A first-timer's guide to Palma de Mallorca

31.05.2024 - 10:25 / lonelyplanet.com / Joan Miró

Set dramatically by the sea and rooted in Moorish mystery, Palma de Mallorca is instant love.

The city is splashed with Joan Miró’s modernist art, liberally sprinkled with historic palaces in honey-colored stone, botanical gardens and cafe-rimmed plaças (plazas), and topped off by one of Europe’s most staggering Gothic cathedrals.

Add in a hotter-than-hot food scene, a Spanish passion for parties, 300 days of sunshine and glorious beaches but a pebble-throw away and you are looking at one of the most enticing cities in the Med.

Where to begin? Perhaps by stuffing a pair of the island’s famous Camper sandals in your suitcase as you’re going to be doing a fair bit of walking – this is a city for aimless ambling, full of intricate detail, street life, beauty and banter. Our first-time guide to Palma de Mallorca gives you a taste of what’s here and helps you piece it all together, but you’re bound to find treasures of your own, too.

With year-round flights and each season delivering its own merits, there’s no bad time to visit Palma de Mallorca – when you go basically boils down to taste and budget.

Spring and autumn can be gorgeous, with crisp skies, trees in bloom, warm days averaging between 20°C (68°F) and 25°C (77°F) brilliant for getting out and exploring, and far fewer crowds than in summer. It’s cheaper and more relaxed to visit during the shoulder seasons and you should be able to score good deals on flights and room rates. Diary dates include April’s PalmaVela regatta and Semana Santa (Easter) parades, and September’s Nit de l’Art, cranking up culture with street art and late-night gallery visits.

In summer, temperatures (expect highs of up to 35°C/95°F) and visitor numbers soar. Book well ahead as the best places fill up in a flash. During the July and August school holiday rush, the island is heaving and you’ll want to decamp to the surrounding playas and beach clubs to cool off with dips in the Med. This is peak fiesta time, too, with a flurry of DJ-spun parties, starlit cinema nights and pumping festivals. The biggies to bookmark are in June: the Mallorca Live music festival in nearby Calvià and the unmissable Nit de Foc, with fireworks, bonfires, gigs, and devils and demons tearing through Parc de la Mar by the cathedral.

Flights slow to a trickle and much of Mallorca shuts up shop in winter – with the exception of Palma. Days can still be mild, with highs of around 18°C (64°F), rates and crowds are low, and culturally there’s a good buzz, with lots still happening: December’s Christmas market on Plaça Major, high-spirited partying, flaming pyres and fireworks at January’s Fiesta Sant Sebastián and flamboyant pre-Lenten carnival parades at Sa Rueta and Sa Rua.

A few days? Great. A week? Ay, sí, now