Palma de Mallorca?

Petri

Senior Insider
Need to book an escape for the xmas..

Barcelona looks like a good target, it's still almost 20C down there. I was thinking of a few days there before and after, and spend the xmas days in Mallorca (45 minutes flights).

Found a nice hotel in the old town, Hotel Puro. They have an iMac at the reception -- always a good sign.

Anyone been in Palma de Mallorca? Is there enough to hang around for 1/2 + 3 + 1/2 days?

We take a risk with the weather but real heat is pretty far away this time of year..
 
We were in Barcelona and Ibiza for Thanksgiving week. The weather on Ibiza was mostly sunny and warm enough for just a light jacket. The island was quiet, which was great for us. Alot of places were closed, but enough open to enjoy for our three nights on the island. I think Palma will be similar. (We had a car and stayed outside of town.)
 
We've only been during summertime, but absolutely loved Palma. I think the Puro group has an urban beach type sister property on the water to the south east of the old town. Another very pretty beach is Illetas, to the southwest about 15 mins drive. St Elmo is also quite scenic and quaint, about 45 mins, also to the southwest. But Palma itself can keep you entertained for four nights, no problem.

Sounds like a great trip!
 
20DEC AY 3269 HEL BCN /NOT VALID BEFORE 20DEC /NOT VALID AFTER 20DEC /FARE BASIS: UFPAY3C /Check-in will be closed: 16:40
30DEC AY 3270 BCN HEL /NOT VALID BEFORE 30DEC /NOT VALID AFTER 30DEC /FARE BASIS: UFPAY3C /Check-in will be closed: 09:20

At least we're skipping xmas at home now :) It's a four hour flight so I spent the extra miles for business class. Last time we had 8 small bottles of champagne so we'll do that again..

Too bad there are no good flights to connect to Palma on the way in or out. Now need to shuffle the Palma flights and Barcelona hotels :)
 
Sounds like a great trip---the hotel looks very chic and nice! Please report back. We are planning a non-sbh-trip, and have narrowed it down to Mallorca or one of the other Balearic Isles.
 
Just booked the hotels and rest of the flights.. B Hotel, Puro Hotel and Hotel España Ramblas. 3.5 days in Barcelona, 4.5 in Palma & the island. Two halves for relaxed breakfast and flights..


I was looking into local xmas traditions and they are rather interesting.

Caganer is a small figurine that is usually put together with the typically nativity scene. There's also a tradition to hide the Caganer and let children find it.

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The hundreds years old history is a bit unknown but it's considered a tradition and the it's thought to symbolize fertilizing the Earth. It's also about equality of all people regardless of status, race or gender. Makes sense.


The other local tradition is Caga Tió, a log of Christmas (Tió de Nadal). It's a log with little stick legs and a broad smiling face, usually covered with a hat or a blanket. It's kind of a xmas tree.

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On xmas eve or day the family puts the tió next to the fireplace and orders it to sh.t. To make it s.it, they beat it with a stick and sing something like:

"Sh.t log, s.it nougat, hazelnuts and cottage cheese, if you don't shi. well, I'll hit you with a stick, sh.t log!"
"S.it log, log of Christmas, don't shi. herrings, which are too salty, s.it nougat which is much better!"

The tió does not drop larger objects, as those are considered to be brought by the Three Wise Men. It does leave candies, dried figs, nuts and nougats. When nothing is left to "s.it", it drops a salt herring, a head of garlic, an onion or "urinates". What comes out of the tió is a communal rather than individual gift, shared by everyone present.


Seriously, I'm not making this up :D Both are old traditions and part of the lively local culture.
 

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Yes, please report back! We are doing the same trip this summer-- 4 days in Barcelona, and 11 days in Mallorca (we rented a farmhouse), and I'd love good restaurant recs!!!
 
mgk5u said:
Yes, please report back! We are doing the same trip this summer-- 4 days in Barcelona, and 11 days in Mallorca (we rented a farmhouse), and I'd love good restaurant recs!!!
Exactly what we are planning, as well!
 
Petri, will you share details of your trip? We are doing a similar trip this summer, and I would love reccos!
 
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.

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The nice thing about the Helsinki - Barcelona flight is that as a 4 hour flight it gets better than average meals.

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With the mandatory in-flight champagne:

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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:

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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.

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Barcelona airport was filled with xmas spirits (literally, too).

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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.

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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.

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Barcelona

We've been to Barcelona a few times, so nothing new as such. We didn't plan to do any major sightseeing, just happy to enjoy hopefully good weather, great food and some shopping.

Unfortunately it turned out that the xmas sales don't start until early January so very little was for sale. Luckily there's the aftermath of financial crisis, especially in Spain, and some stores, like our favourite Desigual, had some sweet deals.

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Here the traditional food for xmas is actually fish. The TV news reported how much the prices for fish increase for the holiday season.

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Back at home everyone was waiting for the sea to freeze. Not here.

And some brave people even went for a swim. Or perhaps they were british tourists.

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Small alleys were nicely decorated.

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And the sunny weather lured plenty of people for a nice stroll on the Ramblas.

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To give a try for some shopping, we even decided to take a bus to the outlet mall. And on the way to the bus stop, we managed to infiltrate an asian group going to the same place.

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A nice lunch on a terrance in Port Vell. Good enough, and one can't do this in Finland. In December.

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And some cozy dinners as well.

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We actually went twice to this restaurant, the first visit was so great that we wanted to go again on the last night to make sure we leave the city with great memories. http://carmelitas.biz/
 
Arrival to Mallorca

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Looks promising. Blue ocean. Clear sky. Sun.

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.. but.. but.. wasn't this supposed to be a beach destination?

And the eagle landed.

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And we were well greeted by this shiny phenomenon.

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.. followed by a nice lunch on a terrace.

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I've always assumed that oranges come from supermarket. Especially in December.

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