MALLORCA

[LovelySunnyDayToday]

Have you been?
What's the nicest beach and town?

Thanks ☺️

Another vote for Cala d'or here! Beautiful, lovely
places to eat, great vibe.

"Nicest" depends on what you like and how long you want to go for.

If you want somewhere that feels like a quiet little seaside village in Devon, go to Sant Elm or Portocolom. But don't then complain that there is not much nightlife, or that they are not the most convenient bases for touring (especially Sant Elm, which only has 2 hotels and is as far west as you can get - but it is gorgeous for 3-4 days).

If you want to be able to get a full English breakfast and watch the Premier League, go to Magaluf or Palma Nova or Alcudia.

If you want to hobnob with yacht owners and other rich people, go to Portals Nous or Puerto Andratx. Bonus points for DH if he wears a blazer and calls other people "squire". (Maybe that's a bit 1980s, but I hope you get the gist.)

If you are going at Easter, consider staying in Palma, which is a city of nearly 400,000 people and has lots to do it if rains, which can't be excluded, even if it is nearly always sunny. Also, while it can be nice and warm in mid-April, we're talking 24°, not 32°, so the pools will be cold (some hotels don't take the covers off until the start of May) and the sea won't be much warmer.

Went for the first time last summer. Beautiful island but absolutely packed. The resentment from the locals cast a real pall and made us feel guilty. Spent an absolute fortune. Wouldn’t go back.

Where exactly did you go to?

We’ve been a few times, stay in Palma and port de soller. There’s a cute very scenic train between Palma and soller than a short tram ride to port soller.

love Palma, great food.

port de soller doesn’t have a huge beach though.

the buses round the island are fantastic.

Palma and Port Andraxt also hired car and travelled round saw Vilhermosa Port Soller etc. Yes it’s a lovely island but so full and crowded. Definite chill in the air from the locals there were anti tourist marches while we were there headlines in local papers all very anti tourist. Lots of fuck off / keep out tourist signs in Vilhermosa. . Dd speaks Spanish so understood what was said. Wouldn’t go back. Wouldn’t have booked it I had known. Not nice being somewhere your presence is a problem and resented by the locals.

TBH this sentiment is very widespread in popular tourist areas anywhere in peak season.

Even in Cornwall, there is growing resentment towards Tourists in some areas.

But the OP is planning to go in Easter, i ve been going around this time of year for around 10 years, never seen/heard any anti tourist feeling at all & it wont be particularly busy, maybe a few tourist busses to Sa Collabra but that'll be it.

I know it’s a widespread general issue but this was very noticeable because the island is so small and the tourists are so many. I guess you can develop a thick skin and battle on determined to enjoy your holiday but it made me feel bad. It’s not great when you are the actual problem,

Reports of anti-tourist sentiment in Majorca have been rather exaggerated. There were three demos on beaches, with a maximum turnout of about 50 people and zero arrests. These were mostly in response to a local far-right politician who said "Majorcan people are going to have to get used to not being able to find a spot on the beach in summer", so of course the local left-wing groups felt the need to react to that. They ended up looking a bit silly.

There were also two large and entirely peaceful marches in Palma, mostly demanding that something be done about housing. There is a big shortage of affordably housing, much of it due to illegal lets (many, perhaps most of the apartments on Airbnb are illegal), to the point that seasonal workers are sleeping in mobile homes or even tents in some cases. Almost nobody is protesting about people coming to stay in hotels and eat in restaurants, but of course the few who are will always make for a great "man bites dog" story in the click-hungry UK media.

That said, Valldemossa and Deia are basically Disneyland. Tourists taking pictures of other tourists, like Cinque Terre. There are several other towns in the mountains that are far more authentic with a fraction of the visitors.

Much as I love Mallorca, I came across quite a lot of anti-tourist, and more specifically anti-British sentiment there. We are stereotyped as lager louts.

Can I ask what form that took? Were local people making comments when they realised that you or others were from the UK, for example? 🙏

Glares /eye rolls / brusque service. Even the teens noticed it, We were there when the marches were on. It wasn’t so much that people were mean more i felt guilty. If I had known tourism was such an issue we would have gone somewhere else.

Sant Elm.
Really pretty town for wandering around, lots of sea views.
lots of excellent restaurants
pretty beach.
near dragonera island

We did feel any anti tourist sentiments in Cala d’or last year. Not even a hint of it towards us. I think the issues are mainly around housing, which is totally understandable. I live in the south west of England and we have a similar problem with Londoners moving down and pricing people out of where they grew up. So I get it.

also some British tourists are very badly behaved and just don’t respect other places at all.
we witnessed one such tourist and were very much on the side of the Spanish with regards to his behaviour. Just be thoughtful and respectful. Staying in hotels and eating at local places is not the issues. It’s the air b&bs and the brits looking for the best fry up and getting annoyingly drunk that are.

Didn’t feel it was because we were English but tourists. We are a low key well behaved quiet family we weren’t rolling around drunk and swearing!

Wow!
Never experienced this, not even close, everyone super friendly, couldn't do enough for us.

We needed the chemists, the young lady there chatted to us about housing, its dire, she was actually living permanently in the apartment block where we were staying, she said any anger is towards the foreign buyers who don't live here but run AirBnB's, totally pricing out local workers.

We are there in 4 weeks time, will be interesting to see if attitudes have changed at all.

Comments about housing, being unfriendly, disliking that we didn't speak Mallorquin and misinterpreting the Spanish we tried. Making comments about my driving/parking. Asking where we were staying. On one occasion, asking why we were there, saying there were too many British there, telling us to stay in Magaluf (we weren't staying there).

@Whataninterestinglookingpotato Londoners have the same issue of being priced out of where they grew up too.

If you stay in your resort you’re probably ok as the staff are paid to be smarmy. It’s when you are out in the real world. Mostly noticed in Palma and vilermossa. Kind of wish i could go back in time and go. It’s so pretty but I think its an island being ruined by mass tourism. If most other people there are tourists it’s like being in a theme park rather than a real place. It’s also not pleasant being somewhere you know you are (justifiably) hated.

Porto pollenca is the nicest area I've been to on Mallorca. Pollenca town is close by and it's beautiful.

We go to Mallorca most years, in May/June and stay in Pollença. Beautiful town, much quieter than the touristy places without being too quiet and some very good restaurants.

We have never experienced any hostile behaviour in all the years (40+ with parents and as adults) we've been going either OP.

We went pre covid and stayed near Palma. There is a small guage train which going into the hills and olive groves, then down to Soller and Port Soller. We wished we'd stayed in Port Soller. There was a little market on, great restaurants, a beach and just felt FAR more holiday like than where we had stayed. The train goes both ways. We caught a local bus back, only because it was quicker, but I'd thoroughly recommend the train.
https://trendesoller.com/eng/routes/train

I’m a Brit living in pollenca and I haven’t really noticed any anti tourist feeling or anti Brit . They’re more anti mainland Spanish! I do live here though so I’m not considered to be part of the problem. But housing costs are ridiculous and I can totally understand why the locals are so annoyed over the amount of holiday lets there are, owned by non Spanish so the money doesn’t even stay in the country. Finding a reasonably priced long term rental is pretty much impossible.

there are quite a few locals who own holiday lets though…

This sounds lovely - would it be worth a day trip from the south to the north of the island for this?