Mallorca

Palma de Mallorca Airport (PMI) is 8km from the city center. Check in and walk immediately to the Cathedral of Santa Maria (La Seu) — a Gothic cathedral begun in 1229 and completed 400 years later, built directly on the seafront so that its flying buttresses and vast bulk rise from the water's edge in an architectural statement of extraordinary drama. The interior was partially reworked by Antoni Gaudí between 1904 and 1914: his contribution includes the elaborate iron baldachin over the high altar, the repositioned choir stalls, and the rose window transformation — Gaudí on Gothic, an extraordinary conversation between the two. The old city of Palma, directly behind the cathedral, is a maze of Renaissance and Baroque palaces (the island's aristocracy built extravagantly here) with carved stone facades and palm-shaded interior courtyards — the Palau March contains an extraordinary courtyard sculpture garden. Dinner in the La Lonja neighborhood by the waterfront.

The Serra de Tramuntana is Mallorca's western mountain range — a UNESCO Cultural Landscape of limestone peaks, ancient terraces, and hilltop villages that rise steeply from the sea. The Ma-10 road that traverses it from Andratx to Pollença is one of the great mountain drives in Europe: hairpin turns, valley views dropping to the deep blue sea far below, and the stone walls of the terraced olive and almond groves. Deià is the most beautiful village in Mallorca — a cluster of stone houses on a hillside above the sea, where Robert Graves lived and wrote until his death in 1985, and which has long attracted artists, musicians, and writers. The Robert Graves Museum in his house, Ca n'Alluny, is a touching evocation of his Mallorcan life. Sóller, in its valley of orange groves, is reached by the vintage 1912 train from Palma (one of the best train journeys in Spain); the Modernista buildings on its main square are delightful.

Mallorca's best beaches are the small limestone coves (calas) hidden along the north and east coasts — and the best of these are accessible only by boat or difficult foot paths, which keeps them beautifully uncrowded. Cala Deià, directly below the village, is a small rocky cove with a beach bar and extraordinary turquoise water. The drive north along the coast to Cala Tuent passes through the most dramatic Tramuntana scenery — hairpin roads above sheer cliffs — and rewards with an almost entirely undeveloped sandy cove at the foot of the mountains. Sa Calobra, further east, is Mallorca's most dramatic coastal formation: a river gorge (the Torrent de Pareis) that cuts through the mountains to emerge at a small beach accessible only by boat or a 200-step descent. Swim in the water at the gorge mouth — it's a limestone cave opening onto the sea. Return via Pollença and Formentor Peninsula for sunset at the Cap de Formentor lighthouse.

Mallorca's interior — the Pla — is a landscape of almond and olive groves, stone walls, windmills, and the small wine towns of Binissalem and Porreres, where the local Manto Negro and Callet grapes produce reds of genuine character. Visit the Anima Negra or José Luis Ferrer bodega in Binissalem for a tasting of Mallorcan wine — not yet world-famous but significantly better than most tourists expect. The towns of Sineu (with a large Wednesday market, the largest in Mallorca) and Petra (birthplace of Father Junípero Serra, founder of the California missions) give a sense of the island's agricultural interior life. Return through Algaida for a long lunch at Hostal Algaida, famous throughout Mallorca for its traditional Mallorcan food: frito mallorquín, lamb with cabbage, coca de verdures, and the local sobrassada (red paprika-cured sausage that you eat spread on bread) with honey.

The southeastern coast of Mallorca has some of the island's most beautiful beaches: protected within the Cala Mondragó Natural Park, with soft white sand and shallow turquoise water that's warmer and calmer than the exposed north coast. Cala Mondragó and adjacent Cala S'Amarador are connected by a coastal path through pinewood and are served by a beach bar that is genuinely excellent. Porto Petro, 3km north, is a tiny unspoiled fishing village with a natural harbor and a waterfront lined with low buildings and moored fishing boats — the kind of Mallorcan village that existed everywhere 50 years ago and has become increasingly rare. Cala d'Or, 5km north, has a yacht harbor and the best selection of restaurants on the southeast coast. Return via the hilltop town of Santanyí — its distinctive golden sandstone architecture and weekly Saturday market are worth a stop.

A day of deliberate relaxation — after five days of driving and exploring, the penultimate day should be slower. If staying at Cap Rocat, the hotel's private cove (carved from the cliff below the old fortress) and the clifftop pool are genuinely extraordinary settings. Palma is 20 minutes away; its covered Mercat de l'Olivar is the best food market in the Balearics, with extraordinary Mallorcan cheesemakers, sobrassada producers, olive oil specialists, and the fish counter of the fish market. Afternoon: Es Portixol, the harbor village immediately east of Palma with its whitewashed 19th-century fishermen's houses converted into boutique hotels and excellent seafood restaurants. Dinner at Marc Fosh, Mallorca's most celebrated restaurant (Michelin starred) in the former refectory of a 17th-century convent.

Palma Airport is extremely well-connected to European hubs and many US cities via connections in Madrid, Barcelona, or Frankfurt. A final morning might include the Fundació Pilar i Joan Miró a Mallorca — the studio and foundation that preserves Joan Miró's Mallorcan workspace exactly as he left it at his death in 1983, with thousands of canvases, sculptures, and works on paper in the studio he used for the last 27 years of his life. The foundation's setting above the sea west of Palma is beautiful. Alternatively, a final café amb llet and an ensaïmada — Mallorca's traditional spiral pastry, dusted with icing sugar — on the Paseo del Borne in the center of Palma is the correct farewell to the island.