USVI-On-Line

My husband and I had originally planned to go to Ireland for a week, but after checking the weather reports for several days, it only showed rain and cold weather. So we made a change of heart and 20 hours before departure, we bought two airline tickets on a charter flight from Stockhom to Palma. I reserved a car and two nights on a Finca (old house) in a small village called Soller in the mountains.

Mallorca is most famous for being a huge charter destination for European tourists. But it also has some less visted areas and we tried to find those.

After a short flight (3 hours 20 minutes) we landed on Mallorca and got our car without any hazzle. The sun was shining and it was about 82F/29C.

I post a link to all of my photos here if you like to see more of them:

http://maggy1960.smugmug.com/Vacation/M ... 43_2nB48CN

Anyway, the finca (called Finca Ca'n Quatre) turned out to be a true gem. We absolutely loved it from the first moment and decided to stay two more nights. It wasn't cheap, but worth it. Here are some pictures from the place.

Pool



The main house



Our private terrace



More pictures from the finca





Trying to decide what to have for breakfast. The breakfast was one of the best I ever had in my life.



We did some shorter excursions and visited other villages, beaches and restaurants. Here are a few pictures from those places:

Puerto de Soller



Between Deia and Valldemossa





Deia







Valldemossa





Lunch with a view



Some scary roads



But these roads leads to pretty beaches



After four nights we moved to another part of the island that is more flat and had gorgeous beaches- Stayed at a finca on the countryside there. It was good, but not as cosy as the other one.

Great pool though



View from pool



The old farmhouse



Visited a couple of beautiful beaches and the water was so clear









Had lunch in a lovely village called Cala Figuera



Gorgeous sunset at the finca



A beach at 10 am



Same beach at 1.30 pm (this is when we left)



Clear water



Stopped the car to get a photo of these hay-rolls (or whataver it’s called in English) and the light was just magic. Hard to capture with the camera though.



Anyway, we were very happy with this trip and had just perfect weather all the time. We could easily go back again and I think the small villages up in the mountains were our favorite area to stay. We had so many good meals (sorry forgot to take pictures of that) and only met really friendly locals. One of the best dinners we had was at the first Finca. Here is our dinner table.

Thanks for sharing your pic's were awesome as usual.

great trip.....such a beautiful place to visit....

Those are some great pictures of a really beautiful place. It looks quiet and peaceful.....other than that one crowded beach shot. We had a similar experience in Maine a few weeks ago. By 11am it was packed, but we got a few good hours and a good sunburn.

Very nice pictures!

Thanks for ALL of the pics! So nice to see! The crowded beach was a downer to see but other than that, everything looked gorgeous! Thanks again!!!

nothintolose wrote:Thanks for ALL of the pics! So nice to see! The crowded beach was a downer to see but other than that, everything looked gorgeous! Thanks again!!!

Thank you, I'm glad you liked the pictures.

Yes, it was crowded at that beach after a while, but honestly, you can't go to a major tourist destination in the Mediterrainan in the summer and not expect crowds. It's just more or less crowded. Mallorca has so many nice beaches with large resorts made for families with kids and we tried to stay away from them. So, we went back to our finca when it was too crowded or just had lunch in some nice village. I was despite this very positively surpriced that Mallorca had so much to offer even if you like to get away from the crowds. Relaxing at our pool at the finca looking up on the mountains was not bad either .

Mallorca looks wonderful.

What a nice combo of rocky coast, sand beaches, old villages, elevation for views, even farmland. Probably nice in spring or fall too.

Great photos - you use a G11 or G12 right?

Those fincas looked quite charming - similar concept to an agriturismo in Italy, correct?

Thanks for sharing.

jmq wrote:Mallorca looks wonderful.

What a nice combo of rocky coast, sand beaches, old villages, elevation for views, even farmland. Probably nice in spring or fall too.

Great photos - you use a G11 or G12 right?

Those fincas looked quite charming - similar concept to an agriturismo in Italy, correct?

Thanks for sharing.

Thanks. Yes, I think it's great in the fall or spring. It was pretty dry now in the summer, so I think spring would be beautiful.

I used my G11. Love that camera.

Fincas can be situated both in the countryside and in villages. Not sure if it has to do with the number of rooms, but it's kind of similar to the agriturismo in Italy. We especially loved the first one.

Thank you for the report Maggy. Gorgeus pictures as always. I really understand why you love your camera (although it also depends of the photographer).

I wasn't sure if you were on Mallorca for vacation, when you told you stayed there. Actually we have recently discussed, if we should visit Mallorca, when we are in Spain next year. Unlike a lot of Danes we have never been there. I have read something about an old convent, where you can stay, but I have to say that the finca you lived in looked wonderful. So perhaps we should try that for a couple of nights. But I wondered about your breakfast there. Was it like a restaurant or a hotel? Normally a finca means a smaller house on the countryside - like ours.

Linne

linne wrote:Thank you for the report Maggy. Gorgeus pictures as always. I really understand why you love your camera (although it also depends of the photographer).

I wasn't sure if you were on Mallorca for vacation, when you told you stayed there. Actually we have recently discussed, if we should visit Mallorca, when we are in Spain next year. Unlike a lot of Danes we have never been there. I have read something about an old convent, where you can stay, but I have to say that the finca you lived in looked wonderful. So perhaps we should try that for a couple of nights. But I wondered about your breakfast there. Was it like a restaurant or a hotel? Normally a finca means a smaller house on the countryside - like ours.

Linne

The finca was situated in Soller about 10 minutes walk to the town square. It had 8 or 9 rooms and the breakfast was served in a room in the main building. I have a photo of it if you check the link I posted to all pictures on Smugmug. Or I can post it here:



I can highly recommend it and we would love to go back. It was not the cheapest (we paid 195 Euro including breakfast for the mini suite, which was the only room the had available). But I think it was worth it for a few nights. Some of the rooms were in two other lowrise buildings (like ours). You can PM me if you like to know more. Or you can google Finca Can Quatre, they have good website.

That area of Mallorca was so beautiful and it was our first visit to the island. I said to Christer after a couple of days "so is this the place we should live when we retire"?. We loved it.

WOW great photo's thanks for posting

Thank you for the answer Maggy. So you are another Scandinavian, who has travelled much but never have been on Mallorca before even though it's a common place to travel to for us - easy and normally cheap .

As you say it's a little expensive on Finca Can Quatre, but it looks very nice, and if we go to Mallorca next year we will definitely follow your recommendations and go to the area.

Linne

What amazing pictures! It looks like a wonderful trip! Thanks for sharing with us!

A perfect trip report, Maggy! I love all the pictures of the buildings and the flowers! Mallorca looks like if you could cross California with St. John! It looks like a wonderful place to retire!