It’s been a few months but our memories of our trip to Palma de Mallorca are still very fresh. Josh and I got to spend the first few days of the new year on Mallorca. We are fortunate enough to have a friend who works for Swiss airlines, and he offered us some very cheap standby tickets. We could use them anywhere in Europe and it took us a while to figure out where to go. I know, quite the luxury problem. I do find the winter months of the year trickier to travel, since a lot of the European cities are covered in a grey mush of fog and concrete. We were debating between going full winter - aka Lapland - or trying to find a place with warmer weather. We quickly figured out that Lapland has its price and so we decided to fly to Mallorca.

Mallorca in January

Mallorca in winter was just a nice change of scenery. Most of the time it felt like what spring in Switzerland is like. We were able to fill up our vitamin D tanks and enjoy the warmth of the sun. It wasn’t warm enough to swim in the sea but there are lots of things to do other than bathing. On January 5th, the night before Three Kings Day they have a big parade on La Rambla street!

Where to stay

We stayed at a pricier hotel called HM Palma Blanc Hotel. Since we booked our trip quite spontaneously a lot of the cheaper hotels were already full, so we decided to go fancy. They had a big breakfast buffet and even a spa! The hotel is close to the center, only a walking distance away from the fancy stores and the sea.

How to get around

Since we only stayed for three nights, and we thought it would be easiest (and cheapest) not to rent a car. Palma de Mallorca is very easy to get around by public transport and walking. If you want to get to some of the other villages there are trains running from the train station in Palma to the towns. More secluded areas like hiking trails or certain beaches can be hard to reach by public transport though, so in that case we’d recommend renting a car.

What to do

Tour the city

When ever we visit a city Josh recommends looking on Reddit for travel recommendations since there can be a lot of information from locals. We found a great post from a person who even linked the entire route on Google Maps! We walked the tour and loved it and thus I highly recommend checking it out! (link here) My favorites were S’Hort del Rei, the Cathedral, the Arab baths and solely walking through the narrow alleyways. Simple things like seeing palm trees everywhere or oranges in the trees was just so nourishing for my soul!

The reddit post contained several other recommendations we didn’t have time to explore so here’s the link to the post.

Markets

We were recommended the weekly market in Inca, a town 1h train ride away from Palma. The market had a lot of clothes and accessories, and the vendors were definitely aware how to get tourists interested in their stuff. However, we were hoping to see more food and local crafts and art and think the 1h train ride was not quite worth it. That to say, I am not sure if they display more artsy things in high season as the market was described as “the biggest with vegetables, fruit, wine and local arts”.

Sóller-Train

The Sóller-Train is a historic train ride from Palma to Sóller where you pass through the countryside seeing all the beautiful orchards. The ride takes one hour. Once in Sóller there is a tram that takes you down to Port de Sóller. The train and tram are very old and take you back in time. Both tickets together cost 35 Euros. Unfortunately, we couldn’t do this ride, though we really wanted to. They were remodeling some things in the month of January and so the train was closed. https://trendesoller.com/eng/index

January 5th

As mentioned before, the night before Three Kings Day there is a big parade going through La Rambla, one of the big streets in Palma. The kids are given lots of candy and people drive by in huge carts, dressed up as kings. It was very fun to be part of this yearly tradition.

Food

Generally, you want to be aware that there is Siesta, a work break between 2 and 5PM. Lots of restaurants don’t open back up until 8PM. We ran into the problem of arriving too early a few times. Here’s a little list of places we ate at and loved:

Raimundo Burger (A burger place with unique burger options)

Maleva Mallorca (An amazing place for all meat lovers, Joshua was in heaven. The staff is very knowledgeable about the different meat cuts and prepares it in a fancy and very delicious way. It is very affordable as well! Reserve a spot ahead of time.)

Ensaïmada (A sweet, fluffy pastry roll that comes with various toppings. It is a traditional dessert from the island. )

Explore Mallorca on Your Own: City Walking Tour