Travel Tuesday – ¡Mallorca!

All photos provided on this post were taken by me (Luis Rivera) on my recent trip to Mallorca in December 2023.

Last year in December, I had the pleasure of traveling around the island of Mallorca in between my days of research and today I wanted to share a bit of these travels. Though I do not have ancestry in many of these towns (or at least that I know of yet since for example I do have the surname Deià in my family) I decided to travel to them because either they are well known on the island amongst tourists/locals or simply because I wanted to travel to a new corner of Mallorca.

All of my travels on the island were done 1) in low season since it was December and 2) on public transportation which in this case meant using the public bus system. This means that if you go during the summer there are bound to be more tourists present and if you rent a car you will have direct access to some of the towns instead of taking the bus and transferring in order to arrive there. This also means that some of the things I did not get to do that were closed will likely be open in the summer.

Today I will talk about five towns: Deià, Valldemossa, Artà, Santanyì, and Banyalbufar.

Deià

I went to Deià and Valldemossa on Tuesday since it was the same bus route (Bus 203). Both towns are on the way to Sóller, the town of my ancestor, which meant that I had already traveled this route in the past. I actually did not get to do much in Deià, only stopping at one of the miradores (viewpoints) and at the cemetery. Both the museo arqueológico (archeological museum) and Iglesia (church) de Sant Joan Baptista were closed.

Since Deià is a small town, the population being no more than 700 people in 2023, the town does not have much to offer to tourists. However, it is well known as a cute, quaint town and if you are looking for a town that is Mallorcan without so much of the hustle and bustle of the city, Deià could be that place for you.

Valldemossa

My next stop that same day was Valldemossa, also on bus 203. Here in Valldemossa, I was able to walk around the streets and see a few different places such as Mirador de Miranda des Lledoners, Carrer de l’Amargura, Carrer de ses Filoses, Carrer del Rei Sancho, Carrer de la Rectoria (home of Santa Catalina Tomás), Iglesia Sant Bartomeu (Bartolomé in Castellano), Palacio de Rey Sancho, Real Cartuja, and the Jardines del Rey Juan Carlos I.

On my free walking tour in Palma, they had mentioned that coca de patata was a famous dessert from this town. It was popular around the island but the guide mentioned that Valldemossa had some of the best coca de patatas, so I made sure to get one just before leaving the town.

Valldemossa has a population just over 2,000 and you can feel a different vibe there in comparison to Deià. It is still a small town but I enjoyed Valldemossa a bit more than Deià since there was more movement around the town.

Artà

Since I spent Wednesday researching in Mallorca, I headed out on Thursday to Artà. I took bus 401 to Manacor and then transferred to bus 411 to arrive in Artà. I really enjoyed this town because it was a bit bigger (population 25,564) and it was equally historical as it was archeological. I spent time walking around and exploring Ses Païsses (about a 15 minute walk from the center). Ses Païsses is a settlement of the Talaiotic people – this civilization lived in the Balearic islands around the Iron Age with the culture’s development dating back to the end of the 2nd millennium BC.

There were not many tourists at this site (maybe 3-4 other people also walking around the entire area) and so I was able to enjoy a bit of nature and history without too much interruption. I had never heard of Ses Païsses before this trip, so I am glad I was able to go there and explore!

Next I headed back into Artà and explored the Santuari de Sant Salvador and the Iglesia Parroquial de la Transfiguración del Señor. From up here, I was able to get a better view of the town and the surrounding area. Since the weather was really nice I was able to see fairly far and take some good pictures as well.

Unfortunately, the regional museum was closed and so I did not get to explore that. I really enjoyed exploring this area of Mallorca and it was the most south-east I have been on the island.

Santanyì

Saturday I headed over to Santanyì by taking bus 501 to Campos and then the bus 517 to Santanyì.

Here I was only able to walk around the town seeing Porta murada and the Iglesia de Santanyì. Usually the church offers a free concert on Wednesdays and Saturdays at 12:00PM, which I was super excited to see since apparently the church has one of the best organs in Europe. However, since it was low season, the free concert was not in session. Since I could not see the inside of the church I decided to hop on bus 516 and head to Miradaor de Es Pontàs.

Honestly, an amazing place to explore!

Again, since it was low season there were not many tourists around. For a long time I was able to sit on the rocks (picture below) and be completely by myself with just nature – hearing the crashes of the waves and feeling the sea breeze. It was super relaxing and had I known it was so serene I would have brought some food and had myself a little picnic.

The pictures barely do any justice to the actual beauty of this place!

After sitting here for a while and enjoying Mirador de Es Pontàs, I took bus 516 and then bus 501 back to Palma.

Banyalbufar

Easily, Sunday was one of my favorite days traveling around the island. I took bus 202 and headed over to Banyalbufar. My goal was to watch the sunset at Torre del Verguer (Mirador de Ses Ànimes) so I did not really get much time to explore the town since I arrived just in time to see the sun start to set.

I did see Carrer de S’Amargua and Plaza de la Vila but since the sun was setting, the pictures were not super pretty.

However, my time at the tower DID NOT disappoint! The colors danced across the horizon as the sun dipped behind the ocean and all that was left was a swirl of yellows and oranges along with blues and purples.

I took the bus to Banyalbufar and from there walked along the road to head to the viewpoint. There really is not a walking path built on the side of the road, however, signs do say to be attentive to people walking along the path. A lot of the traffic surprisingly came from motorcycles and so I did not feel super pressed to the side of the mountain as they zoomed by. Nonetheless, I would step to the side and wait any time a car or motorcycle passed by, even though they moved a bit over to give me space.

I was so happy I took time to head over to town and see the sunset because it was easily one of the best sunsets I have ever seen.

Traveling alone

All of these towns I explored completely by myself. I would research the towns, the times of the buses (TIB – Transports de les Illes Balears is a great site!), and what I wanted to see in each town.

Though at times of course you feel lonely walking around, listening to music and reading on the bus helped to pass the time. Also, there is a bit of magic in being alone, wandering to new places, and being okay with the thought of just being alone with yourself. I think this is a skill that many people have lost in this modern age and easily become anxious if there are not talking to others and just scroll the internet. Since my family and friends are back in the US, many of them were asleep/at work by the time I was doing all of this exploring and thus did not rely on them to be “in connect” with others.

Personally I have come to love traveling and exploring new places alone.