We have just returned from two glorious weeks in Cala D'Or - Mallorca. The last time we came, 2005, we promised ourselves we would come back. OK, it took sometime, but we made it.

As said, having visited Mallorca & Cala D'or before we were surprised that not a lot had changed. Some bars/restaurants had shut down to be replaced with new bars/restaurants but all in all it was easy to find our way around.

Our hotel was the Sa Marina, and this is situated at the back of the Cala D'Or resort, for those in the know, near to the large supermarket on the way towards Colonge. A full report on the hotel is in the Hotel section. However, I failed to mention that every room has free air conditioning, free WIFI connection along with a TV with BBC1, BBC2, two Cbeebies channels, the Cbeebies channels become BBC3 and BBC4 after 8pm. You are also able to get CNN. (if a nice administrator can copy this part to my report, Peter & Jennifer)

Because we had visited before there was much we had already seen and done. So, I will break this review down into three parts. The resort, where we went and prices.

Cala D'Or

Because we are a quiet couple, we do like a drink or two, in our late 50's, the main reason we like Cala D'Or is because of its quiet surroundings. That is not to say younger couples/families will not enjoy it. In my opinion this is more for the peace and quiet couples/families who want to relax, do their own thing without having too much on the doorstep to distract you. You also do not find the lager louts here and funny enough not many British type bars, nothing against them, there just not many here.

Most of the entertainment is centred around your hotel. Cala D'Or has a couple of resort trains this is worth doing to see the different areas, there are some fantastic beaches/coves and I know someone will disagree here, but centred on the resort I feel the best one is Cala Gran. There are a wide range of good restaurants and bars, some nice shops and glass bottom boats that will take you to the more far flung coves and villages. If you are looking for theme & water parks then Cala D'Or is not the resort for you.

The Island

If you want to see the real Mallorca you either need to book trips or hire a car. I suggest the latter of the two; it is the cheaper option in the long run. So, what did we do.

Week one is our settling in week. Relax, get the tan, and just generally winding down. We then normally hire a car for the middle week-end, as a rule Thursday to Saturday night. Car hire starts at about €45 per day, but you can get offers for 3 days, best we saw was €36 per day. Because we are tall and enjoy our comfort we normally go for something mid range, this time a BMW520, €156 for 3 days all inclusive, or €52 per day.

Our first day out, Thursday, was a revisit to an old favourite, Soller. This time we did it via, Port D'Andratx. A pleasant resort situated around a beautiful bay, time for coffee and cake on the front and off we went along the scenic coast road, stopping on the way to admire the many views over the coast and then onto Valldemossa and Deia. Valdemossa is very touristy, you have Chopin and of course Michael Douglas & Catherine Zeta-Jones have a home here as well. Deia is the burial place of Robert Graves, a famous writer and poet. From here to Soller for a relaxing lunch in the main square. Gave the train to Port Soller a miss this time. I can really suggest the drive from Andratx to Soller along the coast road.

After lunch, through the tunnel and our next stop, Jardin de Alfabia. These gardens are well worth the visit and are situated just before the southern end of the Palma - Soller tunnel. Well laid out, and beautiful walks through many different trees and plants. Can I recommend the home made lemonade from the café on site, they also do home made orange but the lemonade is superb. From here a drive back to Cala D'Or via Bunyola, Santa Maria, Algaida and LlucMajor a very nice cross country drive through quiet villages.

So onto Friday, my OH wanted to visit the Festival Village, we had heard so much about it so it was one of the things to do. I will not go into anything else except, what a waste of petrol, in some shops prices more expensive than in Palma and the whole area was very quiet. We may have gone on an off day, but!! So a drive back to Soller, no stop this time and along the very twisty road towards Pollenca, again stopping on the way to admire the views. In my opinion the road between Soller and Andratx is better for scenery. A quick stop at the viewing point near Port De Pollenca and onto the Lighthouse at Cap De Formentor, with views across the water towards Menorca, worth the drive, but it is not for the faint hearted. Be warned, a bottle of water in the café costs €2.50. After leaving the lighthouse a drive back to Pollensa then along the coast to Alcudia and then Arta. From here we dropped down into Felantix and a revisit to another favourite Sant Salvador Monastery, a very twisty drive up and in some places just and I mean just wide enough for two cars to pass, but busses come up here!!!! but the views across Mallorca and towards the coast, especially Portocolom are breath taking.

Saturday and a little later off again, this time back up to Arta and onto the Caves of Arta. Having visited the caves of Drac on our last visit and was disappointed, I was hoping for something different and these caves do not disappoint. Beautiful caves, excellent lighting, very good English speaking guide, along with German, Dutch and Spanish, and you could take photographs. The exit out was towards the sea. These caves may be out of the way but are worth the visit. From here we promised a friend of ours we would visit a hotel they had booked in Cala Millor. This area is very commercialised, looking at it from a Cala D'Or view, but the hotel was excellent and the receptionist allowed us to walk around and take some photos. We picked upsome local maps and our friend was very pleased.

After three long and busy days, we returned the car early, 6pm instead of 8pm.

For those contemplating hiring a car, the roads are excellent. There has been a lot of new ones build since our last visit and also many of the roads have been resurfaced.

So what about the rest of the holiday. Well a visit to Mallorca cannot pass without a visit to Palma. On our last visit we caught the local bus from Cala D'Or, although very cheap, took us all morning to get there, think we arrived about noon. So this time paid for a trip, OK €26 pp but at least it only took 1 ½ hours to get there, that included all the pick ups at other hotels on route, including some in Portocolom.

Coach took us to Bellver Castle to start with, the one above the city with fantastic views. Well worth a visit with an excellent photo opportunity for Palma and the bay. Then onto our drop off, opposite the Cathedral, think it is called Escullera - The entrance to the Marina just south and across a very busy dual carriageway from the Cathedral. However, very easy to cross road - just remember to look left first.

So a visit to the Cathedral, Museum and Royal Palace, and then a walk around town and a little shopping, For those who want to know, Palma has two Corte de Ingles.
Be careful, the streets behind the Cathedral are a rabbit warren and it is easy to lose track of time and direction so take care and have your street map handy, if you do not have one there are two easy to find tourist information centres within 10 mins walk of Cathedral. However, if in doubt there is always a sign somewhere to the Cathedral.

There is HOHO bus stop just to the west of the Cathedral, on Avinguda D'Antoni Maura and it completes a fairly extensive tour of Palma, including Bellver Castle.

In the rabbit warren streets there are plenty of shops, restaurants and tapas bars, but be warned it has gone expensive in Spain and not just because of the Euro. If you are looking for exclusive shops try Passeig Des Bonn and Avinguida Jaume III.

Costs.

This is the horrible bit. Prices in Mallorca have gone up considerably since our last visit and I would say not all of this is down to the Euro.

In the resort, you could eat the menu of the day for around €9, choice of two starters, two mains, two sweets, coffee or tea, some included a glass of wine. There were restaurants where you can eat unlimited ribs, on offer for €8.50. But, if you wanted a nice three course meal, with bottle of wine, coffee and a liqueur after, start thinking €55+. I did notice that many of the restaurants have stopped serving ½ bottles now and in others no glasses of wine either. Just to show you the prices we even stopped at a small tapas bar in Arta where a glass of Rioja was €3.50.

In the bars, lager was from €2.50 local to over €5 a pint depending on what you wanted. My biggest shock was day 1, a stroll into Cala D'Or for a quick drink and something to eat for lunch, I ordered a Magners and when the bill came it was €5.50 for a small bottle. So, look at prices before ordering.

The sun beds and shade are €11.50.

All in all, everything has gone up, so plan your money.

So, that was it. Would we go back, Mallorca is a beautiful island, so most probably, funnily enough we are in Palma next year with P&O. But, on a two week break, although we prefer self catering, looking at the price of the room, what we spend on food etc, we would now price a half board holiday.

Here are some of our photos from 2005 and 2009:

http://picasaweb.google.co.uk/PeterJD01/Majorca?feat=directlink