Palma De Mallorca: The Paradise You Didn’t Know About
A tour of epic vistas
Because Palma de Mallorca was the cheapest place to fly to from Munich we chose to visit this beautiful Mediterranean island off the south coast of Spain. We use Google Flights to find and book our flights; when we shopped around for a place to go to after Munich, Palma de Mallorca was the best deal—70 Euros for both of us, including a checked bag.
Originally we were planned on spending some rest days in the main city, but then we found out that the island has so much more to offer based on some research so we decided to rent a car. Although the island is small enough to cross in two hours or so, there’s a severe lack of public transportation so a car is essential for getting to all of the best places.
It seems like most of the island is made up of stone buildings, stone walls, and stone terraces. These walls look like they could be hundreds of years old.
We took a detour down a side street to a little town at the head of a small bay. It wasn’t where we wanted to go, but it ended up being a good place for a picnic lunch. There are a lot of shallow bays scattered around the island that are popular for swimming. This one was fairly rocky, but the water was an elegant turquoise blue that made us wish we’d brought snorkels.
The roads on the island can be stressful to drive, especially when they narrow to barely the width of two passing cars. Fast drivers who take up the road, along with what seems like a cyclist around every corner, can make the trip tiring — so we made sure to stop frequently.
We looked for a specific road that I found during my research. It winds down the mountain to a small port and even has a loop in it. We decided the road was too stressful to drive, so we only stopped at the viewpoint for some epic photos.
On another day, we went out to a more secluded beach. The water was pristine and again we wished that we had snorkels.
There was a kilometer-long walk along a rocky section of the coast to the sandy beach. It turned out that it was a nude beach but that didn’t phase us, and we had a good cool down in the water. Though it wasn’t as pretty as another beach we went to visit later for a photo, it was less crowded, which was nice.
By far the most impressive view on the island was at the north tip. It was also the busiest with tourists but they tend to arrive in waves. In between a wave, we were able to get our photos. Most tourists seem to be German or Spanish. We were surprised that there weren’t a lot of English speaking tourists because it seems like Mallorca is quite well known in Europe as a vacation destination. Also missing were Asians; we only saw a handful during our trip.
The coast is quite dramatic here with steep cliffs, sweeping views, and deep blue hues to match Yuki’s dress.
Most people continue down the road to the end (where there is a lighthouse) but we choose to go up the mountain instead. There’s an old watchtower at the highest point and fewer tourists go up there, so it made for better views. Had we gone out to the furthest point, the dramatic land would be behind us and there wouldn’t be as much to photograph. Up high, we could see the scale of the landscape in all its glory.
If you visit Mallorca, avoid the summer. The fall and spring are still great times to visit — we had 30 degree weather mid September and it was still occupied by a fair number of tourists. If our road trip was any indication, the roads will have plenty of cars and parking would be hard to come by.
