What to do near Palmanova tomorrow

[Rainydayze]

….with 12 year old. Was thinking train to Soller but thinking they will struggle with two hour trip in heat if busy.

Was thinking Kathmandu Park but drove past today and looks very small.

DH doesn’t want Waterpark as spend lots of time in pool at hotel.

Ideas welcomed!

Boat trip? I think you can do glass bottom ones or dolphin watching ones from Palma Nova or Magaluf. You could go for one that includes time for swimming somewhere.

Or you could do one of the boat trips from Santa Ponsa to Sa Dragonera Island.

Have you got a car?

There’s a zipline / adventure park but that’s over the other side of Palma. There are also zip lines up at Reserva Park plus outdoor swimming pools.

Thank you. I’ll look into the zipline, I didn’t know about that.

The dolphin boat trip with the glass bottom boat…don’t bother! Didn’t see one fish! There’s a fab mini golf called golf fantasia I believe, great for daytime or evening. Lots of holes. We did a day trip to the salt caves but that is a very long day. The water park is great. There’s a fab aquarium too if you want to be inside. The beach off the magaluf strip is great with lots of water activities too

Marineland was great too

We’ll be in Palma Nova in a few weeks’ time - hoping the resort is nice and busy? And what sort of weather are you having?

I was wondering how you're finding the mood there - we're going in a few weeks and all I keep seeing on my news feed is stuff about the locals protesting about too many tourists. I can totally see their point, but selfishly don't want our holiday ruined!

We were in Mallorca last week and we spent the full day at marinaland. Even though it's not a huge place there's a few shows, the splash park for the kids etc was great too

Did t see any of that @NImumconfused
We were staying at globales maoris and it was absolutely fine. We did a trip to marineland, the aquarium and Palma itself and all was good

The weather is beautiful. We have seen nothing of the protests apart from one bit of graffiti on the way from the airport, and all the locals have been friendly.

It's all utter bollocks, being spun out of all proportion by the UK media during a bit of a lull in the run-up to their apocalyptic coverage of EES and ETIAS, coming this autumn and winter ("NOW faceless Sharia-loving champagne-swilling unelected EuSSR bureaucrats PUNISH hard-working Brit families for Brexit with SINISTER terminals that collect fingerprints from CHILDREN").

There was a well-organised demo in Palma the other day, aimed squarely at the local government (the Spanish equivalent of the Tories were elected last year) by people protesting against the effects of second-home ownership and illegal Airbnb-type holiday lets on the (rental) housing market. They have a point -- rents have soared, and a lot more affordable housing needs to be built. But the march was entirely peaceful. The Daily Fail and co were reduced to trying to scare people by pointing out that (oooh!) some of the police at the demo were wearing stab-proof vests (which Spanish police wear all the time) and that (aaah!) some people eating their dinner on terraces felt a bit nervous when the demo marched past them.

But people are now getting the idea that hordes of out-of-control locals are rampaging down the streets every evening, throwing petrol bombs at tourist hotels or something. Or that the airport is going to be closed down by a convoy of flaming trucks. Absolutely nothing of the sort has happened, nor is there the remotest chance of it happening.

Funnily enough, though, the Spanish police were out in force yesterday evening, chasing and firing rubber bullets at a bunch of neo-Nazi German football supporters who trashed a bar in a notorious party corner of the island (not Palma Nova fortunately).

The Soller train is great, if a bit pricy (€35 for the return). It doesn't get too hot because it chugs along with the windows open. You can book in advance online at trendesoller.com and get the bus in to Palma - there are 4 or 5 buses an hour. Go up the stairs from the bus station, turn right, and the Soller train is 50m away.

Katmandu is alot of fun and you have golf fantasia not too far away.
My favourite thing of the whole year is the Pirates dinner and show. It starts at 6pm and is fabulous- so much talent! I've seen it about 20 times and still enjoy it!
What about the beach? Take a boat trip? Paddle board?

@Hungrycaterpillarsmummy @Rainydayze @samarrange thanks, that's all good to know. We were there last year and loved it, so we're going back this year and really looking forward to it, but my DD is ASD and very anxious, and was worrying that tourists weren't going to be welcome. It was the i-news that kept popping up on my news feed with scare stories the last couple of weeks (is that what used to be the independent maybe?).

Total sympathy for the local people being overrun, high rents etc - I've lived in a real tourist trap area in England and it drove me right round the bend in high season!

"i-news" was spun off from the Independent as a tabloid venture. But it's now owned by the same people as the Daily Mail, and their "content" comes from the same work-experience pseudo-journalists who trawl Reddit for fights about airline seating. 🙄

Off-topic: the "i" house style is hilarious because it requires writers to refer to the name of the paper. This might work for a normal name ("The Mail has learned that the minister will resign today") but in their case it results in hilarious sentences like "i has learned that the minister will resign today" (with Gollum-like syntax and a sentence starting with a lowercase letter).

I totally hadn't realised that, I think in my head it was just the website version of the Indy and so I was giving it more credence than it obviously deserves.

Will always think of it as Gollum from now on! 😂

Another beautiful day and I’m most surprised by how lovely the beaches and beach bars by Magaluf are!

Yes, Calvia Beach is lovely! I wonder how long it will take for Magaluf (by night) to clean up its act, I know big efforts are underway.