12 Facts About Mallorca That Surprise First-Time Visitors

1. The World Heritage listing is about farming, not views

The Serra de Tramuntana was inscribed by UNESCO on 29 June 2011 as a Cultural Landscape, under criteria ii, iv and v. Read the citation and you will find it is not about the scenery at all. It is about terraces held up by dry-stone walls, and an interconnected system of channels, cisterns and mills built over centuries to farm a mountain with almost no water of its own. What you are looking at is engineering. The property covers 30,745 hectares, with a further 78,617 as buffer zone.

2. A wooden train from 1912 is still in daily service

Not a heritage line running at weekends. This is a working railway you can buy a ticket for today. The Palma to Sóller train was inaugurated in 1912 and still climbs through tunnels and orange terraces in its original carriages, on a published daily timetable, for €23 one way. If you want the open-sided tram down to the port as well, that is another €10 each way.

3. Some of the best coves have no road at all

Cala Màrmols, south of Santanyí, cannot be driven to. You cannot land on Es Pontàs either, because it is a sea arch rather than a beach. That is not a marketing line. It is why a boat is the only way you will spend forty-five minutes anchored in the first, or pass beneath the second.

4. July gets five millimetres of rain

Across the whole month. AEMET's climate normals for Palma airport put July at 5 mm, which is about as dry as European weather gets. The catch sits at the other end of the year. October is the wettest month at 62 mm, and October is exactly when many people book because the sea is still warm. If you go then, keep a spare day in your plan. The weather page has the full month-by-month table.

5. The sea is warmer in September than in June

The water lags the air by roughly two months, so it is still holding summer in September while the air has already begun to cool. That is why late September is so often called the best time to be here. It is also why the June sea will feel sharper than the June air led you to expect, and why you may want a wetsuit earlier in the year than you think.

6. The island is five times the size of Ibiza

About 3,640 square kilometres, which makes Mallorca the largest of the Balearic Islands by a wide margin. Puig Major, in the Tramuntana, rises to 1,445 metres. Plan your distances accordingly, because you will not cross this island in twenty minutes — and the trip you book should be near where you sleep. The map page is built around exactly that problem.

7. Chopin's winter here was mostly miserable

Chopin and George Sand spent the winter of 1838 in the Carthusian charterhouse at Valldemossa. She wrote a book about it afterwards and was notably unkind about the weather, the accommodation and the locals. You can walk the same cloister today. The village has been trading on that visit ever since, which is a fair outcome for a bad review.

8. Robert Graves is buried in a village churchyard

Deià, between Valldemossa and Sóller. The poet and novelist lived there from the 1930s and is buried in the churchyard on the hill. You get forty minutes there on the small-group day tour, and you pass through it on the private shore excursion.

9. One road loops underneath itself

The descent to Sa Calobra includes the Nus de sa Corbata — the tie knot — where the road spirals through 270 degrees and passes beneath its own carriageway. It is one of the most photographed roads in Europe. It is also one of the least relaxing to drive, which is the argument for letting somebody else take the wheel while you look out of the window. The day trips page lists the ones that do.

10. Cycling is enormous here, and we sell none of it

Professional teams winter on Mallorca, and in spring the Tramuntana roads carry more bicycles than cars. Sa Calobra is on most serious riders' lists. None of the trips on these pages is a cycling tour, a bike hire or a guided ride. If that is why you are coming, book it through a specialist — being handed a catamaran instead would waste your week.

11. Palma has a round hilltop fortification

Bellver stands in woods above the city, circular in plan, which is unusual in Europe. You can drive up in twenty minutes or walk it if you have the legs, and it costs you nothing to look at from the outside.

12. The language on the street is often not Spanish

Catalan is co-official across the Balearics, and the local form is called Mallorquí. The signs you read will frequently carry the Catalan names — Plaça rather than Plaza, Carrer rather than Calle — which explains most of the confusion between your map and the street you are standing in. Nobody will mind if you use the Spanish; you will simply spend longer looking for the corner.

The twelve, in one place

If any of these made you want to stand somewhere in particular, the things to do page sorts them by what you would actually be doing, and planning a trip covers how you get there.

Most of these are places you can go and stand in; the Mallorca day trips are how you reach the ones inland.

Every trip named here is compared on price, hours and what the fare covers at Mallorca Spain Tours.

Frequently asked questions

Trips that reach the facts above

Mallorca in One Day Sightseeing Tour with Boat Ride and Vintage Train

The 1912 train, the tram, the Sa Calobra road and a boat leg, all inside one nine-hour circuit.

From $110 per person

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Boat Trip from Cala Figuera to Calo de Moro, S'almonia, Cala Màrmols. Mallorca.

The coves with no road, including forty-five minutes anchored at Cala Màrmols.

From $66 per person

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Spanish Cooking Experience in Mallorca

Three hours in a restored windmill in Palma, cooking Spanish dishes and then eating them.

From $153 per person

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Most of these are things you can go and stand in front of. The highlights page names each one with its dates and figures.