Hola! We're home from a glorious five nights in Mallorca. A trip that Ben & I had started planning after seeing so many gorgeous photos of the island last summer and wondered why we'd never considered going before?! I think the Balearic island {just off the coast of Barcelona} gets a bit of a bad rep for being overly British or touristy. It's true that it does receive a crazy amount of flights per day and is known for being one of the most popular destinations in Europe but we were keen to avoid package filled party destinations like Magaluf so we sought out the prettiest, quietest parts which made such a difference. It turned out to be one of our favourite ever European trips, such an easy and ridiculously beautiful place to visit. I shared some of our trip on Instagram last week and lots of you requested this blog post {and *that* Airbnb} so here goes. I'll share a little round-up summary at the end of the second post with a list of all of our favourite places if you just want a quick overview.

We booked super cheap flights with Easyjet and arrived bright and early into Palma around 9.30am picking up a car at the airport. Don't you just love that about how close we are to Europe and how easy it is to leave home {albeit with a v early wake up call} and then arrive before lunchtime. We'd debated how long this trip should be, in the end I think 5 nights was perfect as a really nice break & introduction to the island but if we'd have had longer we could have visited Palma or made it more of a beach holiday with more days spent chilling out. We've already said that we know we'll go back time and time again though so this trip felt like a good way to explore lots of places to decide where to return to next time.

// AirBnB

We based ourselves in Soller, a town on the opposite side of the island to Palma, and rented this Airbnb {you can get £15 off your first stay if you sign up to Airbnb via this link} which was such a perfect base. I spent ages trawling through accommodation, the nicer places tend to have 6 bedrooms + and be huge, ridiculously pricey villas. But finding this little gem for the 2 of us was perfect and it felt like we'd stepped into a White Company catalogue. It was a top floor apartment with a terrace, it was the outdoor space which sold it to us having sunloungers, a plunge pool, a big outdoor table and BBQ. It was well equipped in the kitchen and quiet, always two big pluses for rentals.

Views!

It even came with a shopping basket for us to use during our stay, talk about match made in heaven. We love to self-cater when we go away, not on every trip - sometimes going to a resort is heaven to not think at all, but we enjoy going to local markets and cooking plus it saves the cost & unhealthiness of eating out for every single meal. It was two bedrooms and couldn't have been a better location literally right next to the impressive church in Soller {and the views from the terrace and windows looked out right over it!}

We spent sunny mornings having breakfast in bed, cooking BBQs and sitting out in the evenings before watching Netflix on the smart TV.

The only thing it didn't have, like most in the old town, was a parking space. So we had to park about a 10 minute walk away on the main Soller to Port de Soller road which was free. No big deal for us but I imagine if you had children/babies it might be a bit of a schlep each time?

But we really couldn't fault our stay there, I debated whether to share it or not as we'll want to return and it's already looking really booked up!

// Pollenca & the Famous Sunday Market

We arrived on a Sunday and headed straight to Pollenca because it was market day. There are markets in most of the towns all across the island on different days but we'd heard the greatest things about Soller on a Sunday {see also Alcudia which is meant to be good, unfortunately we weren't around on a Saturday for Soller's offering}. We picked up supplies for our week but also wished we'd have had more luggage allowance {although Ben was super grateful for this so that I didn't fill our house with even more baskets!}

Pollenca itself was a really beautiful old town which we loved exploring for half a day. It should definitely be a must-visit. Centered around a big square and cathedral, which is where the market takes place, the narrow streets running off of it are a maze of shutters, restaurants, market stalls and beautiful old stone buildings. 

The market has both food {lots of local produce} and fashion/souvenirs/home bits etc.

Our first glimpse at the huge basket culture out here, even the Men are happy to carry them.

We walked up the Calvari steps from the main square which leads you up to another Church at the top with views all around. It's such a scenic walk with dreamy houses and cactus on the way up, and then a winding Roman road back down to the town.

We loved Mallorca already just from this one morning in Pollenca!

It was Corpus Christi festival the day we arrived, which explained all the palm leaves strung across the shutters & doors in the streets - to us it made it even more alluring!

Courtyard goals.

// Exploring Soller 

After a supermarket stop {the Spanish supermarkets are amazing and so reasonable! I love how they have HUGE Iberico hams hanging in there and allll the Milka flavours} we arrived into Soller to check out our accommodation and go for a wander before dinner.

It took precisely 5 seconds for us to fall in love with the place. A town set behind the mountains, surrounded by orange & lemon groves, it reminded us a little of Palm Springs setting wise, but with dreamy old streets, shutters on every single corner, a huge Cathedral, classic Spanish feeling square and trams! 

Basket cliche {online here}. Dress is H&M. 

The trams run from Soller down to Port de Soller on the coast and were imported from San Francisco. They were so cool, although we didn't actually use them, it would 30 euros for a round trip and it's only about 10 minutes away - we'd rather spend that money on food ha! But they seemed super popular, and fun for families or if you didn't have a car.

We spotted lots of old Renault 4 cars and streets fillled with what we'd have as houseplants in England. It's just warm enough year round out there to have them outdoors, we saw such huge rubber leaf plants and eyed them up with envy!

Corpus Christi displays in the main square.

// Walking to Fornalutx

On our first morning, we woke to bright blue skies and the smell of pastries coming up from the bakery below. For me, nothing beats that feeling of a whole holiday ahead where you just need to decide what you want to do on that particular day with your favourite travel companion. 

We decided that we'd walk to Fornalutx first of all and stop via the citrus farm on the way back before going down to Port de Soller.

We didn't realise that Mallorca was so walking and cycling friendly with marked routes running across the island. It was a fairly easy walk to Fornalutx, through so much beautiful countryside en route. We definitely stopped for lots of photos and wowed a lot en route.

Old towns and buildings like these are my kind of heaven.

These views! Each old town tends to have a couple of restaurants, a main square with a few patisserias, a grocer's market and old residential streets running off of them. We had a wander before walking back towards Soller the other way, stopping at Ecovinyasa on the way back.

Warning, you must know by now justtt how many photos I take and post?! But it was all just way too pretty.

Back with Part Two and the rest of our adventure next,

R <3 xx