EXPLORE MALLORCA
Mallorca, Between Mountains and Calas
The biggest of the Balearic Islands, Mallorca changes character with every stretch of shore. Palma’s Gothic cathedral looks out over the bay from the old city walls. In the north-west, the Serra de Tramuntana climbs straight out of the sea, with stone villages and olive terraces on its slopes. The east coast breaks into narrow calas of pale sand and clear water, and off the south lies Cabrera, a small archipelago kept as a national park. A yacht links the city, the mountains and the coves in short passages, so one week can hold a concert in a cave, a train ride over the mountains and a swim before breakfast.
One Island, Several Shores
ON MALLORCA, THE MOUNTAINS RUN ALL THE WAY DOWN TO THE SEA.
Mallorca covers about 3,600 square kilometres, which makes it the largest island in Spain as well as in the Balearics. Its shape is easy to read from the sea. The Serra de Tramuntana forms a limestone wall down the north-western side, peaking at Puig Major, 1,445 metres high; the lower hills of the Serra de Llevant run along the east; and between them lies the Pla, a farming plain of almond, carob and fig trees dotted with market towns.
People have fought over and settled the island for thousands of years. Prehistoric islanders raised the stone towers known as talaiots, the Romans conquered Mallorca in 123 BC, and Muslim rulers held it for more than three centuries, until James I of Aragon took the city of Madina Mayurqa on 31 December 1229. The independent Kingdom of Mallorca that followed, in the late 13th and early 14th centuries, left behind a royal palace, the round castle of Bellver and several of Palma’s Gothic churches.
The clarity of the water owes a great deal to Posidonia oceanica, a seagrass that grows only in the Mediterranean. Its meadows filter the sea, shelter young fish and help to hold the beaches in place, and Balearic law forbids anchoring on them. Your crew will put the anchor down only on sand, or pick up one of the seasonal buoys set out in the busier bays, and that rule quietly decides where each day ends.
Ashore, Mallorca keeps its own voice. Mallorquí, the island’s form of Catalan, is spoken alongside Spanish, every town holds festes for its patron saint, and weekly markets still sell local cheese, olives and sobrassada. The island has drawn artists for nearly two centuries: Chopin spent a winter in Valldemossa, Robert Graves settled in Deià, and Joan Miró painted in his studios above the Bay of Palma for the last decades of his life.
Six Shores of Mallorca
From the capital’s cathedral round the western cape and the northern bays to the calas of the east and the islands off the south, these six places set the course of a week on the water.
The South and the Cabrera Archipelago
Palma
Port d’Andratx, Sant Elm and Sa Dragonera
Valldemossa, Deià and Sóller
Pollença, Formentor and Alcúdia
The East-Coast Calas
The South and the Cabrera Archipelago
Palma
Port d’Andratx, Sant Elm and Sa Dragonera
What to Do Along the Way
Spend a Morning in Old Palma
Go early, before the heat, into the lanes behind the cathedral, where the doors of old town houses sometimes open onto stone courtyards with wide stairways. The Mercat de l’Olivar, the city’s main covered market, shows what the island eats, from sobrassada and local cheeses to the fish landed that morning. On the western edge of the old town, Es Baluard puts modern and contemporary art inside a Renaissance bastion of the city walls, and its ramparts look out over the masts in the harbour. For a wider view, a path climbs through pine woods to Bellver Castle.
Take the Old Train to Sóller
Since 1912 a narrow-gauge railway has run from Palma to Sóller, climbing into the mountains through 13 tunnels in about an hour, in carriages panelled with wood. At Sóller station a tram, in service since 1913, carries on through the orange groves to the port. Many guests ride the train one way while the yacht sails round the island to meet them at Port de Sóller. In town, look at the Modernista church front and the bank beside it on the main square, both by Joan Rubió.
Walk the Serra de Tramuntana
The mountains UNESCO listed in 2011 are as rewarding on foot as from the deck. The GR 221, the Dry Stone Route, follows the range from Port d’Andratx to Pollença on old mule tracks, with mountain refuges for walkers who take several days. Shorter stretches, such as the path between Deià and Sóller, fit a day ashore. The Torrent de Pareis is much harder: a gorge about three kilometres long with walls over 200 metres high, ending on the beach at Sa Calobra, to be walked only in dry weather and ideally with a guide. Inland, the sanctuary of Lluc, the island’s main place of pilgrimage, keeps a Black Madonna and a children’s choir, the Blauets.
Snorkel the Calas and Cabrera
Over the sand and seagrass of the calas, snorkellers find shoals of salema and bream, rainbow-coloured wrasse and octopus hiding among the rocks, and the crew brings out the paddleboards and masks. Around Cabrera the long protection shows, with groupers and other large fish easier to spot in the clear water. A yacht needs a park permit to visit, and diving there needs a separate one for set zones, which local dive centres can arrange. Ashore, a path climbs to the castle above the harbour, and a small museum in an old wine cellar, Es Celler, tells the island’s story.
Hear Music Underground at Porto Cristo
Near Porto Cristo, the Coves del Drach run through four connected caves hung with stalactites, lit since 1935 to a scheme by the Catalan engineer Carles Buïgas. The route ends beside Lake Martel, more than 100 metres long and slightly salty, because the caves connect with the sea. Visitors sit in the dark while musicians drift across the lake in lit boats, playing a short programme of classical pieces, and afterwards there is a chance to cross the water by boat. Visits run at set times, so the crew can book ahead and time the yacht’s arrival in Porto Cristo around them.
What to Eat and Drink
Start the Day with an Ensaïmada
The ensaïmada takes its name from saïm, pork lard, which is worked into a sweet dough before it is coiled into a spiral, left to rise for at least 12 hours, baked and dusted with icing sugar. It has been made on the island since at least the 17th century and is a protected geographical indication. Order one plain, the llisa, or filled with cabell d’àngel, threads of candied pumpkin, with coffee or hot chocolate. Bakeries pack the large ones in octagonal boxes for the flight home. In Valldemossa, try a coca de patata, a light, sweet potato bun.
Order Pa amb Oli for Lunch
Pa amb oli, bread with oil, is the island’s everyday lunch. A thick slice of dense pa moreno is rubbed with a tomàtiga de ramellet, the small, thick-skinned local tomato kept through the winter on hanging strings, then drizzled with olive oil and salted. It comes with cured ham or cheese, olives and pickled sea fennel. The oil deserves attention: Oli de Mallorca has had a protected designation of origin since 2002, pressed from Mallorquina, Arbequina and Picual olives, some of them grown on trees that are centuries old.
Spread Some Sobrassada
Sobrassada is Mallorca’s best-known cured meat: minced pork mixed with plenty of pebre bord, the local paprika, and salt, then stuffed into a casing and cured until it is soft enough to spread. Sobrassada de Mallorca is a protected geographical indication, and the version made from the island’s native black pig, the porc negre, is the most prized. Try it spread on bread with a drizzle of honey, or melted into cooking, and look out for llonganissa and botifarró, the island’s other pork sausages, at the butcher’s counter.
Try Tumbet and Arròs Brut
Mallorcan home cooking is generous and follows the seasons. Tumbet layers potato, aubergine and red pepper, each fried separately in olive oil, under a thick tomato sauce, and is eaten on its own or beside fish or meat. Arròs brut, “dirty rice”, is a soupy rice cooked with meat, vegetables and spices such as cinnamon and saffron, while frit mallorquí mixes fried lamb or pork offal with potatoes, peppers and fennel. On the coast, rice is cooked with seafood too, either in a wide pan or as a brothy caldós.
Ask for Sóller’s Red Prawns
The deep water off the north-west coast is home to the gamba roja, the red prawn Aristeus antennatus, which trawlers from Port de Sóller and Andratx fish at depths of roughly 350–800 metres. The prawns are a deep, glossy red even before they are cooked, and local cooks treat them simply: grilled on the plancha with coarse salt, so that the heads can be sucked for their juices. They also go into rice dishes and stews, so ask in the harbour restaurants what the boats have landed.
Pour Island Wine, Finish with Herbes
Mallorca has two wine designations. Binissalem, recognised in 1991 and the first in the Balearics, centres on the red Manto Negro grape and the white Prensal Blanc, while Pla i Llevant, across the centre and east, is known for reds made with Callet. For dessert, order gató d’ametlla, a moist cake of ground almonds served with almond ice cream. Then follow island custom with a small glass of herbes, an aniseed spirit steeped with local plants such as fennel, rosemary and lemon verbena, made sweet, mixed or dry and served over ice.
Mallorca Through the Sailing Year
Most yachts cruise Mallorca from May to October, with a quieter start in April, and rain is scarce from June to August. On settled summer days the wind follows a pattern: calm mornings, then the embat, a sea breeze from the south or south-west, building across the Bay of Palma after midday and dying away towards sunset. The north coast is more exposed. When the Tramontana blows from the north, the mountains that share its name take the swell head-on, and the crew moves round to the sheltered south or east of the island.
Best for mountain walks and spring festivals
Spring is the walkers’ season. The Tramuntana is green, wild flowers line the paths, and the old towns are pleasant to explore before the summer heat. Swimming is bracing: the water is near 16°C in April, warming to roughly 19°C by late May, so only the hardier guests go in. Holy Week brings processions across the island, among them the torchlit Davallament on the Calvari steps in Pollença, and in May, Sóller re-enacts the corsair raid of 11 May 1561 in the streets and at the port.
APRIL AND MAY
Best for warm days and the eve of Sant Joan
June brings settled, sunny weather, with the sea reaching 22–23°C as the month closes and light in the sky until after half past nine. The summer crowds have not yet reached their peak, so there is still room in the calas. On the night of 23 June, the eve of Sant Joan, families gather on the beaches with picnics and bonfires, and Palma holds its Nit de Foc below the cathedral, with fire-runners, devils and fireworks over the Parc de la Mar.
JUNE
Best for the warmest sea and regatta season
High summer is hot and dry, with afternoon highs around 30°C, while the water reaches 25–26°C, at its warmest in August. On 16 July, fishing ports around the island honour the Mare de Déu del Carme, patron of seafarers, with processions of decorated boats, and from late July into early August the Copa del Rey regatta fills the Bay of Palma with racing yachts. August is also Spain’s main holiday month, so the favourite coves fill by late morning and the Cabrera buoys are taken early: reserve the yacht, berths and permits well in advance.
JULY AND AUGUST
Best for long swims once the crowds thin
Once the school holidays end, the coves and harbours empty noticeably, yet the sea holds at about 25°C, close to its August peak. In the vineyards around Binissalem the grapes are picked, and the town celebrates with the Festa des Vermar, a harvest festival of wine tastings, a grape fight and a shared supper. Short late-summer storms grow more likely as the month goes on, and the captain keeps an eye on the forecast for them.
SEPTEMBER
Best for mild days and quiet calas
October is often warm and bright, and the sea, at around 22–23°C, is still comfortable for swimming. It is also, on average, the wettest month in Palma, with heavy showers that tend to come in short bursts between clear days, and the evenings draw in sooner. Many charter yachts end their Mallorca season towards the close of the month, so reserve October weeks early and keep the plan a little flexible.
OCTOBER
mountain walks and spring festivals
warm days and the eve of Sant Joan
the warmest sea and regatta season
long swims once the crowds thin
mild days and quiet calas
PLAN YOUR CHARTER
More on Mallorca by Yacht
Choose Your Side of Mallorca
A week from Palma usually covers one half of the island. Head west and north for Sa Dragonera, the Tramuntana cliffs, Sóller and Formentor, or east and south for Es Trenc, Cabrera and the calas between Santanyí and Porto Cristo. A motor yacht can make the whole circuit, and ten days leave time to cross to Menorca or Ibiza as well.
One group wants a different cove for every swim, a dive at Cabrera and long lunches on deck. Another wants the mountains: a ride on the Sóller train, a walk above Deià and dinner in Palma’s old town. Mallorca can give you both in the same week.
Tell us the dates you have in mind, how many are travelling and which shore draws you. We will suggest yachts available in Mallorca and a route planned around the season, the afternoon embat and the Cabrera permits.