Things to do in Mallorca

Mallorca is the largest Balearic island, 3,640 square kilometres and about 100 kilometres across. Palma holds nearly half of its residents. Things to do in Mallorca split between sea and mountain.

How the island is laid out

• Palma and the bay. The capital, the main port and the airport all sit on the south-west bay.
• The Tramuntana. A mountain wall along the north-west coast, rising above 1,400 metres. Valldemossa, Deià and Sóller lie within it, and the GR 221 footpath crosses it from Port d'Andratx to Pollença.
• The north. Two bays, Pollença and Alcúdia, and the Formentor headland, the northern tip, with a lighthouse opened in 1863. Alcúdia is 55 kilometres from Palma.
• The middle and east. Es Pla, a flat farming plain, then Manacor and the caves of Porto Cristo.
• The south and south-east. Es Trenc, a protected stretch of dunes and salt flats, and small coves such as Caló des Moro near Santanyí.

UNESCO lists the Tramuntana as a cultural landscape. Centuries of terraces, water channels and dry-stone walls earned it that status in 2011.

What a day here is made of

A day rarely covers both sea and mountain. Pick one and let the other wait.

• On the water. Day boats work the bays of Palma and Alcúdia.
• In the mountains. Valldemossa, where Chopin and George Sand spent the winter of 1838 to 1839, and Sa Calobra, at the end of a road with a 270-degree loop that opened in 1933.
• In the air. Helicopters fly from Son Bonet, in Marratxí, and balloons rise over the plain near Manacor.
• Wine. Binissalem, in the middle of the island, holds the first wine denomination of the Balearics.

Practical

• Weather. Coastal afternoons reach about 23C in May, 27C in June and 24C in October. The sea passes 22C from June to October, and rain peaks from September to November.
• Mountains. The Tramuntana is cooler and takes over 1,000 millimetres of rain a year, against under 500 in Palma.
• Getting around. The island's TIB buses run to Valldemossa, Sóller and Port de Pollença. A wooden train of 1912 takes an hour from Palma to Sóller, where a tram of 1913 runs down to the port.
• Coves. The small ones, such as Caló des Moro, are reached on foot and fill early in summer.
• Wind. A strong wind cancels boat days, so keep a spare day.