Postcard from… Mallorca

Hello from…Mallorca

Last time I was in Mallorca was in the summer of 2019 for a wedding. The island feels a little more built up since then, but it is still a perfect vacation spot with so much to offer. 

Where I stayed…

We rented a house for a week through Le Collectionist. We had a great experience with them; the house was well set up and serviced and their team was excellent at communicating with us. The house was in the small, quiet town of Randa, with mainly cyclists coming through. There’s a great bar in town where we had our morning coffees after our daily runs through Algaida. We fell in love with their Granitado de Almendra (almond granita), which was the perfect post-workout treat. One hundred yards away was a charming farm-to-table restaurant called Restaurante Sa Tanqueta, which was perfect for nights when we didn’t want to drive. Mallorca is a large island, and going anywhere took at least 30-40 minutes, so I highly recommend renting a car. We did day trips to Palma, Deia, Soller, Valldemossa, Can Picafort and stopped in many other small towns along the way.

The best meal I had…

Hands down, was at a restaurant called Ca Na To Ne Ta in Caimari. It was the most delicious and unique clean food menu based on traditional Mallorcan recipes—my favorite dish was a salad inside a pumpkin flower. The restaurant is run by sisters, and they offer such a warm and rustic atmosphere. I loved the entire presentation and tiny details including the standout flatware, which was worth noticing. 

Another standout was the S’ERA Forn Artesà Sineu bakery in the town of Sineu. The owner, Simon Moreno, was so welcoming and we had the best time chatting about New York with him. He pointed us to the nearby 5-room, beautifully designed, Es Picarol B&B that is run by a Dutchman. He also suggested we go to a special restaurant to buy a local, natural orange wine called Jaumet.

The most fun thing we did…

We rented a boat for a day for a swim along the coves and then had lunch at Sa Foradada, one of the hard-to-get-to spots that is mostly accessible by boat. The restaurant’s outstanding views were an equal match to its great seafood paella. We ended the day with a dinner at Ca’s Patró March, where we watched the sunset and had a scorpion fish, which we’d never tried before.

A thing or two I learned…

Renting a house is a very different and more authentic experience than staying in a hotel. Doing your daily routines in a new place makes you feel more like a local than a tourist. Every place we went to I asked the shopkeepers and owners for their recommendations, like their favorite beaches and villages, where’s the best paella and where they go for vacation. Not surprisingly, many vacation in Mallorca. Meeting people from the places you visit is just the best way to learn.

The best thing I am bringing home…

Dora Alzamora Good ceramics. Her pieces are worth the trip alone. I met her in 2019 and she invited me and my husband to visit her mother’s studio on the outskirts of Deia. It was one of those magical experiences that we have been blessed to share and continue to cherish. So we had to come back, but this time we needed to ship them because there are just too many and they were too good!