Islands of the Mediterranean: Mallorca

As a period of vacations is rapidly approaching and may be some of you had not yet decided where to spend a beach vacation this year. I will make post series about islands of the Mediterranean, a great region for spending "endless summer" holiday.
Will start with Mallorca, as well known as Majorca - the first island I have visited in this region. Mallorca is the largest of the Balearic Islands, located side by side with Menorca and Ibiza.

Will mention at the very beginning- when it comes to a beach vacation, I try to choose destinations where it's possible to see and explore something more than just lying on the beach and doing nothing all day long.

But anyway if it's a beach vacation, it is important to have your hotel near one of the best beaches, so I will start with a little guide to the Palma de Mallorca beaches.

Comparing to the other islands in the Mediterranean, Mallorca can be really proud about it's long sandy beaches. But to be completely sure you have chosen the right location, before you book your hotel, check the nearby beaches, one possible way is reading the hotel reviews on booking.com, but another more trustful way is to use google maps.

 

When you will be making your first steps out of Son Sant Joan Airport in Palma- the third largest airport in Spain after Madrid and Barcelona airports, you will have no doubts about why this town was called Palma, actually Palms are everywhere.
If you decided to stay in or near Palma - the capital and largest city of the autonomous community of the Balearic Islands in Spain, I can suggest you two areas for hotel searching. 

First area is Cala Major - the closest bay to the centre of Palma with a wonderful sandy beach protected on both sides by rocky outcrop. Here is the video from youtube. 

 

Cala Major area features shops, restaurants, cafes, a couple of discos and of course many hotels and apartments.

The Marivent Palace- summer residence of the King of Spain is located right near the Cala Major beach, so probably this as well indicates that it's one of the best areas to book a hotel in. Our hotel was located right opposite the palace so we had to share a beach with a King :) This of course is a joke, Marivent Palace features a private beach.

The second nice area for choosing your hotel in is Playa de Palma, situated some 10 km to the east from the Palma city centre. Playa de Palma has a long sandy beach featuring cafes, shops and restaurants.

I personally preferred Cala Major beach resort, but it's a matter of taste and depends on if you like to spend your vacation on a wide and crowded beach or on more private one.

Both areas are not within the walking distance of the Palma city centre, but it's completely not a problem.

Now some useful info about the public transport -  buses in Palma are running very frequently and are comfortable. Here is the information about the fares and one convenient tool "Moving around Palma" that will help you to plan your journey. If you like some exotics, have a ride on Metro Palma, yes may be it sound incredible, but they have Metro here. If you are planning to explore other towns of the island, check the timetable here.

After few relaxation days on the beach visit Palma city centre. Walking through the narrow streets of the old town head to The Royal Palace of La Almudaina- built as an Arabian Fort, it was claimed as official royal residence in the early 14th century is the most famous landmark of the town.

 

 

There is a nice park right near the Palace. Where you can hide from the sun and the heat in the middle of the day.

Then enjoy vibrant streets with a lot of shops and restaurants. Do some shopping and have a meal in one of the restaurants offering Spanish specialities like Paella, actually not specifically a Mallorcan dish but it's available in most of the restaurants.

Being an island, Mallorca is a paradise for seafood lovers, with a large variety of fresh "sea monsters". Most of the restaurants have English menus, so you will have an idea of what you order, and will not face problems like in the region of previous virtual tour. Lunches are usually served from 1 to 3 pm, and can be a good value when restaurants provide a set menu.

Palma old town is offering you many nice places to see, so you can easily spend a full day there. From my point of view Mallorca has one of the best combinations of historical old town and fantastic sandy beaches in this region, so you will not be bored with sunbathing.

Locals, probably, because of the heat, usually start their dinner quite late - at 8 or even 9 pm. But if you had lunch in the middle of the day, in the evening visit one of the tapas bars on the seaside, to taste Spanish home wine with local tapas- different combinations of meats and vegetables in sauces and enjoy the view and a fresh sea breeze.

 

On the next day I advise you to visit Palma Aquarium. Here you can find a detailed plan of the Aquarium. There you will see 24 aquariums dedicated to the flora and fauna of the Indian, Atlantic and Pacific oceans.

The Big Blue- the deepest shark tank in Europe, at 8.5 metres deep. If you are brave enough you can have a breathtaking dive. But staying  on the other side of the glass, is interesting as well. I have a  video with many sharks starring there, but unfortunately the size is too big to insert in to blogger.

The Jungle- a tropical rain forest of the Amazon basin. Palma Aquarium is located near the Playa de Palma beaches, so after exploring underwater world have a swim in the waves.

 

One more interesting place that for sure is worth visiting- Cuevas del Drach meaning dragon caves in English. Caves are located in Porto Cristo- little town with a very beautiful harbour located on the east cost of the island. To get there from Palma city centre take a regional bus from Palma coach station, the duration of the journey is about an hour.

Here is a guide how to find the caves from a bus stop in Porto Cristo. The entrance will cost you 14.50 EUR per adult, but it's worth every cent.

As it was not allowed to take pictures inside, I have only few and taken without a flash, but trust me- you will enjoy the caves. It's a good idea to take some jacket or sweater with you- it's not very hot inside. The caves extend to a depth of 25 m, reaching 2.4 km in length. But don't worry, you will not get lost in the labyrinths, because it's possible to enter the caves only with a guided tour.

After the exploration of the caves, you will participate in a very special and romantic performance, firstly you will be asked to have a sit in an improvised concert hall inside one of the caves near the underground lake Martel , and shortly the concert of the Classical music will start. It's really fantastic! 
After the concert you will be seated in a boat and will sail towards the next cave. It's very hard to describe the atmosphere with words, so better watch some videos.

Here is a video from youtube and one more.

After this wonderful beginning of the day head back to the Porto Cristo town centre and have lunch in on the harbour restaurants offering delicious fish. If you like to continue sunbathing you can do so on one of the nearby beaches.

And one remark specially for ladies, there are multiple shops offering fantastic real stone jewelry in Porto Cristo, so do not miss the opportunity to buy something that will in future remind you of your wonderful vacation.

If you are a "party animal" or agree to the statement "a little party never killed nobody" you can consider a ferry trip to Ibiza, the trip is 3 and a half hour long and will cost you from some 40 EUR one way, or even fly from Palma to Ibiza with Iberia starting from 38 EUR one way.

Not to get lost:
webcams
shopping guide
360 degree panorama
Palma de Mallorca map
map of the island
buses in Palma
buses for exploring the island

How to get there: there is a direct flight from Riga to Palma de Mallorca airport once a week on Sundays operated by AirBaltic, the prices are not very affordable now, but probably you can save when booking in advance. One more option is to fly to Palma from Kaunas International airport using direct Ryanair  flight, as you can see it looks much cheaper. One very convenient solution how you can reach Kaunas (and Vilnius airport as well ) is flybus, a minibus running from the centre of Riga for most of the flights from Kaunas and Vilnius airports. Have used this service many times, and everything was always excellent.
Of course, there are many other solutions for flights with one or multiple stops, but it depends on the dates or more precisely days of the week you want to travel. You can search for the solutions on  skyscanner, but remember that it does not include Ryanair flights.
But my advise will be- instead of having a connection flight with one or multiple stops, choose Kaunas airport direct fright, the airport is only 4 hours drive from Riga.

When to go: it mostly depends on your relationship with heat, and of course varies from year to year, but the end of July and first half of August usually is the hottest period

Some travel tips: take the right person(s) with you and you will for 100% enjoy your vacation here. Do not forget to use sunscreen, even when you're not sunbathing - the UV index here is very high. And try to plan your vacation in advance, because Mallorca is very popular destination and cheap flight tickets are selling rapidly as well as discounts in the hotels.

With this I finish the first chapter about the islands of Mediterranean.
Enjoy the summer!


Julija