Palma de Mallorca, Spain
48 hours in Palma de Mallorca, Spain – an insider weekend itinerary
Spain’s Palma de Mallorca has spent centuries looking out to the Mediterranean, but Mallorca’s capital is changing fast on land too. Beyond the obvious tourist circuit, a sharper city is taking shape through independent retail, ambitious restaurants, contemporary art and beautifully reused historic spaces. Our 48 hours follows that version of Palma today.
Table of Contents
Top photography courtesy of Portella
Day 01
15.00
It’s check-in time
Portella feels removed from Palma the moment you step inside, despite sitting deep in the old town beside the Arab Baths and within easy walking distance of the cathedral, waterfront, and La Lonja quarter. The 17th-century residence holds just 13 apartments and suites, each different in layout and character, giving it the intimacy of a private house rather than a hotel. Festen Architecture and Gras Reynés kept the original stone, timber and domestic scale intact. For 48 hours, that combination is hard to beat: central enough to walk almost everywhere, secluded enough to properly switch off.
Read our edit of Palma de Mallorca’s best hotels.
Portella
Calle de la Portella, 9
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
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Photography courtesy of Portella
16.30
Walk Palma into focus
Start just around the corner at the Arab Baths, one of the few surviving traces of Palma’s Islamic past, then let the old town unfold slowly. The route runs through narrow lanes where honey-coloured stone, faded ochre walls and green shutters catch the late-afternoon light before opening suddenly onto La Seu, Palma’s vast Gothic cathedral above the water. From there, follow the seafront towards La Llotja. Built in the 15th century as the city’s merchants’ exchange, its soaring Gothic hall now also hosts contemporary exhibitions. It is a short walk, but one that gives you Palma in layers: intimate, sun-worn, monumental and always tied to the sea.
Banys Àrabs
Carrer de Can Serra, 7
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
La Seu
Plaça de la Seu
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
La Llotja
Plaça de la Llotja, 5
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
Photography courtesy of Portella
17.30
Climb into contemporary Palma
Es Baluard rewards a little wandering. The museum is cut into Palma’s 16th-century Sant Pere bastion, so galleries of modern and contemporary art keep giving way to old sandstone walls, open courtyards and unexpected slices of sky. Its collection includes Joan Miró, Joaquín Sorolla and Amedeo Modigliani, alongside artists from the Balearics and wider Mediterranean, while the temporary programme is usually the reason to check what is on before you go. Don’t miss the former water cistern or the walk along the ramparts, where the cathedral suddenly appears across the roofs and harbour.
Es Baluard Museu d’Art Contemporani de Palma
Plaça de la Porta de Santa Catalina, 10
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
Photography courtesy of The Nordic Nomad
19.00
Drink in the bigger picture
Stay exactly where you are and head up to Mariluz, Es Baluard’s terrace restaurant. Find a table beneath the huge old ficus and order something local to drink. From here, Palma opens up in several directions at once: the harbour below, terracotta roofs across the old town and La Seu rising above the skyline. It is also exactly the sort of place influencers have discovered with great efficiency, usually in the best-lit corner. Let them have it. As the heat drops and the light softens over the bay, this is a far better place to sit still and watch Palma slip into evening.
Mariluz
Plaça de la Porta de Santa Catalina, 10
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
Photography courtesy of Mariluz
21.00
Rethink tapas
Chef Irene Martínez calls her cooking cocina inquieta – restless cooking – and Nus makes familiar sharing food feel genuinely unpredictable. Japanese technique runs through a menu still rooted in Mallorca and the Mediterranean, without slipping into generic fusion. We loved the Gilda, the Japanese potato salad with squid and Martínez’s take on banh mi. Just as memorable was the service: warm, switched-on and genuinely enthusiastic about what arrives at the table. Dinner runs late in Palma, so resist booking too early unless you enjoy the early-bird shift. Nine o’clock is when the room starts to feel properly alive.
Read our edit of Palma de Mallorca’s best restaurants.
Nus
Carrer d’Anníbal, 11
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
Photography courtesy of Nus
23.00
Wander off dinner in Santa Catalina
Santa Catalina is Palma’s obvious foodie district, but we wouldn’t come here searching for an untouched local neighbourhood. The former quarter of fishermen, millers and small workshops has been thoroughly transformed, with international restaurants and bars now dominating streets such as Fàbrica and Sant Magí. After dinner, that concentration works in your favour. Wander for a while, then end at Agabar, a dark, beautifully put-together cocktail bar specialising in agave spirits. Beyond tequila and mezcal, the shelves run to sotol, raicilla and bacanora – a much more interesting final drink than another generic nightcap.
Agabar
Carrer de la Fàbrica, 14A
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
Photography courtesy of Agabar
Day 02
9.00
Wake up with Mallorca on the counter
Start the day at Fornet de la Soca, where baker Tomeu Arbona and María José Orero have spent years recovering old Mallorcan recipes rather than modernising them out of recognition. Their current home is the former Forn des Teatre, a bakery dating back to 1916 with a protected modernist façade. Inside, the choice changes with the traditional calendar: ensaïmadas, cocarrois, robiols, almond pastries and savoury pies appear according to season. Arbona calls his approach “gastronomic archaeology”, which sounds grand until you realise the point is very simple: making Palma taste like somewhere specific again.
Fornet de la Soca
Plaça de Weyler, 9
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
Photography courtesy of Fornet de la Soca and Unsplash
10.30
Shop the Palma that is changing
Palma’s retail scene has become far more interesting than its luxury strip suggests. Skip the global flagships and spend the late morning with the independents and smaller labels giving the city a sharper point of view. Start with Cortana, Mallorcan designer Rosa Esteva’s quietly beautiful flagship, then move on to Arquinesia, where fragrance inspired by the island is presented almost ceremonially. Monge Studio is our favourite for locally made shoes, linen and leather. Together, they make shopping in Palma feel specific to Palma again.
Read our edit of Palma de Mallorca’s best luxury boutiques.
Cortana
Carrer de Montenegro, 3
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
Arquinesia
Carrer de Sant Gaietà, 6A
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
Monge Studio
Carrer de Colom, 8
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
Photography courtesy of Cortana
14.00
Let lunch take its time
La Rosa Vermutería & Colmado is exactly the kind of place Palma does well: somewhere between a bar, an old-school casa de comidas and a proper lunch destination. Nacho Velasco opened it in 2015 as one of the city’s first modern vermuterías, helping revive the habit of settling in over vermouth, conservas and tapas rather than treating lunch as something to rush. The room still has that easy, slightly old-fashioned energy – marble bar, bottles, tins and plenty of noise. Order a vermouth first, then tortilla, croquetas and whatever else looks good. Book ahead: by lunchtime, the queue can already be curling out the door.
Read our edit of Palma de Mallorca’s best restaurants.
La Rosa Vermutería & Colmado
Carrer de la Rosa, 5
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
Photography courtesy of La Rosa Vermutería & Colmado
16.00
Trade the siesta for Miró
You could quite reasonably return to the hotel now. Or take a taxi west and spend the afternoon inside Joan Miró’s working world. He settled in Mallorca in 1956 and worked here until his death in 1983, with architect Josep Lluís Sert designing the studio he had long dreamed of. It remains remarkably intact: brushes, paint, postcards, shells, folk objects and half-finished ideas still crowd the space. Nearby, Rafael Moneo’s 1992 museum holds part of a collection of around 7,000 works and objects. Allow about 90 minutes.
Fundació Miró Mallorca
Carrer de Saridakis, 29
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
Photography courtesy of The Nordic Nomad
18.30
Sail out for a swim
Swap the city for the bay on a traditional Mallorcan llaüt. These broad-beamed boats were once working vessels, used for fishing and, in larger versions, carrying goods between the Balearic Islands. They were originally sailed or rowed, though most are motorised today. For a couple of hours, that history matters less than the feeling: Palma recedes, La Seu starts to dominate the skyline and the water becomes the city’s best escape route. Drop anchor for a swim, then climb back aboard as the light softens. The small-group sunset sail we like takes no more than five guests and includes snorkelling gear.
Mallorca Llaüt Charter
Club de Mar, Mooring 2103
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
Photography courtesy of Mallorca Llaüt Charter
21.30
Follow the fire to dinner
At Mombo, chef Gabriel Conti cooks over fire with the confidence of someone who has been tending it since childhood. Born in Brazil to a Basque-Italian family, he later built his career in Barcelona before opening this deeply personal Palma restaurant in 2022 with Elena Gil, who runs the floor. Charcoal does much of the talking: razor clams, baby squid, scallops and leeks all pass over the grill, while tuna belly is smoked over oak. The room is warm and grown-up without feeling stiff – exactly what you want after coming back in from the bay.
Read our edit of Palma de Mallorca’s best restaurants.
Mombo
Passeig de Mallorca, 3
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
Photography courtesy of Mombo
Day 03
9.00
Grab a coffee, then join the pastry queue
Start at Otra, a tiny specialty coffee bar where coffee shares the shelves with analogue cameras and rolls of film. Owners Rodrigo Durán and Romina Vay rotate serious European roasters and keep rare, individually portioned coffees frozen for anyone wanting to go deeper than a flat white. Take yours to go, then walk on to Fika Farina. The Swedish bakery has been drawing morning queues since 2019 for cinnamon buns, cardamom knots and particularly good laminated pastries. There is barely anywhere to sit, which suits the plan: choose whatever has just emerged from the oven and eat it while continuing through Palma.
Otra
Carrer de la Llotgeta, 1
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
Fika Farina
Carrer del Sindicat, 4
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
Photography courtesy of Otra and Fika Farina
10.30
Step into Palma’s modernist landmark
Caixa Forum occupies what opened in 1903 as the Gran Hotel, Mallorca’s first modern hotel and one of Palma’s great Modernista buildings. Designed by Lluís Domènech i Montaner, the architect behind Barcelona’s Palau de la Música Catalana, it was conceived as a statement of a city becoming more outward-looking. Look up before you go inside: the façade is alive with carved stone, iron balconies, coloured ceramics and floral detail. Inside, the former hotel now holds exhibitions and the permanent Anglada-Camarasa collection, but the building itself is the real reason to stop.
Caixa Forum Palma
Plaça de Weyler, 3
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
Photography courtesy of Unsplash
11.30
Step inside a grand Palma townhouse
Can Balaguer is one of the rare places where Palma’s grand domestic life is still legible room by room. The house preserves original furniture, paintings and decorative details, while the permanent exhibition traces how the city’s interiors changed between 1700 and 1950. Start in the stone courtyard, then climb to the piano nobile, where carved wood, patterned textiles and period rooms reveal how Palma’s merchant and aristocratic families once lived. It is also one of the few historic courtyards in the city that you can properly enter rather than admire through a gate. Entry is free.
Can Balaguer
Carrer de la Unió, 3
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
Photography courtesy of The Nordic Nomad
12.30
See contemporary art in an 18th-century palace
Casal Solleric turns one of Palma’s grandest Baroque houses into a contemporary art space. Enter from Passeig del Born and the building immediately competes with whatever is hanging on the walls: a theatrical courtyard, stone arcades and a sweeping imperial staircase built to impress. Exhibitions change throughout the year and often include Balearic artists alongside international names, so check the programme before you go. Even when the show is not essential, the palace itself makes this an easy stop between Can Balaguer and lunch. Admission is free.
Casal Solleric
Passeig del Born, 27
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
Photography courtesy of The Nordic Nomad
13.30
Follow the smoke into lunch
Bàrbar hides behind a fairly anonymous door on Carrer de la Concepció, but inside, old stone walls and broad arches frame a kitchen built around fire. Executive chef Rafa Perelló keeps the cooking deliberately stripped back: grill and oven, with techniques such as ageing, fermenting and marinating doing the rest. The menu moves between excellent fish, mature meats and less obvious plates such as flame-charred aubergine with ricotta and fried almonds. Sit facing the open kitchen if you can, order across the menu and give lunch the time it deserves. This is not a place to watch the clock.
Read our edit of Palma de Mallorca’s best restaurants.
Bàrbar
Carrer de la Concepció, 3
Palma de Mallorca
Mallorca
Spain
Photography courtesy of Bàrbar
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