Majorca recommendations

[gratefulheart]

Hi all!
im looking for recommendations please for a report/ hotel in Majorca for myself and two teens (16 and 13) I would like somewhere within walking distance of beach and restaurants, so not a hotel in middle of nowhere. Close to a water park for teens. A hotel that allows inflatables and somewhere with some culture/ areas to explore… not all brits abroad.

doesn’t have to be Majorca but looking for short flight times and Spanish speaking as my daughter studying Spanish and wants the practice!!

any ideas or recommendations please?

Alicudia sounds just perfect for you. Theres several hotels to choose from

I had been looking at Alcudia beach apartments? Anyone been there?

We just stayed here, it ticks most of your boxes (apart from inflatables). It’s German so fairly un-Brits abroad and I got to practise my Spanish fairly often:

https://www.insotelhotelgroup.com/en/hotels/mallorca/insotel-cala-mandia-resort-spa

I didnt like alcudia, it's not awful but i only spent a day there and didnt bother again. Port de pollenca is a few miles up the coast and much nicer, i would stay there and organise a couple of day trips to the water parks in alcudia if i were you

I would second the suggestion of staying in Puerto Pollensa and having day trips to the water parks if wanted.

Puerto Azul Suite Hotel might fit the bill - allows inflatables as far as I’m aware and in a great location for beach / restaurants etc

Thanks folks

sadly theee options out of my price range. I’m looking at 3grand tops

I dont think they want tourists coming atm do they? I thought there were demonstrations against it. I'm having a year off going abroad this year until the situation resolves itself.

https://www.telegraph.co.uk/world-news/2024/06/01/majorca-occupy-beaches-protest-tourism-island/

This is utter clickbait. Summary:

• There was one single demo in Palma asking the government to take steps to make homes more affordable, because holiday lets (often illegal) have taken lots of rental properties off the market. This will be familiar to anyone from Edinburgh or Bath or Cornwall. This was a protest against illegal speculation with the housing stock, not against tourists.
• A local far-right politician, looking to shit-stir, said last week "Well, you'll [i.e., local Majorcan people] will all just have to get used to not going to the beach in high summer".
• So 30 or so anti-fascist-minded locals said "Fuck that, we're going to the beach this Saturday". And they did, at one of the least touristy/most for-locals beaches on the island. This was a protest against shit-stirring from the far right, not against tourists.

And that's it. That's the extent of "They don't want tourists". There were more reporters and camera crew at the beach than people protesting.

Absolutely nothing is being done against tourists in Majorca. But the tabloids love stories along the lines of "Dodgy foreigners hate plucky Brits". There is absolutely no reason for anyone to cancel their holiday. It's all bollocks for clicks.

I wouldn’t go after seeing what is happening over there atm!!

Puerto Pollensa is my recommendation. You can get the bus to Alcudia.

One of our favourite holidays was Cala d,Or in Majorca cannot remember the hotel but it was 5 minutes from the beach. Lots of nice places to eat and excursion coaches are also within a 5 minute walk. This was about 16 years ago though so it may be different now.

I'm in Mallorca now. Not seen a hint of the demonstration. All local people pleasant and welcoming whether in hotels, bars or restaurants.
As pp says it's been blown out of proportion because British press likes to pretend Brits are not wanted. Ditto Canary Islands where we happened to be in January when there were allegedly protests. Nothing.

As to resorts look at Cala Millor. Big family friendly resort with a mix of nationalities. Can't recommend a hotel as we go adults only since DC are older.

Menorca is lovely
Not sure on big water parks but a lot of hotels have them or a small ish one near, has beautiful beaches / coves and ciutadella is very cultural

i think mallorcans speak Catalan and more southerly areas speak Castilian…I’m sure some people will confirm or deny this…so your choice might depend on which language/dialect your daughter chooses.

There’s nothing happening there at the moment. The single march that took place was small, 10 000 people. It’s not anti tourism, it’s just wanting affordable housing for residents. Everyone can be happy.

My cousin lives in Mallorca (he’s Mallorquin, not ex pat) and he’s priced out of the market for even renting. He didn’t know there was a demo taking place until the day of, and he lives in Palma. He went dancing instead of joining in.

@samarrange Exactly, when I saw the press talking about protests on the beach against tourism, that’s the last beach I would choose if I wanted to protest against tourists - hardly any tourists go there 😂 Bloody press do like to stir it up. Waiting for the annual reports that we need 1 meeellion dollars a day and a special visa, plus a letter from the Spanish royal family, or they won’t let us through the airport.

I was in Palma 3 days ago. Nothing going on there.

Alcudia is short on culture. Cala Major is close to Palma and the Western Aquapark is accessible by bus.

Mallorquins speak the mallorquin dialect of Balearic Catalan. It’s similar to the dialects in Menorca and Ibiza (but not the same!) and it’s quite different to Catalan. The school exams are all in Catalan so they teach Catalan Spanish in Mallorca but my cousin and his friends (who are locals born and bred) struggled with the differences as it’s pronounced differently, and has differences in grammatical structure and even unique words.

It's a little bit like Switzerland (of course, all analogies are imperfect). Swiss German is basically a different language to "proper" German (Hochdeutsch), but Swiss kids learn proper German from age 6 because it's the only written form.

Exactly like this