Holidays ideas for Mallorca off the beaten track

It is said that on any given day, in the high season, a plane touches down at Palma de Mallorca airport every 60 seconds. In the summer, the island’s once dreary capital, now a sparkling Mediterranean-style hub, heaves with visitors from every corner of Europe. Trying to get a table at one of the fish shacks on the beach at Deià – the north coast enclave where bohemia rubs shoulders with big money – becomes a fruitless task. Meanwhile, the tour buses come and go, ferrying their charges to the rumbustious resorts of Magaluf and S’Arenal.

Take the low road north out of Palma, however, and the cruising speed shifts down a couple of gears. The Ma-3011 leads through a bucolic landscape of almond and olive groves bounded by meandering dry-stone walls. Windmills, like miniature castles, stand guard among fields grazed by flocks of scrawny sheep. Tiny towns like Pina and Ruberts have none of the manicured prettiness of Deià or Pollensa, but instead are rustic splotches of stone and terracotta clustered around Foursquare churches with pepperpot bell towers.

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On an island where visitor numbers reached 12 million a year in the pre-pandemic era, it is hard to believe that there can still be pockets of authenticity. Yet the central plains, framed by the mountains of the north west, the bay of Alcúdia and the Artà hills in the north east, are a reserve of rural life that have rarely featured in the travel plans even of committed Mallorca-philes.

Until now. The less-traversed interior has swum into the spotlight as visitors crave country quietude over the hurly-burly of the coast. Wise travellers are heading away from the Tramuntana mountains to historic Sineu or honest-to-goodness towns (Algaida, Porreres, Campos) where the only crowds are found at the produce market.

Tourism on any scale has yet to find a foothold in these back- waters, but change is coming. Finca Serena, a gorgeous converted farm outside Montüiri – the inland town where Tomás Graves, son of the writer Robert, took refuge after leaving Deià a few years back – opened in 2019 and is one of the island’s loveliest hotels.

The interior is not just Mallorca’s geographical heart, but also the guardian of its pastoral soul. The foreign presence in these parts is limited and most of the big estates remain in the hands of local families. The towns and villages have warren-like streets of houses in dust-pink sandstone, their shutters painted a utilitarian green. Some, like Sineu and Porreres, echo a prosperous mercantile past; others are sleepy hamlets with little more than a shop and a café.

High culture is a low priority, but there are modest peaks. Puig de Randa, a hill rising from the plain, has been a pilgrimage site since medieval mystic Ramon Llull spent time meditating in a cave up there. You could organise a good crawl among the churches of the interior – prime candidates being the fortress-like Santa Maria in Sineu and Petra’s Sant Pere, a Gothic barn on an impressive scale.

A better plan is to have no plan. Drift from town to town past vineyards and wineries – some of which are producing characterful wines with rediscovered local grapes such as Callet and Manto Negro. Fancy restaurants are few and far between, but you can explore the byways of homely Mallorquín food (think stuffed squid or tumbet – a sort of layered ratatouille) at rustic establishments like Molí d’en Pau in Sineu or S’Estanc Vell in Vilafranca de Bonany.

And when the lure of the beach becomes irresistible, it is worth remembering that nowhere on Mallorca is much more than 25 miles from the sea. From Sineu, the white sands and blue waters of Sa Cànova lie just half an hour away by car. Cala Torta, up beyond Artà, is more of an undertaking, but worth the 45-minute journey from Manacor for a taste of the Mediterranean in its unadulterated state. A dirt-track winds down between pine woods to a curving bay with nothing to disturb the peace – no beach bars or sun loungers cramming the pristine sand. Here is a corner of the real Mallorca and, like the villages of the interior, it is a far cry from Magaluf.

Where to stay

Son Fogueró: This country house outside Sineu has been converted into a minimalist hideaway by interior designer María Antonia Carbonell and painter Pere Alemany. It is something of a well-kept secret. Double rooms from €185. sonfoguero.com

Finca Serena: On the brow of a hill overlooking Montuïri, this 25-room former farmhouse is by some way the most exquisite hotel on the central plain. The 40-hectare estate, including a vineyard and olive groves, is immaculately maintained. Double rooms from €356. fincaserenamallorca.com

Finca Ca'n Beneït: A recently opened agroturismo with 10 delightful rooms, this is part of a vast estate on the lower slopes of the Tramuntana – where rough stone-walled buildings include a 200-year-old church. Double rooms from €253. fincacanbeneit.com