A couple of weeks ago, we headed for a longer-than-usual city break in Barcelona. And as we were planning our usual trip schedule, we found that we had little time to visit another nearby location in Spain. We could have visited Valencia by train but also saw some very low prices for a flight to Mallorca with Ryanair. And off we go!
Trip to Palma de Mallorca: Our arrival
We booked with Airbnb a 3 nights stay at a cozy little apartment in the heart of Palma and had the next adventure on the list. Since we were low on budget, we appreciated that near our apartment was a Mercadona supermarket, which helped a lot in managing our budget!
It was June, we saw no rain, and it was really hot. So we had fantastic weather and time to explore the city in-depth during our 3-day stay in the capital of the biggest Balearic Island.
We had our flight from Barcelona early in the morning, and the flight departed on time from Terminal 2. I have arrived and departed from Barcelona in Terminal 1. There is a huge difference between these terminals; the newer T1 is much cleaner and bigger than the old terminal. We were already in Palma at 9am, and the check-in in the apartment was at 4pm, so we headed to Estacio Intermodal. You can leave your baggage at Palma Lock & Go for around 6 EUR/day. There are also bikes to rent and several other travel-related services.
First day of our trip to Palma de Mallorca
After leaving our luggage at the Intermodal Station in Palma, we headed to Anima Beach, near the city centre, near the Cathedral. After testing the water, we decided to call our Airbnb host. She confirmed that our apartment was prepared to welcome us and invited us to go there ASAP. We then found out that the Palma taxis are cheap; only the departure is expensive.
Trip to Palma de Mallorca: Transport
The transport system in Palma is excellent. They’ve got even two metro lines departing from Estacio Intermodal, even if the city is not that big, around 400k inhabitants. From Estacio Intermodal, you can catch all the buses headed around the Island and the trains and local buses going to the airport or to the famous beaches in Platja de Palma.
We bought tickets from the local shops for 10 trips for our local transport. You can request them as tarjetas, but be aware that a trip to the airport costs you 3 EUR, even if you are going with the bus line 1 or 2 and the regular tarjetas are not valid. You can get tickets on the bus to the Airport; Note that the bus drivers are really lacking English knowledge.
To reach the beach resorts from Palma, you can go with the 25 Express Line and bus number 15. The 25 is much faster as it goes on the motorway. There is no difference in ticket fares on the Express lines or on the regular ones.
Trip to Palma de Mallorca: Platja de Palma
I already mentioned that on our first day, we headed to Anima Beach that it’s near the city. Indeed, the Platja de Palma is much cleaner and has a larger area to swim. It’s perfect for kids, so it’s a safe place to go with your family. You will see that you’ll go as far as 50-100 metres into the waters, and it will not be deeper than 1.5 metres. But be aware of big waves if you are far from the beach! We don’t know how to swim, and there we felt ourself very safe even if we went far away from the beachside.
Trip to Palma de Mallorca: last day
We left the apartment around 11 am on the last day and headed directly to the beach with the luggage. As the hassle of staying on the classic blanket around the beach was too inconvenient, we decided to book two sunbeds with an umbrella on the beach. Unfortunately, the total fare of 16.5 EUR/day for two sunbeds and the umbrella was way too expensive for me. Still, until the guy came with the tickets…we were already there for at least 2 or 3 hours.
Ultimately, we headed to the airport around 5pm to catch our flight to Barcelona, departing at 8pm. Again, we went with the bus; at Ryanair, the baggage drop counter was a hefty queue and people stood in 2 rows at a check-in counter. Still, overall we arrived on time in Barcelona at around 9pm.
Some facts
Palma is a big city, full of history and has been documented even in BC. First, it was a Roman settlement, and then the Moors conquered the Island. Finally, after the 12th AC century, the Spanish population reconquered the Island, starting construction on the famous Cathedral.
Around the Mallorca Cathedral, there is a lovely view, be sure to photograph it. Unfortunately, the Cathedral is packed with buildings, so the only spot to photograph is alongside the beach.
Around the city, there are many UK and Northern Europe tourists. There were also many Russians and French tourists around Mallorca.
Shopping the discounts
We were also delighted by the good offers from the clothing stores. We’ve bought clothes from Zara, Mango, Stradivarius and other famous local brands with up to 80% discounts. How sounds an autumn jacket for 20 EUR? I bet you like it. But there weren’t discounted only clothes for the off-season, but even for the summer season. We’ve said that the next time we come to Spain, we will come with our luggage empty and our wallets full, because of the excellent prices we’ve seen in Barcelona, too.
We would definitely revisit Mallorca. Now I get why there were so many rent-a-car offices at the airport. I’ve never seen so many cars to rent anywhere I’ve gone!
