Informations about Mallorca



  • Mallorca - Situation and inhabitants
  • Mallorca - how to come to and moving on the island
  • Mallorca - Medical Services
  • Mallorca - Tourism...
  • Mallorca - Sport
  • Mallorca - Cooking











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    Mallorca - Situation and inhabitants



    Mallorca has got 3700 sqkm, is capital and biggest island of the Balearics and lies NE of Ibiza and SW of Menorca.
    In SW-NE-direction, the island measures approx. 100km, it is from Barcelona 250km, from Valencia approx. 260km and from Algier 315km away.
    Capital of Mallorca and place of the Balearic government is Palma de Mallorca at the southside of the island.
    The number of inhabitants differ constantly and with the new european rules,not every foreigner tells the authorities, where he lives... it is nearly impossible to say, how many people live on the islands. The number approx. should be 650.000, 330.000 of them living in Palma. 120.000 are Spains from the mainland, 10.000 Gitanos, gipsys live on the island.
    A lot of residents aswell have found second homes here, the main group are the germans, directly followed by british, swedish, austrian, danish and other nations, officially 100.000, but it could be aswell 3 times that number.
    Mallorca has got 190 nm coastalline with hundreds of bays, called calas, of which roundabout 80 places (harbours and calas) are usefull for sailors.
    Nearly all of them are connected to a net of streets and can be reached by car aswell. (this means the calas, where skipper can stay,but of course, there are aswell numerous little calas, where no way leads to..)

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    Mallorca - how to come to and moving on the island



    Since times, there is no problem to reach Mallorca!
    The increasing number of tourists forced aswell an increasing of the mallorcean airport. Hundreds of flights reach and leave Palma every day, transporting thousands of guests. No matter if charter or line, all european companies regulary fly to Palma. The flight is, depending on where you come from, between 1 1/2 and 2 1/2 hours.
    Coming from another european country, no passport controll is made any longer and aswell no customcontroll. In the hall of arrivals, there are numerous companies for "rent-a-car", money-change, banks.
    Taxis have fix prices, meanwhile rather expensive because of the high fuel prices. Busses to Palma leave at the airport, going directly into the heart of Palma, to Placa Espana. Here you find a touristinformation and the main station.
    By ferry, you can go to mainland Spain, Menorca and France.
    There are ferries just for people and aswell for cars. Coming to the island with a car-ferry lasts 8 hours, in summer, you will have to reserve a ticket.

    The skipper can choose, where he comes from, he only has to ask the weatherforcast, which route he will take.
    If he comes from Costa Brava, France or Sardinia, he definitively has to pay attention to the weather and best would be a forecast for 3 days, to be sure, that no Mistral will attack him. If he wants to avoid a nightturn, he can reach Mallorca aswell on the route Denia-Ibiza-Mallorca, in just daytrips.

    On the island, the best way to be mobil is to rent a car. The prices are low, compared for example with Germany, where you pay 35 pound a day. Here you pay approx.10 pound a day for a little Clio or Fiat incl. insurence, free kilometer plus fuel. Now you are free to explore that wonderful island on your own.

    It is forbidden to drive without safety belts, speed in the villages is about 50km, on normal roads 90 km and on the motorway 120km/h. Bikers have to wear helmets, although it seems, most of them do not know...
    The alcohollevel in your blood may not be higher than 0,5 prom., the controls are hard and you surely will find yourself in jail, if you have more than allowed.

    There is a bussystem but it need to have some patience.... A bus from Pollenca goes to Palma in 2 h, but there are aswell busses, which need nearly the whole day, from one edge of the island to the other..... Especially the connection Palma-Eastcoast is not the best..!
    Every hour, there are trains between Palma and Inca, a good thing, if you are staying near Inca. Leave your car at the station in Inca, take the train and 20 minutes later leave the train in the heart of Palma, no trouble with parkinglot etc.

    Another attraction is the "redflash" an old train, running between Sóller and Palma and aswell a touristic attraction.

    Last but not least, you may rent bicycles on the island, but especially in the nicest areas of the island (for us!!), in Sierra Tramontana, you need a good condition to manage the roads by bicycle.

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    Mallorca - Medical Services



    Don´t matter if landtourist or skipper, the medical care is like at home.
    Nearly every village, where are holidaymakers, has got its own german or english doctor and dentist. Aswell there are some real good hospitals, as for example Policlinica Miramar, which has a complete floor only for foreigners, with english and germanspeaking nurses and doctors. Find all german and englishspeaking doctors in the local newspapers, Mallorca Magazin and MallorcaZeitung, the number of Miramar is 971.450212.
    Beside that, services in the pharmacies are sometimes very good, so maybe, they can help you aswell and you will not need to go to a doctor.
    A 24h-service offers "Urgencias Medicas", phone number 971.222222

    Some more important phone numbers:
    sea-emergency 900.202.202
    first aid 061
    Red Cross Palma 971.295.000
    Hospital Son Dureta 971.175.000
    Hospital Alcudia 971.547.373
    Hospital Manacor 971.847.000

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    Mallorca - Tourism...


    In any questions for hotels, trips by boat,ashore or in the air (!), ask the touristinformation in Palma, 971.176191, not the friendliest one, but maybe, she can help you..
    On the other hand, the lady, who gives infos about Cabrera, is very friendly, you reach her under 971.712216.
    If you want to go by daytripperboat to Cabrera, call 971.649034. The boat runs daily during the season til end of october, the price is 4200 pts per person. It starts in Colonia St. Jordi at 0930 and returns at 1730.
    Touristinfos are aswell in Palma, Placa Espana, in C. Constitutio and in C. Sant Domingo; aswell you will find a counter in the airport,at the arrivals.
    As a test, they offered a service in 4 languages, german, english, castilian and catalan. This service should know EVERYTHING (as they said in the report in Mallorca Magazin...) but when I tried to get some infos, the lady didn´t talk a single word in english, not in german and aswell had no idea, than giving me the above mentioned number of the touristinformation.... not very satisfying.

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    Mallorca - Sport



    Many sportive activities are possible, of course mainly watersports, where all necessary tools can be rent: waterjets (hated by skippers...), waterbikes, canoos, surfboards, daysailers, motorboats, powerboats, big motoryachts, yachts, hobbycats, cruisercats etc.
    Beside that, you of course have various possibilities for swimming, snorkelling, diving, what you can learn in all bigger coastal villages.

    Another important sport on the island is golf. At the moment, 12 golfcourses exist and an end is not to be seen....

    Sometimes troublesome, especially for cardrivers, is the third big party of sportsmen, the cyclists. On Mallorca, aswell Mr. Everyone and a supersportsmen can find his fun, either on the flatarea of Es Pla or, like the german professional Telecom-Team in the mountains of Sierra Tramontana.
    We for our person, would be very happy if aswell the cyclists AND the cardrivers could take care. This would give more safety to the cyclists and safe some nervs on the other side....
    Bycicles of all classes can be rent allover the island.

    Jogger will love the long sandy beaches of Alcudia or the smooth woodbottoms of the Tramontana.

    You can rent horses in several stables all over the island.


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    Mallorca - Cooking



    We are sure, some gourmets will love the mallorquin way of cooking, but on a touristic island like Mallorca, is´s hardly to find in a real authentic way. Best way to discover original receipts are to visit one of the Cellers, restaurants in formerly cellars, the best you find in Inca:
    Celler Can Amer and Can Ripoll are within the best, you can find on the island.

    Typical mallorcin is cooking with, for my opinion, enormous amounts of oliveoil, very fat. They love to cook with ingrediences, not everybody may love, for example innards, brain, pigsfeet etc. Something acceptable and aswell authentic is Pa amb Olí, mallorcin (saltless) bread with oliveoil, tomatos and raw ham.

    Sopas mallorquinas are not necessarily soups, it is more or less a kind of stew, contents all, what is just deliverable, mostly vegetables, with different meat (lamb, pork, beef, whatever),aswell sometimes escargots, but always on a bed of dry, saltless bread.
    In contrast to sopas, sopa (without s!) always means a soup, mostly a vegetable soup (sopa de verdura). Arroz brut is fine one and you can enjoy it very good in Celler Sa Sini in Santa Maria. Arroz brut contents rice, pork, rabbit, escargots, vegetables of the season.

    For the small appetite, tapas is ideal. Tapas is fingerfood at its best, some more of them can always build a complete meal! If you try the frist time, just order "tapas variadas", you will get a plate with 4 or 5 different tapas.
    There are for example "fritos" (a mix from innards and different vegetables), "albondigas" (meatballs), "rinones" (kidneys), "champinones" (champignons in a sauce), "boquerones" (little fried fishes, complete with head and innards, very tasty and famous all over the Med) and much more.
    If you want to spend a bit more money, try dates, wrapped in raw ham (more or less expensive in Spain) or "chipriones", little fried octopussies.
    Tasting "pimientos de Padrón" needs some courage and a big piece of dry bread to be eat immediately afterwards.... it burns like hell!

    Very famous, but nevertheless not everybody´s taste is "frito mallorquin", made of innards, mainly from lamb with vegetables and lots of oliveoil.

    Another thing, you will not miss in any mallorquin restaurant is "tumbet", a kind of casserole, served in the special mallorquin form "olla". It contents vegetables (eggplants, tomatos,onions, zucchini, pepper), lots of oliveoil, sometimes meat or fish in variations. It is always served with non-tasty, cause saltless mallorquin bread, to eat the sauce with.

    If you like lamb, Mallorca is your island! Some restaurants serve very good meatspecialities. Take a trip to Monastery Lluc, which is worth a visit (the monastery, not it´s restaurant!!) After the cultural experience, head for Sóller. After approx. 3 km, you will find restaurant "Escorca" on the left side, which offers wonderful lambdishes.

    The Mallorquins also love to eat sucking pig, very good in the area of Pollensa and the northern east coast.

    Also try red sobrasada and black butifarra, sausages of the region with special spices.

    Another speciality is "coca" a kind of mallorquin pizza, covered with vegetables like spinach, pepper and tomatoes. The dough contents lard (1 cup of for a normal portion for 4!!)which makes the difference to italian pizza in consistence and taste. Cocas taste very good and you can buy them in any bakery or in the little supermercados in all villages.

    Of course, being on an island, you will have fish. It is offered fresh and delicious in all coastal villages, but rather expensive. There is only a small number of fish left in the med, the restaurants often offer atlantic fish.
    Beside the authentic cooking, a colorful mixture of german, english, italian, swedish, swiss, indish, chinese and japanese restaurants dominate. And aswell, fastfoodfreaks will not suffer, there is McDonald, Burgerking, Kentucky Fried Chicken, Pizzahut.

    And, of course, there is nothing for drinking, what you could miss, no english will miss his ale and no german his pils!

    Celebrate a typical mallorcin menue...
    does not mean, to drink a lot, but to eat and talk a lot and a longtime! We cannot remember a drunken spanish, banquets always include lots of food, long talking, but moderate drinking.
    Mallorcin waiters do not like, if everyone pays extra, they normally charge a table en bloque.
    One tip extra: you will immediately be know as a dumb tourist, if you do not wait, until the waiter offers a table, never sit down, before he tells you, where. Ask him "una mesa para dos (or, how many people you are....), por favor!" Of course, this is not such strict in the touristic areas, the mallorcins have learned....
    Mallorquin people do not have diner before 21h in the evening, lunchtime is not before 1330 and it can last til 15h.







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