Palma de Mallorca is the kind of city that ambushes you with how much it has. Most people arrive thinking of beaches and budget flights, then find a honey-coloured Mediterranean capital built around one of Europe's great Gothic cathedrals, a labyrinth of medieval lanes hiding aristocratic courtyards, a buzzing market-and-tapas culture, and a yacht-lined bay framed by the Serra de Tramuntana. It is the rare resort-island capital that rewards a city break in its own right, not just a transit stop on the way to a cove.
The city organises itself around the waterfront and La Seu, the vast sandstone cathedral that rises straight out of the bay and mirrors in the lake of Parc de la Mar below it. Behind it spreads the Casco Antiguo (old town), a dense medieval quarter of narrow stone streets, hidden patios, Gothic churches, and the only surviving Moorish building on the island, the Arab Baths. West across the old port is Santa Catalina, a former fishermen's quarter turned the city's most fashionable neighbourhood, full of pastel facades, a beloved food market, and the best concentration of restaurants and bars. Along the coast, Portixol and El Molinar offer a laid-back seaside-village feel, El Terreno climbs to the circular Castell de Bellver in its pine forest, and to the southeast the long sweep of Playa de Palma runs for nearly five kilometres of sand.
Two things define a Palma trip. The first is the old town on foot: there are no must-see queues to rival Barcelona's Gaudi circus, just the slow pleasure of getting lost between the cathedral, the Llotja (a breathtaking Gothic trade hall), Placa Major, and the courtyards you glimpse through open portals. The second is the island beyond the city: Palma is the gateway to Mallorca, and some of the best days are spent out of town, hiking or driving the UNESCO-listed Serra de Tramuntana, swimming at the wild Es Trenc, or sailing the bay.
