Are these places in Mallorca overdeveloped?

[backonthewagon]

I am looking at Formentor, Cala San Vicente, Cala Bona, S'Illot, Puerto de Soller, Porto Cristo.

I want to avoid

Anywhere overdeveloped.
High rise hotels.
"Blackpool abroad" type places.
Shops selling tacky souvieners.
English/irish bars with karaeoke, sports on TV, bingo, full English breakfasts, fast food and roast dinners.
Amusement arcades.
Loads of nightclubs for the 18-30 crowd.
Beach right by the main road.

Tacky souvenirs will be difficult to avoid unless you have a lot of money and can rent a property near Deia.

I have not been there for ages, but I assume it is difficult to overdevelop Formentor as it is just the very rocky and high end of the Tramuntana mountains.

The places you describe are the Arenal (Platja de Palma) and Magaluf (and anything nearby) the rest of the island is absolutely beautiful, but you may find they don't like tourists very much in non touristic areas.

My favourite places used to be Cala Pi, Cala Blava, Banyalbufar and EsTrenc, and other places in the mountains, like Valdemossa, Soller, Sa Calobra, etc, but these are mostly surrounded by residential or environmentally protected areas, so it may be difficult to find a place to stay.

Port de Soller was a beautiful quiet little town, but they have done it up in recent years, but it is a tiny bay so can't imagine lots of high rise hotels.

Cala San Vincente is gorgeous, we used to live in the nearest town to it, Pollenca which is also beautiful, full of character. The port in Pollenca is touristy but not half as bad as some of the others.

Puerto de Soller is lovely as are all the places in MeMySonAndI's post.

We stayed in cala bona last September and it certainly wasn't like blackpool with better weather. No beach in walking distancr though. Lovely little marina based town. Definitely avoid cala millor, just next door to bona, as much more touristy. Sa Coma looked nice when we visited.

What about Playa de Muro?

I thought Cala Bona was a bit dull although the hotels line the promenade so lovely views.
Cala D'Or is a very cosmopolitan resort. Busy, but has a very Spanish feel, lovely coves and great restaurants. Unlike many resorts which have been killed by the all inclusive trend.

Sa Coma & S'Illot aren't bad, but definitely have souvenir shops & Sa Coma has at least one if not two sports bars (visited last October).

Pollensa/Puerto pollensa both nice. Portocristo not as bad as the other ones, no huge white hotels in the main bay as far as I can remember. Avoid Alcudia.

We didn't like Porto Polllensa but loved Cala d'Or. It was more Spanush while PP had a definite Brits abroad feel and wax a bit pretentious. It was more expensive in resort as well.

They're all very nice, can't go really wrong

Playa da Muro is ok but it really just flows into Alcudia. Lacks character and the nature reserve looks a bit like scrubland. Nice beach though.

Why avoid Alcudia?

It's just not very nice and is more Blackpool like. Alcudia old town, on the other hand is beautiful and definitely worth a visit

No Alcudia is fine but Playa da Muro lacks identity of its own so it all feels one resort and a random mix of large hotels and bars. Some recommend Pollensa , we weren't that taken but only drove through so may have missed the best of it.

"Why avoid Alcudia?"

I didn't like Alcudia. It's too "kiss me quick" and Blackpooly for me.

Majorca is lovely and once you get away from the tourist hotspots is really worth visiting. We went in 1988 so I don't know if the nicer places we visited have become overdeveloped since then.

We weren't very lucky with the weather so the car that we hired for 3 days ended up as a 10 day car hire. But it was worth it because once we left Alcloudia, as we started calling it, we found better weather and nicer places to visit.

We stayed in Alcudia last years the other side of the old town and it was lovely. Could walk to a small beach and to the old town. Puerto d'Alcudia is more touristy but it is nothing like Magaluf and that ilk in the slightest. Yes it has touristy shops etc but it didn't come across as tacky. And wasn't full of loud teens like Magaluf and it isn't clubbing central. The sea there is lovely and shallow and ideal for younger children.

We have normally stayed around Puerto d'Pollenca which is also lovely ime.

I like Majorca and we always have a car so we can explore the island.
There are other nice places which are much quieter but sometimes when going off season they are not ideal as are only just opening up or starting to close down.

We've never been in full height of summer though. We've been at Easter, May and October holidays.

hulababy how has the weather been in October? Where did you stay in alcudia?

We stayed in a large villa towards the ES Bacares side of Alcudia. Was. 5-10 min walk into the centre of the old town at most and about 5 min to the Bacares coast.

Villa was a 5 bed with pool via someone like HomeAway

We did Puerto pollenca in the October - was lovely and warm which caught us by surprise. Didn't have suitable clothes for dd who was about 7/8 at the time - had to go shopping in second day to get her little dresses, shirts and tee shirt! Had thought it would be much cooler! She was in the sea every day and the sea was warm as it had had the whole summer warming it up.

Millimat - www.homeaway.co.uk/p1761460

This villa. Was lovely.

Does Pollensa have a beach or is it just at Puerto Pollensa?

Ah just seen Pollensa is inland.