Mallorca: The Rough Guide (Rough Guide Travel Guides) [Paperback]

The Rough Guide to Mallorca is the ultimate handbook to this beautiful Mediterranean island. Includes comprehensive coverage of all the sights, from Miro's hillside studio to the echoing cloisters of Valldemossa monastery, and from Palma's old town to the remote beach at Cala Tuent. Detailed descriptions - with route maps - of the favourite walking routes in the Tramuntana mountains. Includes insider's reviews of the best places to eat, drink and sleep to suit all budgets.

Phil Lee has written or contributed to the following Rough Guides: The Pacific Northwest, Canada, Norway Brussels, Holland, and Belgium & Luxembourg.

PRACTICALITIES Access to Mallorca is easy from Britain and northern Europe, with plenty of charter flights and complete package deals, some of which drop to absurdly low prices out of season or through last-minute booking. From mainland Spain, both ferries and flights are frequent and comparatively inexpensive. The island has one airport and one major ferry port, both on the outskirts of the capital, Palma. From here, the rest of Mallorca is within easy striking distance by car – it only takes a couple of hours to drive from one corner of the island to the other – and to a large extent by public transport too. The main constraint for travellers is accommodation. From mid-June to mid-September rooms are in very short supply. If you go at this time, you’re well advised to make a reservation several weeks, sometimes months, in advance or to book a package. Out of season, things ease up and you can idle round, staying pretty much where you want. Two or three weeks are sufficient to see most of the island; on a shorter visit, head for Palma and the northwest coast. Bear in mind also that six of Mallorca’s monasteries rent out renovated cells at inexpensive rates – it’s well worth sampling at least one.

CLIMATE Spring and autumn are the ideal times for a visit, when the weather is comfortably warm, with none of the oven-like temperatures which bake the island in July and August. It’s well worth considering a winter break too: even in January, temperatures are usually high enough during the day to sit out at a café in shirtsleeves. The island sees occasional rain in winter, however, and the Serra de Tramuntana mountains, which protect the rest of Mallorca from inclement weather and the prevailing northerly winds, are often buffeted by storms.