An adults only weekend In Palma, Majorca – April 2024
We continue to be fortunate and have an amazing family to look after Frankie for a couple of days, while we get away for some much needed “us” time. We ended up in Palma, which was a city we had wanted to visit for several years, its fair to say we have fallen in love with this idyllic town.
We took a late-night flight out of Gatwick, which meant we had two full days on the Island. The benefits of this, is that Gatwick is very quiet in the evening, so there was only our flight and two others. The only disappointing part of the entire weekend was upon arrival the immigration system was slow and long! However, we ended up finally getting to the hotel about 3am.
Despite it being late, we knew we had picked the most amazing hotel. Hotel Sant Francesc https://www.hotelsantfrancesc.com/en/ is a historic hotel in the old part of the town, we could tell from the moment we arrived that we had picked a tranquil and relaxing. The attention to every detail wasn’t lost on us. The highlight was waking up with an open window, listening to the most relaxing piped music from the courtyard below us, and every now and then hearing the church bells from across the square. It was hard to leave our room to go exploring, but we did.
As we were children free, this weekend was about food, drink and overall relaxing. We left our hotel and headed out to explore, we headed to a café called Lillis https://www.lilispalma.com/ . This is a small boutique café in the old town, and as would become a theme we were not disappointed, eggs, avocado, bread, and meats all cooked to perfection.
After breakfast, we headed to the Cathedral, this is an impressive building on the edge of the harbor, that has welcomed visitors to the island for generations! Today was no different, it was Friday and there were two large cruise ships in the dock, which probably contributed to the crowds. We didn’t end up going inside, and decided it was time for a roof top bar!
Our first stop was Es Princep https://www.esprincep.com/en/eat-and-drink/almaq ,Cocktails on the roof overlooking the Mediterranean. It was the perfect start to the weekend. We then headed to the Rooftop at El Llorenc, https://www.elllorenc.com/en/rooftop/ .Which is an adult only bar / hotel, after a couple of drinks we were ready for some food.
On a recommendation from a friend, we headed to the Santa Catalina Market (Mercat de Santa Catalina) , which is an indoor food market, this has become one of favorite things to do when in Spain, as the variety of fresh meats, fish and food is just what we want and it is away from the tourists. We visited the fish bar A-Mar https://www.mercatdesantacatalina.com/en/ where we ate croquettes, sea urchins and other amazing seafood, all washed down with a rose cava.
After lunch we headed back to the hotel, to relax for a couple of hours in the rooftop pool.
We had a late dinner reservation (when in Spain….) so we started the evening having cocktails in Bar Nicolas https://www.barnicolas.com/ we had originally thought it was an Irish Bar ! it wasn’t ! we had some of the most amazing cocktails here. When it was time for dinner we headed across the street to El Camino https://www.elcaminopalma.es/en/ this is ideal for a couple or small group, as the restaurant is one long bar where you watch the food being cooked in front of you, again we were not disappointed. We had the padron peppers, tomato salad, octopus and steak, all of which were cooked to perfection, all washed down with a bottle of Rioja.
Day 2 we were undecided what to do, we contemplated taking the antique train to Soller or hiring a car, but with only the day left we decided to continue to explore closer to Palma. Unfortunately unlike most European cities there are no public scooters or bikes to be hired (they are reserved for residents) As such we hired two ebikes from “Call & Ride” https://callandridemallorca.com/ they were 35eur for the day, and a great way to get around the city.
Breakfast we headed in to the park and ate at Café Poupette https://bananaclipgroup.com/cafe-poupette/. This had been recommended by the hotel, but we were skeptical looking at the google picture, we were so glad we did ! we had the most amazing breakfast, that we can highly recommend.
Following breakfast we decided to work it off, and head to Cala Major. This was about a 20 minutes ride from the city. There is a lovely beach here, which I feel is hidden away and is popular with the locals. Along with 3 beach bars, it was hard to think there was some place better. Highly recommended to get out of the main part of Palma and relax on this lovely beach.
A quick cycle back in to Palma ready for a late lunch led us to a great fish restaurant near the harbor called El Pesquero tapas restaurant https://www.restaurantpesquero.com/en-gb . Again this seems to be very popular with the locals which is a great sign. Amazing seafood and tapas.
Our last evening in Palma started back where we stared at Lilli’s where we had breakfast and again the cocktails were great! I can highly recommend the Almond Negroni.
As ever we stumbled across the most amazing deli, that served drinks in the evening. Called the Mallorca Delicatessen, where they sell a variety of cheese and meats during the day, then converts to a bar in the evening.
Dinner was at La Rosa https://larosavermuteria.com/en/restaurant/la-rosa-vermuteria which is a basic tapas restaurant but the constant lines outside are an indication of how good the food was, we’d highly recommend making a reservation so not to be disappointed.
An early alarm on Sunday meant we would be back in the U.K. by Sunday lunch, which worked perfectly for us, overall, we would highly recommend a weekend in Palma, it’s perfect for a romantic adult only weekend.
