Majorca shows class
3:20pm Saturday 14th November 2009 in Leisure
anyone with memories of youthful nights spent partying in resorts like Magaluf and Palma Nova might be surprised to find Majorca has undergone a dramatic change of image in recent years.
This wild child of an island in the Balearics has grown into a sedate maiden aunt, symbolised by the elegant streets and squares of its capital Palma, so easy to reach for an off-peak break with budget flights from many UK airports.
The weather alone can send spirits soaring in winter.
The Spanish city is also small and compact enough to explore on foot or by bike. Its old walls remain in place, topped by the occasional windmill, and the splendid historic quarter, from its imposing Gothic cathedral to Arab baths, art museums and Gaudi-inspired buildings, will keep any culture vulture interested.
If glamour and sophistication are more your thing, wander up the Passeig del Born, where designer shops have muscled their way in, or gaze at the yachts moored in the port as you enjoy lunch in a waterfront restaurant.
Perhaps Palma’s shops are so good because cruise ships arrive so frequently. All the top names, including Zara and Mango, are found in the retail-drome of Porto Pi Centro, and there’s a great choice of leather goods and other fashion wear in Avinguda Jamme III.
All these shops were within easy walking distance of my hotel, an oasis in the heart of the city, a few minutes’ walk from the cathedral where mighty chunks of Gothic stone make up the splendid flying buttresses.
The Hotel Dalt Murada is a former 16th-century manor house, one of the Reis de Mallorca hotel group — a 32-strong association of independently-owned hotels, ranging from city boutique hotels to farm complexes and rural manor houses.
Restored nearly six years ago, the Dalt Murada has been in the owner’s family for generations. It definitely has its own “wow factor”. Boasting three double rooms and five suites decorated with antique Majorcan furniture and art, it oozes history and culture.
Bike tours are big in Palma, with people enjoying them as an easy way to see the sights. But it’s just as easy to arm yourself with a map for a stroll around the myriad streets and alleys, enjoying the sunshine as you go.
The cathedral area is beautifully kept, and it’s well worth going inside to see the sheer size of the building and its cloisters. You are never lost for a museum to visit in Palma — they seem to fill every corner. And if you fancy venturing further afield for some culture, then Bellver Castle just outside the city is easily reached by bus.
With children in tow, you might be tempted by one of the world’s most impressive aquariums. Just outside the capital, Palma Aquarium aims to recreate ocean habitats and eco-systems, with more than 8,000 specimens from more than 700 species, including hammerhead sharks, rays, turtles and butterfly fish.
The £45 million development boasts an array of indoor and outdoor pools and landscaped gardens.
Its huge Big Blue attraction takes visitors down an access ramp to evoke the sensation of diving into the ocean’s depths, before being surrounded by a huge transparent tunnel. Plucky water-lovers can try their hand at diving with sharks with professional guides in the huge tank.
For a change of pace, five miles out of Palma at Illetas is the beautiful Bon Sol Resort and Spa, another member of the Reis de Mallorca group, which enjoys a dominating position on the hillside above Palma Bay.
Built as a private house by the Xamena family more than 50 years ago, the hotel is now run by the owner’s son Martin and his English wife Lorraine and their children, who will eventually take over from them.
Since one of its first guests, Hollywood legend Errol Flynn, moored his yacht nearby before checking in, the hotel has been steadily extended in terraces down to the sea.
Lifts whisk you down from the main reception to beautiful suites looking over the picture-postcard bay. The complex, scattered among well-tended gardens, offers three swimming pools, tennis courts, mini-golf, a gym and indoor games.
Meals are part of this experience, with breakfast offered in the winter garden conservatory or on the beachfront veranda restaurant. Dinner can be taken in the medieval-style restaurant, an antiquated but quirky surrounding, or on the beachfront the perfect romantic venue.
After either meal, you might like to relax with drinks and entertainment in the bar and terrace.
But if relaxing on a sun terrace, bathing in a Jacuzzi pool or enjoying a cocktail is not enough relaxation for you, try the Nirvana Spa.
A morning passes by all too quickly in the Moorish-inspired relaxation lounge where guests choose between saunas, steam rooms, jet showers, Jacuzzi and plunge pool, and follow up with treatments including the latest techniques and holistic therapies.
For men or women, pampering experiences range from honey nourishing masks to the specialist “Golfer’s Treatment”, which is said to ease muscle tension.
The Bon Sol is the epitome of this beautiful island. Picturesque, relaxed and classy, it is little wonder it boasts guests who return year after year.
Forget the old cliches of Majorca — the Brit-haven of parties and cheap sunshine. Behind this unfair reputation, the island can offer class, history and luxury in abundance.
