Palma de Mallorca Things to Do Tips by miromi

valdemossa Valdemossa Review

The north end of the island is a lot more mountainous and rainy and full of beautiful towns built on steep hillsides. The most famous of these is the town of Valdemossa, where Chopin and George Sand lived for a winter to help Chopin with his health problems. Unfortunately they didn't count on unheated rooms, and George Sand kept a diary that chronicles a disastrous year. These little towns on the north are today more affluent and less trashy than the mass marketing tourist highrises on the south end of the island, but they are still overrun with tourists. Hanging out in Valdemossa is a pretty experience, and you can just have fun wandering down the twisty stone streets and having coffee in the small cafés full of German tourists. It would be nice to see the Spanish part of this town. But i'm not sure if Spanish people actually live here...

churches and cathedrals

In case you forget that Mallorca is in Spain, you can always visit the little churches and cathedrals to refresh your memory. The older buildings in the interior can be quite beautiful, although in the capital there are plenty of architectural horror stories. we stopped by felanitx to pick up groceries and chill at a sunday market.

the beaches

beaches are unavoidable if you visit mallorca, and as can be expected there are some pretty nasty beaches marred by tourism. but there are just so many that there are bound to be beautiful beaches, and it was my first taste of swimming in the warm blue mediteranean. a friend told me that the mediterranean while having a pleasant clear blue appearance and looking much prettier than the stormy dark atlantic is actually a lot more polluted, sort of like a calm noncirculating bathtub used as a dumping ground by all the surronding nations that have lived there for thousands of years.

northern coastline

the northern coastline has a winding highway with towering cliffs that fall straight into the sea. claudia schiffer has an exlusive mansion somewhere up here, and there's nothing nicer than driving the winding roads past incredible steeped vineyards and old stone villages. it's like another world! when we were there there was lots of mist and rain which was rather romantic...