Mallorca

Mallorca's Serra de Tramuntana — a UNESCO World Heritage landscape of olive terraces, limestone cliffs, and stone villages — is the island's most extraordinary hotel territory. The villages of Deià, Sóller, and Valldemossa are where the island's most celebrated hotels are concentrated: La Residencia (a converted 16th-century manor above the sea), Son Bunyola (a Belmond estate in the mountains), and Son Brull (a converted Jesuit monastery in the foothills). These are hotels for guests who come to Mallorca for the landscape, not the beach.

Cap Rocat, a converted 19th-century military fortress on the cliffs above Palma Bay, is the most dramatic hotel on the island — a labyrinth of stone passages, cannon terraces, and sea-facing suites carved into the cliff face. It is the closest thing to a private island without leaving the mainland. Belmond La Residencia in Deià remains the island's most celebrated address: Robert Graves lived in Deià for decades, and the village retains a bohemian, artistic character that distinguishes it from the rest of the island.

Palma, the island's capital, has its own hotel culture. The Palacio Ca Sa Galesa, a 16th-century palace in the old city, is the most intimate boutique in the capital. The Gran Hotel Son Net in Puigpunyent is a 17th-century manor with the island's most celebrated art collection. These are hotels for guests who want the island's cultural life — the Miró Foundation, the Palma Cathedral, the old city's tapas bars — rather than its beaches.

Mallorca's beaches are concentrated in the south and east: Cala d'Or, Cala Mondragó, Cala Pi. The north-east coast — the Cap de Formentor — is the island's most dramatic, with a lighthouse at the end of a peninsula that drops vertically into the sea. The Formentor hotel, opened in 1929 and recently restored by Barceló, is the most historically significant beach hotel on the island.

May–June and September–October are Mallorca's best months: warm, uncrowded, and the landscape at its most beautiful. July–August is peak season — very hot (32–38°C), extremely crowded, and the most expensive period. November–March is quiet and mild — the best time for walking the Tramuntana and visiting Palma without crowds.