Balearic Islands, Spain

September 28, 2023 Lisa Comments 0 Comment

When planning my trip to Portugal, I asked Kelly M if she was interested in another trip, either to Mallorca in the Balearic Islands or Malta. The flights to Malta from Faro were more expensive and complicated so we flew to Palma, Mallorca for six nights. I’ve always wanted to visit the Balearic Islands. We also booked a one day tour of Menorca from Palma. We flew into and stayed in Palma.

Palma

The first night we walked all the way downtown to the cathedral after stopping for some sangria and tapas at Beewi. We were hoping, expecting, the cathedral to be lit up like all the pictures we’ve seen. It wasn’t but still beautiful. And after two flights, Faro to Valencia, Valencia to Palma, and lots of waiting around in airports, we needed to stretch our legs anyway,

We scheduled a free walking tour for the next day, meeting at the cathedral. But we left after about an hour, there were over 30 people and it was hard to hear the guide. We bought tickets to both the cathedral and palace.

The Cathedral de Mallorca, or Cathedral le Seu, is gorgeous. We spent about an hour visiting, admiring the windows and seeing all the various chapels. We were there as the morning sun, coming through the stained glass, lit up the interior. Gorgeous!

After lunch we visited the Royal Palace of La Almudaina. Both buildings are amazing and highly recommended. The Royal Palace has interesting history, the beautiful Capella de Santa Aina, some great courtyards. I loved wandering through here.

We purchased the City Sightseeing hop-on/hop-off bus. We got on close to our hotel, the INNside Palma Bosque, and visited the Castell de Bellver first. Built in the 14th c, it is one of the few circular castles in Europe. There are exhibits on all floors along with constantly changing views of the city and island. There are a few rooms with archeology exhibits found on the site and some great sculptures.

We continued on the bus to see more of the city, also visiting Placa Mayor, Placa d’Espanya, the marina and promenade, and enjoyed wandering through the streets all afternoon. We stopped for our free glass of Sangria, included with the tour ticket, at Placa Mayor.

The next day we started at Pueblo (Poble) Espanol, ”the essence of Spain”, with multiple architectures across 18 buildings: Alhambra, Granada, Córdoba, Seville, Toledo, churches, plazas and more.

We went back to Old Town. We wanted to visit Mercat de l’Olivar. We started at the Cathedral and walked all the way down Carrer del Palau Reial and made short visits to the Basílica de San Miguel and Sant Antoni de Viana on the way to the market.

Mercat de l’Olivar is a great market. There are multiple tapas restaurants in the building but all were packed so we, reluctantly, went to the restaurant, Olivar Bistro. We were both very glad the other places were so busy because we loved the bistro. We had seen “tumbet” throughout the market so ordered that to share, along with their bruschetta, with both aubergine and tomato, and the national cheese plate, that was served with honey and onion chutney. Tumbet is traditional vegetable dish in Mallorca, layers of potatoes, aubergines, red peppers baked with tomato sauce. We were full but we both still wanted desserts we had seen earlier at Forn Ca Na Teresa.

Alcudia

Our final day in Mallorca, we took the direct bus, #302, to the north shore to visit Alcudia.

We visited Sant Jaume Church then walked along the Old Town Walls. We bought tickets to Pollentia Ciutat Romana, Roman ruins from 123CE. There are 3 main areas, including the forum and theater. We found a great place for lunch, Basico Steakhouse, and had some amazing beef kabobs.

After lunch we spent several hours just enjoying the streets and architecture of Old Town, did a little shopping, and stopped for a pitcher of sangria before getting the bus back to Palma. I definitely recommend spending a day in Alcudia.

Menorca

We took a full-day tour of Menorca, with Get Your Guide, being picked up in Palma and driven to Alcudia for the ferry. After arriving in Cuitadella, we took a bus around the island, visiting Binibeca, had time in Mao for lunch, Fornells, had a quick stop at Monte Toro for the view, before returning to Cuitadella.

Both Kelly and I thought the tour was too busy, too rushed, and would have been happier if we had just visited Mao, the capital, and Cuitedella. I would have enjoyed longer visits to both.

Restaurants

We mostly just had tapas throughout the week but had two memorable meals at Basico Steakhouse (Alcudia) and Bistro Olivar at Mercat l’Olivar.

We did enjoy tapas and wine a few other places. And our hotel had a great breakfast spread (albeit quite expensive, so we only had our final breakfast there).