Superstars’ playground
Forget high-rise hotels and chips, says Frank Barrett, the real Majorca is a tranquil, beautiful and very, very stylish...
SQUARE HUMS WITH LOCALS CHATTING OVER THEIR COFFEES
IIt’s tempting to imagine that tourism to Majorca started with the birth of the package holiday at the beginning of the 1950s. In fact, by the time the first charter flight arrived, the Spanish Balearic island was already firmly established as an upmarket holiday place.
When in the 1930s Agatha Christie broke her journey on the way back from the Middle East (her husband Max Mallowan was an eminent archaeologist and an expert on Mesopotamia) to stay in Palma, she was surprised to find that the place was so popular that the three best hotels were full.
She decided to head to the Formentor hotel instead, located on the Cap de Formentor at the northwestern point of the island (while she liked the sound of the hotel, apparently she was less thrilled by its pricey daily rate).
When the taxi passed the Hotel Illa d’Or in Puerto Pollensa, she immediately liked the look of it (and its more affordable rates, presumably).
She checked herself in and found the hotel and the resort so much to her taste that she included it in her short story Problems At Pollensa Bay.
In the story, sleuth Parker Pyne is approached by a fellow British guest looking for assistance in saving her son from an unsuitable marriage.
Puerto Pollensa has changed since Christie’s day, but the Hotel Illa d’Or is still in business.
In its A La Carte programme of luxury hotels from around the world, TUI brings together the classic style of the grand hotel with the affordability and ease of a package holiday, featuring the Hotel Illa d’Or as one of its premier Majorcan properties.
While the island is probably better known for resorts such as Palma Nova and Magaluf, archetypal modern resorts with high-rise hotels, the vast majority of the island has altered very little.
This helps explain why Majorca continues to remain a popular holiday place with the rich and famous including Michael Douglas and Catherine Zeta-Jones, Claudia Schiffer, Pierce Brosnan and many more.
Back in the day it would have taken Christie a few hours to drive from Palma to Puerto Pollensa (the roads were dreadful).
Now, thanks to new highways, the journey takes about 50 minutes and not much longer to Cala d’Or on the east coast.
It’s worth ‘drilling down’ into tour operator websites to discover hidden gems: unspoilt places with family-run hotels and characterful places to eat.
Any time spent on research will be amply rewarded with a holiday that should be enjoyed by everybody. Destinations that appealed to me include Alaro.
According to TUI, the village is little more than a handful of sandcoloured brick buildings, which give way to a sleepy square, called Plaza del Ayuntamiento.
This is the lifeblood of the place, and the few bakeries and cafes that line its perimeters hum with locals chatting over coffee and churros.
Crowning the hill that overlooks Alaro is a ruined 15th Century fortress. Make the two-hour trek to the summit for views of the countryside. Recommended places to eat include Es Verger, popular for its roast lamb.
The hotel that is featured in the TUI programme, one of its range of ‘Small and Friendly’ properties, is the 25-room Hotel S’Olivaret, which has ‘a peaceful countryside setting in a sun-drenched valley of the Tramuntana Mountains’.
Two hundred years ago, the hotel began life as a traditional finca: ‘It has held on to its old-world character – exposed stone walls, woodbeamed ceilings, and cobbled courtyards.’
For a quieter seaside break, TUI recommends Cala Mesquida on Majorca’s east coast, a place which has ‘a peaceful atmosphere, countryside views, and a postcardworthy beach’.
It is perched on the north-eastern coastline, where ‘turquoise waters and powder-fine sands are in good supply’.
Most people are drawn by the white-sand beach and traditional cuisine.
The beach is ‘an unusual strip of porcelain-coloured sand, backed by a blanket of dunes’.