MALLORCA · BALEARIC ISLANDS
Coves, mountain villages, a vintage train.
Boat days to the turquoise calas, the Caves of Drach, the Sóller train through the Tramuntana, Palma’s old town and the cliffs at Cap de Formentor. The whole island, sorted into the days worth planning.
Only here
Three experiences you can only have here.
Beach days and boat trips, every Mediterranean island has. A candle-lit concert deep in a cave, a 1912 train through the mountains, and a cliff road to the end of the island belong to this one alone.
Concert underground
The Caves of Drach
A kilometre of stalactite chambers under the cliffs at Porto Cristo opens onto Lake Martel, one of the largest underground lakes on earth. The lights go down, and a string quartet rows out across the black water playing Chopin and Caccini by candlelight. Then you cross the lake yourself, by boat, in the dark.
- 1 Palma: Caves of Drach Entrance, Music Concert, and Boat Trip
- 2 Caves of Drach Half-Day Tour with Boat Trip and Music Concert
- 3 Mallorca: Ticket for Caves of Drach with Pickup Service
A 1912 railway
The Sóller Train
A narrow-gauge wooden train has run from Palma to Sóller since 1912, climbing through the orange groves and boring thirteen tunnels straight through the Tramuntana. At the far end an open-sided tram, all polished wood and brass, rattles down to the port through the lemon trees. Nothing has been modernised, and that is the whole point.
- 1 Sóller: Boat Trip to Sa Calobra and Torrent de Pareis
- 2 Mallorca: Valldemossa & Soller Tour
- 3 Sóller: Jardines de Alfabia Entrance Ticket
Where the island ends
Cap de Formentor
The road to the northern cape was carved into sheer limestone in the 1920s, switchbacking out to a lighthouse the locals call the meeting point of the winds. On one side the cliffs fall two hundred metres to the sea; on the other, the turquoise of Platja de Formentor. It is the most dramatic half-hour of driving on the island.
- 1 Alcudia: Boat Trip to Coll Baix
- 2 Cap de Formentor: Market, Beach, and Alcudia Tour
- 3 Alcudia: Boat Trip to Cap de Formentor and Formentor
Start here
The one nearly everyone books first.
More visitors begin a Mallorca trip with this than with anything else on the island.
The classics
Mallorca's Most Popular Tours
La Seu cathedral, the Caves of Drach, the catamaran cove days and the Sóller train. The ones most people come for.
Where to begin
The days a Mallorca trip is built around.
A boat out to the calas, the Caves of Drach, the Tramuntana villages, Palma’s old town and the road to Formentor. The handful of days most trips are planned around, and the best way to do each.
The mountains
How to see the Serra de Tramuntana.
The UNESCO range runs ninety kilometres down the island’s northern spine, and there is no single right way in. Three ways to take it on, by the rails, the road or the water.
Binissalem & the Pla
Manto Negro, behind the mountains.
Inland from the coast, in the red soil of Binissalem and the central plain, Mallorca grows Manto Negro and Callet, grapes you will find almost nowhere else on earth. Family bodegas open their gates for tastings and the kind of long, unhurried lunch the island does better than almost anyone.
Read the guide: the best wine tours on Mallorca →A cyclist’s island
Where Europe comes to ride.
Quiet roads, a kind spring climate and the legendary Tramuntana climbs — Sa Calobra, the Coll de Sóller, the long pull up Puig Major — draw pro teams and weekend riders to Mallorca every spring. The plains through the middle stay flat and gentle; the mountains are merciless. Both end at a café.
See the cycling & e-bike tours →The calas
The water really is that colour.
Down the east and south coasts the limestone folds back into dozens of calas, little coves where the sea shades from glass-clear to deep turquoise. Some you reach on a path down through the pines; the best of them you reach only by boat, dropping anchor for a swim where the cliffs keep the crowds out.
Boat trips to the calas →By place
One island, six corners.
Palma for the cathedral and the old town. The Tramuntana for the mountain villages and the Sóller train. The north for the cliffs at Formentor. The east for the caves and the calas. The water for the coves. And the grand loop for all of it in a day.
By activity
Pick how to spend the day.
Catamaran if you want the calas. Snorkel if you want the fish. Kayak if you want the sea caves. Saddle up for the Tramuntana climbs. Or a bodega, a cooking class and a long lunch.
Plan it
Three perfect days.
First time on the island? Here is a long weekend that hits the essentials without a wasted hour.
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