Things to Do in Mallorca

Palma's old town is dense enough to spend two or three days exploring without repeating yourself. Start at La Seu — the cathedral — which looks over the Parc de la Mar and the sea. Inside, there's Gaudí's strange, beautiful canopy over the altar and a Miquel Barceló ceramic chapel that's worth the entrance fee alone. From there, walk into the old quarter through the Arab Baths (Banys Àrabs, one of the few Moorish structures surviving on the island) and wind through the courtyards of the grand merchant houses on Carrer de Can Savellà and Carrer de la Portella. The Museu Es Baluard (contemporary art in a converted bastion) is excellent. Carrer de Sant Miquel is the main pedestrian shopping street — skip the chains and look for the smaller streets branching off it. The Plaça de Cort, with its ancient olive tree and the Ajuntament, is where you'll feel the city's actual civic life rather than its tourist persona.

With 262 beaches around the coastline, you could visit a different one every day for most of a year. The standouts — Es Trenc, Caló des Moro, Playa de Formentor, Cala Varques — each have their own character, and we've written a full [beach guide](/guides/mallorca-beaches) with the details. The short version: the east coast has the classic turquoise coves (calas) sheltered between cliffs; the north has longer sandy stretches good for families; the west coast is rockier and more dramatic. In high summer, the popular calas fill by 10am — either arrive at dawn or go to the less-known spots. Water temperature is swimmable from late May through October, peaking around 26°C in August.

Mallorca is arguably Europe's best cycling destination, and it's not close. Every spring, professional teams from across the continent base themselves here for training camps — you'll see Team jerseys on every mountain pass. The road surfaces are excellent, drivers are accustomed to cyclists, and the terrain offers everything from flat coastal spins to serious mountain climbing. The classic route is the Sa Calobra climb (Coll dels Reis): 9.4km with an average gradient of 7%, 26 hairpin bends, and a descent to a tiny cove at the bottom that feels like arriving in a different world. The Cap de Formentor road is another must-ride — rollers along a cliff-edge peninsula. For flatter routes, the agricultural roads through the Es Pla central plain are quiet and scenic. Bike rental shops are everywhere — Palma, Alcúdia, and Port de Pollença have the highest concentration. A quality road bike rents for about €30–50/day.

The sheltered bays and consistent summer conditions make Mallorca excellent for water sports beyond basic swimming. Sea kayaking along the east coast — particularly the stretch from Cala Ratjada south to Cala Millor — puts you into sea caves and coves only accessible from the water. Coasteering (swimming, climbing, and cliff jumping along the shore) has taken off in recent years, with operators running trips near Alcúdia and Sóller. For diving, the marine reserve around Illa del Toro (southwest coast) and the Llevant coast near Cala Ratjada have the best visibility and marine life — expect grouper, octopus, barracuda, and posidonia meadows. Stand-up paddleboarding is available on virtually every beach with a rental shack. For sailing, the Real Club Náutico de Palma is the hub, and you can charter anything from a small dinghy to a 50-foot catamaran.

Mallorca's wine scene has gone from afterthought to genuinely interesting in the last two decades. The main DO (Denominación de Origen) is Binissalem, centered on the town of the same name about 25 minutes northeast of Palma. The indigenous grape varieties — Manto Negro (red) and Prensal Blanc (white) — produce wines you won't find anywhere else. Bodega Ribas, the oldest winery on the island (founded 1711), offers tastings and tours. José L. Ferrer is the largest Binissalem producer and has a good visitor center. Further east, the DO Pla i Llevant region around Manacor and Felanitx tends toward bolder reds. Ànima Negra in Felanitx is a cult producer — their AN/2 is probably Mallorca's most famous wine. Many bodegas require reservations for tastings, especially in summer. A half-day wine route through Binissalem, Santa Maria del Camí, and Consell makes an excellent non-beach day.

Every town in Mallorca has a weekly market, and visiting at least one is essential. The biggest and most character-rich are Sineu (Wednesday), Santanyí (Saturday), Sóller (Saturday), and Pollença (Sunday). They're where you buy produce, crafts, leather goods, and local food products directly from the people who make them. We've written a complete [markets guide](/guides/mallorca-markets) covering all the major ones with timing, parking, and what to look for. If you only have time for one, make it Sineu for authenticity or Santanyí for artisan goods.

Palma's nightlife centers on a few distinct neighborhoods. Santa Catalina — the streets around Carrer de Fàbrica and Carrer de Sant Magí — is where most of the interesting restaurants and bars have landed in the last five years: natural wine bars, Japanese-Mallorcan fusion, craft cocktail spots. La Lonja, the old fishermen's quarter near the Llotja de Palma, has the denser bar scene — Carrer d'Apuntadors is the main strip. For something more upscale, Port Adriano (designed by Philippe Starck) in the southwest has waterfront restaurants and summer DJ sessions. In summer, the beach clubs at Portixol and Ciutat Jardí stay open late. Outside Palma, nightlife is limited to resort towns — Magaluf if you want chaos, Port de Pollença if you want a quiet gin and tonic by the water. Our [restaurant guide](/guides/best-restaurants-palma) covers Palma dining in detail.

Three day trips stand out above the rest. First, the drive to Cap de Formentor — Mallorca's northernmost point — along the MA-2210 is one of the most scenic roads in the Mediterranean. Stop at the Mirador Es Colomer for vertigo-inducing cliff views, then continue to the lighthouse at the tip. Second, Valldemossa: a stone village in the Tramuntana where Chopin and George Sand spent a miserable winter in 1838 (the Carthusian monastery where they stayed, the Real Cartuja, is now a museum and worth the visit). The village itself is beautiful — buy a coca de patata (sweet potato pastry) from any bakery. Third, Deià — a tiny hillside village of honey-colored stone that's been an artists' colony since Robert Graves settled here in the 1930s. His house, Ca N'Alluny, is a small museum. The walk down to Cala Deià for a swim and lunch at Ca's Patró March (a cliffside restaurant serving fish) is one of the island's finest half-days. A fourth option if you have the time: the boat trip to Cabrera island, a national park archipelago about 14 kilometers off the south coast. Excursion boats depart daily from Colònia de Sant Jordi (book ahead — capacity is strictly limited to protect the reserve). The crossing takes about 35 minutes. Once there, you can hike up to the 14th-century castle, snorkel in the astonishingly clear water of Es Port, and visit the small museum about the island's grim history as a Napoleonic prisoner-of-war camp. The full-day trips include swimming stops in coves that are only accessible by boat. It's the most unspoiled spot in the Balearics.