built in 1932 that winds down twelve kilometres of hairpins to the sea, including a bend where it loops over itself. At the bottom a path leads through tunnels in the rock to the mouth of the Torrent de Pareis, a gorge that ends on a beach of white pebbles between cliffs.
Converts and coves
The story of the Jews of Mallorca did not end in 1435: their converted descendants, the Xuetes, were barred from guilds, churches and marriages for centuries, and some kept their faith in secret until the Inquisition burned them. This route begins with that story in Palma and then crosses the island to the sanctuary of its great philosopher and the coves of the south. A full day and a car.
- Carrer del Call · In 1691 the Inquisition held public burnings in Palma in which thirty-seven descendants of converts were put to death, three of them burned alive for refusing to repent, among them Rafael Valls. For three centuries after, the families with fifteen surnames were called Xuetes and kept apart, and they lived around the silversmiths’ street here. In 2011 a leading Israeli rabbinical court ruled that they could be recognised as Jews.
- Santuari de Cura · On the flat top of Puig de Randa the philosopher Ramon Llull, born in Palma in 1232, withdrew as a hermit and conceived his great work. He learned Arabic to argue with Muslim scholars and wrote in Catalan, Latin and Arabic; the monastery on the summit looks over the whole island.
- Caves of Drach · Explored in 1896 by the French caver Édouard-Alfred Martel, who found here one of the largest underground lakes in the world, now named after him. Each tour ends in the dark by the lake, where musicians play classical music from lit boats gliding across the water.
- Cala Mondragó · Two sandy coves inside a natural park of pine and juniper, protected from building in the 1990s after local campaigns. The water is shallow and clear, and a coastal path continues south along the cliffs to quieter coves.
- Caló des Moro · A cove the width of a few towels between two cliffs, with water so turquoise it became the most photographed beach on the island. By ten in the morning it is full; the rule is first light, or not at all.
- Es Trenc · The longest undeveloped beach on the island, kilometres of white sand and dunes with salt pans behind them. The salt of Es Trenc, harvested by hand, is sold as flor de sal across the island.
Getting to Mallorca and getting around
- Palma Airport · Fifteen minutes from the city by bus
- Sóller Train · A wooden train of 1912 over the mountains to Sóller, from Plaça d’Espanya
Cheap eats in Mallorca
Mallorca’s breakfast is an ensaïmada, a spiral of light pastry made with lard and dusted with sugar, eaten with hot chocolate. At noon it is pa amb oli — bread rubbed with tomato and oil, topped with ham or cheese — and sobrassada, the soft red pork sausage spread on bread. A few euro at any bar; the ensaïmadas travel home in octagonal boxes.
- Carrer del Call · Hot chocolate and ensaïmada in the old cafés
- Mercat de l’Olivar · Sobrassada, cheese and tapas counters inside the market
- Sóller · Orange juice and orange ice cream on the square
- Es Trenc · Flor de sal from the salt pans behind the beach
- Santanyí · The village market of produce and cheese
- Passeig del Born · Pa amb oli at the terraces of the promenade
Museums in Mallorca
Mallorca’s museums are the houses of the artists who chose the island: Miró’s studio, Graves’s house, the cell where Chopin wrote. In Palma itself the cathedral, a Moorish palace and a Gothic exchange are the history.
- Miró Foundation · The studio as Miró left it
- Valldemossa Charterhouse · Chopin’s cell and his Mallorcan piano
- Ca n’Alluny · Robert Graves’s house and garden
- La Seu · Gaudí’s canopy and Barceló’s ceramic chapel
- Almudaina Palace · A Moorish fortress turned royal palace
- Pollentia · The Roman town and its museum in Alcúdia
Nature and day trips near Mallorca
The island has two faces: the Tramuntana mountains along the north-west, limestone peaks over a cliff coast, and the flat south and east of almond groves and coves of white sand. In February the almond blossom turns the plain white.
- Sa Calobra · The gorge mouth and the hairpin road
- Cap de Formentor · Cliffs and the lighthouse at the end of the island
- Caló des Moro · A turquoise cove; first light only
- Cala Mondragó · Coves and a coastal path in a natural park
- Sa Dragonera · An island reserve of lizards and seabirds
- Son Marroig · The pierced rock of Sa Foradada at sunset
Things to do in Mallorca with kids
A wooden train through the mountains, a round castle, an underground lake with music played from boats, and shallow sandy beaches: Mallorca is made for families. The north and east coast beaches are the gentlest for small children.
- Sóller Train · The wooden train and the old tram after it
- Caves of Drach · Music on the underground lake
- Bellver Castle · A round castle in a pine wood
- Alcúdia · Walk on the town walls; a long shallow beach nearby
- Cala Mondragó · Sheltered coves with shallow water
- Capdepera Castle · Castle walls to walk round
Holy places in Mallorca
Mallorca’s faith has many layers: the cathedral built on the mosque, the mountain sanctuary of its Black Madonna, the hermitage of its great philosopher — and the long, hidden story of the Jews who were made Christians and never allowed to forget it.
- Carrer del Call · The quarter of the Call and the Xuetes
- La Seu · The cathedral on the sea wall
- Lluc Monastery · The Black Madonna and the Blauets choir
- Santuari de Cura · The hermitage of Ramon Llull
- Pollença · 365 steps to the chapel on the Calvary
Nightlife in Mallorca
Palma is the island’s night: the bars of La Llotja and Santa Catalina, cocktails on the terraces over the harbour, and the cathedral lit on the sea wall. The big-club resorts are along the bay to the east, and the mountain villages are for quiet dinners.
- Sa Llotja · The bar lanes around the old exchange
- La Seu · The cathedral lit over the water at night
- Passeig del Born · The evening walk under the plane trees
- Port d’Andratx · Sunset drinks in the yacht harbour
- Deià · Dinner in the artists’ village
Frequently asked questions about Mallorca
What is there to see in Mallorca?
The top sights in Mallorca are La Seu, Almudaina Palace and Carrer del Call. The full list on this page has 10 sights, each with a photo and a short note.
How many days do you need in Mallorca?
Three to four days are enough to see the best of Mallorca without rushing, including at least one walking tour.
Is there a free walking tour in Mallorca?
Yes. sleepntrip has 3 free audio walks in Mallorca, with no guide and no group: your phone tells the story at every stop. The first one: Palma behind the cathedral.
How do you get to Mallorca and get around?
The main ways are Palma Airport and Sóller Train. Full details are in the transport section on this page.
Where to stay in Mallorca, and for how much?
sleepntrip shows only rooms in Mallorca that meet nine conditions: a good location, high guest scores, cleanliness, and a price of up to $80 a night for two. Pick your dates and see what is free.
Looking for a hotel in Mallorca for your dates?
Only rooms that meet nine conditions, up to $80 a night.