Majorca autumn break

Holiday Ratings
Recommended days	7
Budget	£
Difficulty	Easy

Why Majorca

We chose Majorca for an autumn break as the island has so much to offer other than just beaches. It is quieter than the mainland Costas, greener and has plenty of historical sights. Most of the road network is good and there is a wide variety of accommodation and eateries to cater for every taste and budget. Prices are generally higher than the mainland though, I’m not sure whether this a cause or effect of the lower visitor numbers.

Accommodation

We stayed in an apartment a little way out of Costa Adeje called Ona AuCanada. We had lots of space and there was a friendly neighbourhood cat that wandered in most days. The resort had a decent gym too and good wifi, two essentials!

After leaving Palma we headed towards Alcudia and stopped on the way for Deb to do a food shop and I listened to my audio book in the car rather than following here around asking “Are we done yet?” like a 5 year old in the car. We got to the resort a little early so sat outside with a drink while I planned 2020’s holiday schedule. We then moved the car outside our apartment and unloaded the cases.

I left Deb to sort the food as I’d only get in the way and do it wrong and I carried on my planning. Always thinking of the next holiday …… That was about it for the afternoon, Deb sorted dinner and I did some work and then we went to the bar, sat by the pool and watched the sunset. Such a chilled day I didn’t even do my 8k steps!

I woke just after 6 the next day (back into my normal routine) so sorted the pics of Bellver Castle before going to the gym. It was very pleasant running whilst looking at the sunrise on the ocean, a bit of a change from my usual view of Yate shopping centre.

I got back to the apartment and cooled down with breakfast before a shower. The little cat from somewhere nearby came in and sat on my lap whilst I was eating and then was spoiled with a bowl of milk and some cheese, although she didn’t fancy low fat yoghurt!

Castell de Santueri

I had the day planned out (obviously!) but planning on a PC was a bit different to driving! The first stop, Castell de Santueri, involved a long drive up a single track road that climbed up the side of a mountain. The road was about the same standard as the average British road with pot holes and no road markings so it wasn’t a relaxing drive and there were only 2 other cars in the parking area when we arrived.

It wasn’t really a castle in the true sense, more of a fortified refuge where the top of the hill was defended and had cisterns, a well, farmland and living space for people to flee to in the event of raids by Muslim pirates. The views from the battlements were amazing although it’s very advantage of inaccessibility was also a weakness as it limited any sorties by the defenders. It was a nice walk around the clifftop and a lot of it was so sheer it didn’t even need walls. Quite a bargain for €4.

Castell de sa Punta de n’Amer

Our second stop demonstrates the value of proper research. I had spotted the castle on Trip Advisor and added it to my list. When we drove there it was actually in a nature reserve and parking was at the nearby restaurant but you had to drive down a couple of miles of track to get there which was quite a challenge in a saloon hire car. By the time we arrived the car looked like it had competed in Paris Dakar!

We sat down at the restaurant (originally a Civil War barracks) first only to find it was cash only and I only had €3 so couldn’t even get a coffee. We walked across to the Castell de sa Punta de n’Amer although calling it a castle is a bit like calling my shed a palace. It’s a kind of Spanish Martello tower, built to give warning of Muslim pirate raids which devastated the island in the sixteenth century. The castle was two stories tall with a cannon on the roof and would have had a garrison of 3 men.

Capdepera

After that abject failure we bumped our way back along the track to the main road to our final stop, another castle! We were pretty hungry by this time so we parked the car and walked through the deserted streets of Capdepera to the main square and sat down at L’Orient, a lovely restaurant with plenty of tables and parasols. It seemed a lot of the town was there too and we had a lovely and unhurried lunch before walking up the five zillion steps to Capdepera Castle.

Again this was more of a fortified refuge than a true castle – the walls were very thin and there were very few towers but it was an impressive structure and we had a nice wander around. Another bargain at €4 the castle was still being excavated but a lot had been restored and made safe for the public to visit.

The centre of the castle was originally a Muslim watch tower and from the terrace there you could see across to Minorca. In the Governor’s House was an excellent little museum about the craft skills of Majorca and the history of the island’s fortifications.

We made our way back to the car and after the obligatory supermarket stop we finally got home around 5. I was shattered and had a doze for a couple of hours while Deb played with the cat that had adopted us and prepared a light dinner. It is quite difficult to eat dinner with a cat sat on your lap and she (the cat, not Deb!) had plenty of yoghurt, cheese and salami to keep her entertained!

Valldemossa

The weather forecast for the rest of the week wasn’t good so we had to make the most of Monday’s good weather. After the usual routine of gym, shower, cat, breakfast we left for Valldemossa, once the sat nav had finally admitted it knew where it was.

It was a pretty dull drive on the dual carriageway for most of the route and then a few nice twisties up into the hill at the end. Both car parks were full but we found a street with parking meters and parked there before walking into the town centre.

It was a very pretty town and certainly geared for tourism with pretty much all the shops being gift or souvenir type shops and a cafe or restaurant every 10m. We followed the signs to the monastery and paid the exorbitant €9.50 each to get in.

The monastery was a real disappointment. It was whitewashed inside and this had faded to a worn grey, like a 3 year old tshirt. There were some nice frescoes on the ceiling of the church but other than that it was almost puritan. The cloisters were no better, more whitewash and austere stonework which seemed very strange for an 18th century building.

The museum area was more interesting with the original 18th century apothacary on display, a section on the life and works of Prince Louis Salvador (I think) who was an Austrian that fell in love with the islands and wrote numerous books about them, some Balearic art and some woodcuts. There was also a Chopin Museum (an extra €4 I think) that we didn’t visit and a small garden terrace. The church/Chopin area and garden were pretty packed with tour groups but the museum section was empty.

We then wandered across to the Palace of King Sancho, included in the price, and listened to part of a Chopin recital whilst walking through the furnished rooms and reading about some of the residents.

The town was certainly the busiest place we have seen on the island so far other than the area around Palma cathedral. We had a coffee at Troya cafe which was lovely as we looked over the terracing of the valley and enjoyed the sunshine. After a walk through the town looking at some of the architecture and browsing some shops we got back to the car and worked out where to go next.

Jardines de Alfabia

We decided against the Soller Botanic Gardens as Deb said I’d be bored and decided against Alaro Castle as it involved an hours climb each way from the car park and I’d already been there with Steph a few years ago. That left the Jardines de Alfabia which we’d also visited before but was a really pleasant memory.

It was another dull drive but we arrived after about 45 minutes and parked the car. Like saddos we sat in the car park and ate a snack before going inside. Entrance was €7.50 each and we spent about 3 hours inside so it was a bit of a bargain.

The gardens are not amazingly stunning but are pleasant mix of plants and water and it is such a relaxingly theraputic place to walk around. We sat in the cafe and I actually had some cake and I could have dozed off listening to Deb yabbering and the fountains bubbling away.

There are plenty of places to sit and the gardens were pretty quiet so that certainly helped. The house itself has explanation boards in English in each room and from what I remember was originally the home of a local Arab ruler who was then displaced and a Christian family took over. It’s like a large wealthy farm house rather than anything more grand but again, it’s nice to walk around and has some interesting decor.

We then headed back to the apartment and arrived around 4. The sun was still gorgeously warm although by now are garden was in the shade. No sign of the cat so I wrote these notes up while I remembered at least some of it and drank copious (small) cups of coffee to keep me from dozing off!

Alcudia

The next day was designated a rest day due to the weather forecast. I slept in late and didn’t get to the gym until about 8. Typically the sky was blue and it was warm. Deb had just got up when I got back so we pottered around doing breakfast and the weather slowly got darker as the clouds rolled in and the wind picked up.

By 10 o’clock the wind had reached 50mph, the rain and hail were bouncing off the patio and the noise of thunder was almost continual. This continued for quite a while so after the novelty of watching it had worn off we played on the PC for a while, drank eleventy four cups of coffee and twiddled our proverbial thumbs. By 3PM there looked to be a lull so we got ready to go out before we went stir crazy.

We drove the 10 minutes to Alcudia and parked up, once we eventually found a space. The Roman Theatre we had come to see was shut for some reason so we walked around the old town instead. It is a typical Spanish/Moorish medieval town – narrow streets, mostly pedestrianised, town wall in varying stages of completeness and lots of pavement cafes.

We walked along part of the city walls and then the rain started, initially gently and within about 10 minutes it was a deluge. We took shelter in a coffee shop and just after our coffee arrived the power went out so we sat and watched the water bouncing off the street outside. This had lessened by the time we finished drinking so we headed, by a very circuitous route, back to the car although this did speed up when the rain started again in earnest!

We got back to the apartment and Deb prepared dinner after we had locked all the windows and shutters closed as the wind was making the rain almost horizontal by now! We couldn’t even see the headland opposite us, on the plus side we didn’t have sunburn! We spent an apparently ‘relaxing’ evening listening to music and doing our own thing (much gnashing of teeth here)!

Next morning I slept in until 8AM which was pretty amazing. The weather looked glorious so we leapt into action and Deb was ready to leave by the crack of 10 o’clock ….. We returned to Alcudia and parked next to the Roman Museum. This was our first place to visit and the €4 ticket included the museum with the finds from the excavations.

We spent a surprising amount of time in the ruins, admittedly mostly because they are quite spread out. There isn’t really much to see, from the amateurs viewpoint. The ruins have almost no decor and it is basically just foundations and maybe one level of stone above. The theatre is pretty worn away and quite small, I think it could seat a thousand people, if they were very close friends!

It was interesting to look at the town layout as there were almost no private spaces. Houses butted against other houses and the only clear areas were pavements and public squares.

My navigation skills are best described as ‘lemming like’ so after having gotten lost multiple times yesterday in the maze of streets we did a full circuit of the walls today. These were constructed over a long period (we actually got to read the boards this visit!) of about 65 years as a defence for the local area against Muslim raiders.

The walls and bastions were upgraded again in the 17th century when new weapons made the existing walls obsolete. A lot of the walls were still walkable and it was nice to get a view of both the defences and the town, although it didn’t help me orientate where I was!

The Roman Museum was very good – it is quite small and we only spent about 15 minutes there but there were some lovely little artifacts although the explanations were only in Spanish.

From there we crossed the street to the Parish Church of St James to have a look inside. Entrance was €1 and in my opinion, this was a better visit than Palma cathedral. You could go up into the gallery and look down on the church and there was a museum of church vestements and silverware (what’s a collection of crosses and altar paraphernalia called?) although the info was only in Spanish.

A lot of the decor was typically baroque and OTT but the stained glass was lovely, a lot nicer than Palma with its primary block coloured windows. The music playing was very soothing and it was a nice low key visit.

We continued ambling through the streets, got turned around somehow and ended up eating at the opposite end of the town to where we’d parked the car.

The Pura Vida Surf Cafe had a great menu for me although Deb was only able to eat olives. I had probably the best yoghurt bowl I’ve ever seen and a lovely kale and almond smoothie. It was nice to sit outside in the shade and judge people, almost like being back at work other than the warmth!

We then walked back through the town (twice!) before eventually heading to the walls and navigating from there. We drove back via a quick stop off at one of the defence towers nearby and I then went to the gym while Deb did her own thing before joining me for 15 minutes of kind-of-Pilates. She then went off to sunbathe and I had a shower then sorted photos etc. Another relaxing day.

Son Real Necropolis

We were woken several times in the night by the storm and the wind actually blew the patio doors open at around 6AM. We both got up at about 7 as it was so noisy it was pointless trying to sleep. We footled around on the laptops for a few hours and eventually left around 10.

We were going to visit a necropolis (I know, I just spoil Deb!) but we couldn’t find the way to the beach car park so we had to park at Finca Son Real. This then entailed a 2.5k walk through very hot scrubland before reaching the shore and it’s welcome (now, not at 6AM) breeze.

We walked along the shoreline and although pretty we only saw a couple of small dolmen style graves. The wind was strong and the waves were spraying surf as they hit the rocks so it was nice to wander and watch and we eventually came to the necropolis. This was quite a large site with some very impressive graves, built around 7th century BC.

After spending a while there we headed back and the sight of the visitor centre was most welcome. We had a wash and then a water before going to look at the museum. This is very poorly signposted but was actually very good. It has obviously had a lot of money spent on it and showed both Bronze Age life for the original inhabitants (that built the necropolis) and then a large section on 19th/20th century rural life in Mallorca.

We then headed back to the apartment, stopping for coffee and a cake on the way. It is still very windy but Deb’s going to sunbathe and I have joyous work to do.

The afternoon was glorious with sunshine to make up for the storm and we decided to head into the town in the evening. We got there in time to watch sunset from the beach and it was actually a lovely atmosphere with entertainers, music, stalls, raised viewing walkways and lots of cafes and restaurants.

A pleasant family place rather than being full of drunken arses. We stayed until around 10 and then walked back, which took a lot longer than expected and the little hill we’d walked down seemed to have grown in the evening when we were walking up it.

The final day was a bit anticlimatic. It rained all day so other than the gym we really did sod all.

Conclusion

Another fantastic Majorca autumn break, exploring the beach free sites. The island has a lot to offer, whatever your tastes and if you really do like beaches then you are catered for too. Make sure you hire a car and be aware of the higher prices than the mainland.