12 Top Places to Visit in Mallorca, Spain

Palma's Old Town (Casc Antic) wraps around La Seu in a maze of Arab-era alleys, Renaissance courtyards, and Modernista facades. Walk from the cathedral up Carrer del Palau Reial to the Almudaina Royal Palace - originally a Moorish fortress, now a working royal residence and museum. From there cut through the Jewish quarter (Sa Calatrava) and Placa Sant Francesc with its 13th-century Gothic basilica.

The heart of the area is Placa Major, a clean Neoclassical square ringed by cafes. Carrer Sant Miquel runs north and is the best street for ensaimada bakeries (Forn des Teatre and Ca'n Joan de S'Aigo are the institutions), while Passeig del Born has the higher-end shopping. Don't skip the Banys Arabs, an intact 10th-century Arab bathhouse on Carrer Can Serra, and the Mercat de l'Olivar food market for tapas at lunch.

Bellver Castle is one of only four circular medieval castles in Europe and the most distinctive piece of architecture in Palma after the cathedral. Completed in 1311 for King Jaume II of Mallorca, it sits 112 metres above sea level on a wooded hill and has served as a royal summer residence, a prison (the writer Jovellanos was held here from 1802 to 1808), and a mint.

The castle's circular plan with four towers and a deep moat is unusual for medieval Spain - the design borrowed from earlier French and Crusader fortresses. Inside, the two-storey courtyard with Gothic arches is the photographic highlight. The City History Museum on the ground floor covers Palma from Talayotic times to the 19th century, but the real draw is the 360-degree view from the rooftop terrace: Palma bay, the Cathedral, the Tramuntana foothills, and on clear days the cruise terminal.

The Serra de Tramuntana runs 90 km along Mallorca's northwest spine and was inscribed as a UNESCO World Heritage cultural landscape in 2011. The range tops out at Puig Major (1,445 m) and shelters terraced olive groves, dry-stone walls, and the stone villages that define inland Mallorca: Banyalbufar, Estellencs, Deia, Valldemossa, Soller, Fornalutx, and Pollenca.

The scenic MA-10 road links most of these settlements and is one of Europe's great driving routes. Time-pressed visitors can sample it in a half-day loop from Palma de Mallorca: Valldemossa for the Carthusian monastery, lunch in Deia overlooking the sea, then Soller via the hairpin descent. Hikers walk sections of the GR221 long-distance trail (the 'Dry Stone Route'), which runs the full length of the range over 8 stages. The 5-km circuit from Cuber Reservoir to Tossals Verds is a manageable taster with no scrambling.

Valldemossa sits 400 metres up in the Tramuntana foothills and is the most visited mountain village on the island, packing 2,000 residents into a tight grid of green-shuttered stone houses. The pull is the Real Cartuja - a former Carthusian monastery converted into private cells in the 1830s, where Frederic Chopin and the writer George Sand spent the winter of 1838-1839 trying (and largely failing) to keep warm.

Chopin wrote 24 Preludes here, and his original Pleyel piano, manuscripts, and the cell decoration are preserved in cells 2 and 4 of the monastery. The complex also includes a Baroque pharmacy, the prior's library, and a small museum of contemporary art. After the Cartuja, walk the Costa de la Cartuja and stop at the bakery on Carrer de la Rosa for a coca de patata, the village's signature potato bun. The neighbouring Palau del Rei Sanxo hosts daily piano recitals (10:30, 11:30, 12:30) included in the monastery ticket.

The Ferrocarril de Soller has run wooden carriages between Palma de Mallorca and Soller since 1912, climbing 199 metres through orange groves and 13 hand-cut tunnels in the Tramuntana foothills. The 27-km journey takes 60 minutes and ends at Soller's Placa d'Espanya station, where a 1913 wooden tram continues to the Port de Soller beachfront in another 25 minutes - both run on the original tracks and infrastructure.

Soller itself is a sandstone town set in a valley of orange and lemon orchards. The Modernista facade of the parish church on Placa Constitucio (designed by a Gaudi pupil) is the photographic centrepiece, and the Botanical Garden on Carretera Palma-Port de Soller has a strong Mediterranean plant collection. Most visitors do the train down, eat in Soller (the Placa cafes serve fresh-pressed local orange juice), then ride the tram to Port de Soller for a swim before the return train.

Sa Calobra is a horseshoe-shaped cove at the foot of the Tramuntana range, accessed either by the famous MA-2141 mountain road (the 'Snake Road') or by ferry from Port de Soller. The road plunges 800 metres in 13 km, including the 270-degree spiral known as the Nus de Sa Corbata ('Tie Knot') - on its own one of the great drives in Europe.

The village itself is small but the real reason to come is the Torrent de Pareis - a deep limestone gorge that meets the sea at the second cove, reached on foot through two short tunnels. Walls rise 200 metres on either side of a stony riverbed, and in summer the dry watercourse turns into a natural amphitheatre that hosts an annual classical concert in early July. Strong walkers can hike the gorge from Escorca down to Sa Calobra (5-6 hours, technical scrambling, only safe between June and October).

Cap de Formentor is the long, narrow peninsula that forms Mallorca's most northerly point - 14 km of sheer cliffs, pine forest, and turquoise coves. The MA-2210 road runs the spine of the cape, ending at the Far de Formentor (Formentor Lighthouse), in service since 1863 and perched 210 metres above the Mediterranean.

Two viewpoints justify a stop on the way out. The Mirador des Colomer looks over a 200-metre rock pillar where peregrine falcons nest. Cala Figuera can be glimpsed from a smaller pull-out further along, and the sandy Platja de Formentor is the only beach on the cape - white sand, calm water, no road noise. From mid-June to mid-September the cape road is closed to private cars from 10:00 to 19:00 to control traffic; visitors take the shuttle bus from Port de Pollenca (returns every 30 min).

The Drach Caves, also written Coves del Drac ('Caves of the Dragon'), run 1.2 km under the east-coast town of Porto Cristo and contain one of the largest underground lakes in the world. Speleologist Edouard-Alfred Martel mapped the system for the Archduke Ludwig Salvator in 1896, naming the central body of water Lake Martel - 177 metres long, 30 metres wide, and up to 12 metres deep.

The standard one-hour visit follows a lit walkway past stalactite chambers (Black Cave, White Cave, Cave of Luis Salvator) and ends in a 1,000-seat auditorium overlooking Lake Martel. Lights dim, four classical musicians glide across the lake in illuminated boats, and play a short Bach-Chopin programme on the water - cheesy on paper, oddly moving in person. After the concert visitors can take an optional rowboat across the lake to the exit. The Hams Caves nearby and the Arta Caves further north use similar formations but skip the concert.

Cala Mondrago is the photogenic centrepiece of the Parc Natural de Mondrago, a 785-hectare protected coastal reserve declared in 1992 to halt the resort development that consumed much of Mallorca's south coast. The bay actually consists of two adjacent coves separated by a low headland: S'Amarador (the larger, more open beach) and Cala Mondrago itself (smaller, with two simple beach restaurants).

Water is genuinely turquoise here - shallow over white sand, sheltered from north winds by limestone cliffs - and the sand is fine enough for children. Behind the beach a network of marked paths runs through pine and juniper to the next cove, Calo d'en Garrot, in 15 minutes. There are no high-rise hotels, no nightclubs, just two car parks (around 3 EUR per day, fill by 11 am in July-August) and a wooden boardwalk between the two beaches.

Pollenca is two places. The inland old town (population 16,000) sits 6 km from the coast at the foot of the Tramuntana - sandstone houses, a Sunday morning market on Placa Major (one of the largest on the island), and the famous Calvari steps, a stone staircase of exactly 365 cypress-flanked steps climbing to a small chapel with a 14th-century crucifix. The view from the top covers the Bay of Pollenca and the Tramuntana ridge.

Port de Pollenca, 6 km away on the coast, is the calmer family side of the town. The bay is shallow and sheltered, the Pine Walk (Passeig Anglada Camarasa) runs 1.5 km along the water past low pine trees and 1920s villas, and the small fishing harbour still operates. Both halves of Pollenca are connected by a regular shuttle bus, and Port de Pollenca is also the road head for the Cap de Formentor shuttle in summer.

Alcudia is the only Mallorcan town with intact medieval walls - a 1.5-km circuit of sandstone built between 1298 and 1660, with 26 towers and two original gates. Walk the wall on the Cami de Ronda walkway (free, accessible from the Porta del Moll) and circle the entire old town in 30 minutes, dropping down at the Porta de Sant Sebastia for the Tuesday and Sunday morning markets that fill the streets with stalls.

The town's older history sits 500 metres south at Pollentia, the Roman provincial capital founded in 123 BCE. The site preserves a forum, two domestic insulae, and a small Roman theatre carved into bedrock, all explained by the on-site Museu Monografic de Pollentia. From the old town a flat 2-km walk leads down to Platja d'Alcudia, one of the longest sandy beaches on the island and the main reason families base themselves here.