DK Travel : Mallorca : Outdoor

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Sa Calobra (Drive)

Driving anywhere around Puig Major affords great views and challenges your driving skills. This purpose-made road – which translates as “The Snake” – has earned its name, with 270-degree loops and other harrowing features. It leads to a tiny settlement, where you can explore the dazzling beauties of the box canyon created over aeons by surging torrents.

View from Sa Calobra
Sant Elm to Sa Trapa (Walk)

This popular walk leads to an abandoned Trappist monastery and has fine views of the island of Sa Dragonera. A shorter route is signposted beside the cemetery on the Sant Elm–Andratx road.
Snorkelling and Diving

Virtually all the tranquil coves around the island are ideal for snorkelling, with plenty of rocks and hidden recesses to explore. A favourite is the cove down from Estellencs. As for scuba diving, there are several centres, including at Port d’Andratx and Cala Rajada (seePorts and Resorts), offering the gear and boat trips out to the best spots.
Son Marroig

The famous Archduke Salvador (see Archduke Luis Salvador of Hapsburg-Lorena and Bourbon) had many homes on Mallorca, but Son Marroig was his favourite. The gardens, though terraced in the ancient Arabic fashion, are deliberately left a bit wild in keeping with the slightly rough look of the natural island flora. All this vibrant nature neatly contrasts with the high Renaissance refinement of the architecture, especially the gazebo that offers coastal views of such exquisite perfection.
Songbirds

Species breeding here, or stopping for a visit in the spring or summer, include stonechats, warblers, the stripy hoopoe, partridges, buntings, finches, larks, curlews, thrushes, mar-tins, ravens, shrikes, turtle doves, pipits, swifts, swallows, the brilliantly coloured European bee-eater and the inimitable nightingale.
S’Hort del Rei, Palma

Gentle jets of water and bowl-shaped fonts characterize this long and lovely Arab-influenced garden. As the name suggests, it was once the king’s private garden. Today, it is open to all, and the home of eccentric modern sculpture.
The Bullfight

There are two bullrings: one in Palma and one in Muro, though historically the bullfighting tradition has not been so important to Mallorcans (or to Catalans generally) as in other parts of Spain. In season, between March and October, there are eight or nine bullfights. The killing, albeit executed according to strictly ceremonious guidelines, can be bloody and pathetic, so be warned.
Torrent de Pareis

A box canyon at the spot where the “Torrent of the Twins” meets the sea is one of the great sights of the island. The scale of the scene, with its delicate formations and colours, is amazing, and the sense of solitude undisturbed, even by the usual crowds you will encounter here. The tunnel-like path from Cala Calobra was carved out in 1950.
Trees

The mountain areas are characterized by pines, cedars and evergreen holm oaks, while palms, cypress and yews have been planted on the island since time immemorial. Olives can reach great age (more than 1,000 years) and gargantuan size. They can also take on disturbingly anthropomorphic forms – the 19th-century writer George Sand, in her book A Winter in Majorca (see Monastery: Pharmacy), tells of having to remind herself “that they are only trees”, when walking past them at dusk.
Wildflowers

The island is home to over 1,300 varieties of flowering plants, of which 40 are uniquely Mallorcan. These include the Balearic cyclamen, giant orchids and the delicate bee orchid. Spring and early summer are the time to see them in all their colourful bounty, but autumn also can be good. Look out especially for the asphodel with its tall spikes and clusters of pink flowers, Illa de Cabrera’s rare dragon arum with its exotically hairy look, the rock rose in the Serra de Tramuntana and the Balearic peonies.