Trip Report - The background and logistics
November and December had been awful months -- very little sun, cold but not cold enough, plenty of grey, rainy days.
Unfortunately we had just about a week available to take a break from the weather and xmas, and from Europe it's a tough one. If you want to see sun, one either gambles with the weather, flies to the Middle East, or flies long haul. We were in Abu Dhabi a year ago, and in my opinion one week trip isn't worth a long haul flight.
So where to go?
During the summer we spent time in Barcelona and other parts of Spain, enjoyed it a lot and the weather history looked promising -- Barcelona is very likely to have sunny weather, even if it's a bit cold.
Looking at the map I found Mallorca. Ahh.. the traditional mass tourism destination for Europeans. Very popular even here in Finland since the 60's. Why not? It can't be that bad? And even if it's bad, it's still warmer than home and you don't need to return - ever.
Flights with frequent flyer miles, reasonably priced hotels, good food, looks like a done deal! Just one request for xmas present -- good weather.
A few days before xmas to the airport for an evening flight to Barcelona. Everything is smooth as always, and we enjoy some vintage champagne at the fabulous Wine & View Bar.
The nice thing about the Helsinki - Barcelona flight is that as a 4 hour flight it gets better than average meals.
With the mandatory in-flight champagne:
We couldn't do four bottles this time, though.
For the short Barcelona - Mallorca flight we used a local low-cost airline, Vueling. The flight itself was quite fine but not exactly something one would enjoy more than an hour or two:
The flight was a codeshare with Iberia and we actually booked it on their web site. The price was the same, Iberia was just offering a package that included luggage. Vueling's own site offered everything as extra, including a paid option to select seat at the front, in the middle, and on the exit rows. One could even book so that the middle seat will be free.
Barcelona airport was filled with xmas spirits (literally, too).
We decided to do a few days in Barcelona, xmas in Mallorca in Palma de Mallorca, and again a few days in Barcelona before returning home for the new year.
For the first part we chose B Hotel next to the Plaza Espanya. Very easy to arrive with the airport bus, next to a shopping mall, and next to a metro station. We used the same hotel last summer, too.
The latter part in Barcelona we chose Hotel España a block from Ramblas. The hotel itself was fine and convenient location but I'm not sure if nearby Ramblas is actually preferred when in Barcelona. The city lives elsewhere.
In Palma de Mallorca we stayed in Puro Hotel, a nice, modern hotel in the old town. Overall a nice experience, great breakfast (including Grey Goose vodka and Cava!), and for the 5 night stay we got a nice room on the top floor with easy access to the rooftop sunbeds.
Sunshine, bottle of cava from the grocery store, what else do you need?
We didn't expect any beach activities this time of year so the hotel was pretty much perfect. Plenty of restaurants in the neighboring blocks, easy to access from the airport.