My favourite place

Nina Stibbe on the magic of Majorca

The first time I went to Majorca was for a family holiday in the mid’70s, when I was a child – with my siblings, my mum and my granny. It was an October half-term and we stayed in one of those typical 1970s hotels with a swimming pool in a vast area of scrubland. It was fine for us children, but my granny wasn’t happy, and it didn’t leave me longing to go back.

Thirty years later, when I had my own family, it was hard to find the right place for holidays because my partner Mark is a surfer, snowboarder and cyclist, so he always wants waves, mountains and hills. Luckily I read an article about northwest Majorca, with its rocky coastline and the Sierra de Tramuntana – a mountain range beloved of cyclists.

So we took a big house on the outskirts of Deià with friends and family and it was fantastic – Mark would go off on an early bike ride and the rest of us would scramble down the valley to the tiny rocky cove called the Cala Deià, which has two little restaurants. Later, Mark would turn up having cycled 25 miles, and we’d go swimming and snorkelling, eat sardines and then stagger back up the slope.

We loved it so much we went back, and stayed in a hotel called Es Molí, an old millhouse overlooking Deià. The town is built on a hill and has a beautiful church and great cafés – our favourite being Aromas. The hotel’s main asset is its extraordinary setting – amid ancient farmland – and its spring-water swimming pool.

Another time we took a house

between Sóller and Fornalutx. Compared to Deià, Sóller feels like a proper town, with a square dominated by a big old church, and restaurants that spill out into the street. While you’re sitting around having drinks, the local kids are having a game of football in the middle of the square. It also has the most gorgeous ice-cream shop – Ca’n Pau Gelats Artesans. And then there are the trams. We’d take one to the Port de Sóller – passing through the suburbs where every house has an orange or olive tree – and have lunch at the Espléndido hotel, which has steeply terraced gardens looking out on to a beautiful bay.

My favourite thing is the walking. On our visit last year, my sister Vic and I used to get up early and walk along the valley as the sun came up, with the mountain donkeys ambling along beside us. One morning, we came to a tiny cove where we swam and then rejoined the little herd for a walk back up to the village. It was honestly one of the best days of my life.

Majorca is relatively easy to get to and not very pricey – certainly cheaper than France or Italy – and I’ve been back four or five times now. On each trip we try and find somewhere new to stay. It was a lovely surprise to me that Palma itself is so nice, and so underrated. I’m planning to explore it more this year. Nina Stibbe’s novel, Reasons To Be Cheerful, is published by Vintage, £8.99

The village of Deià in the north-west of Majorca

Nina and her mother in Deià