On our last full day of a week long hiking trip in Mallorca we did a day hike out of Alaro to the Alaro Castle (Castell d'Alaro) perched high above the surrounding countryside with 360° views. It was a stunner of a hike and one of the highlights of the week. The Alaro Castle hike was done in late March, before the island overflows with the summer party crowd. Early spring it an ideal time…
Nothing beats the excitement of waking up in a new city ready to explore especially when you arrive at midnight, knackered from almost 24 hours of non-stop travel. That's exactly how John and I felt on our first morning in Palma, Mallorca. We only had a day to cover off the sights and there are a multitude of things to do in Palma Mallorca. This post includes some affiliate links. If you make a qualifying…
Our second to last day of hiking in Mallorca took us from Soller to Alaro but we cheated as most people do and started the day with a taxi ride to the Cúber Reservoir. We did that for two reasons. The day before had been a "rest day" so we had already hiked a couple of hours on the route to the reservoir and the thought of repeating the route - despite it being very…
The best part of hiking the GR221 in Mallorca is the hike from Valldemossa to Sóller. It is the longest and toughest day on the GR221 but for us it was also by far our favourite day. The scenery is superb in the morning, especially high in the mountains on what is called the Archduke's Path above Deia. And come mid-afternoon as we started to fade, out of seemingly nowhere appeared a manor house with…
The second and third days of our hike on the GR221 in Mallorca were easy half-day hikes so I've combined the two of them in this blog. Strong hikers should have no difficulty doing the full distance in one longer day. On the first day we hiked the GR221 from Estellencs to Banyalbufar - a distance of 9.75 kilometres with a total elevation gain of just 340 metres. It took us approximately 2.5 hours to…
The island of Mallorca is home to the Serra de Tramuntana - a 90 kilometre long chain of mountains along the northwest coast of the island. The rugged mountain range is dotted with peaks with the highest point, Puig Major, standing 1,447 metres above sea level. Within the mountain range is an extensive network of footpaths - some that date back to 902 - 1229 when the Moors ruled the land. The GR221, also called…
John and I made a completely spontaneous decision to head off for a week of hiking on Mallorca after a death in the family and no break from work for month. He and I were ready for a major change of scenery - and a week filled with exercise and good food. Of course we could have gone to the Rockies for some spring skiing but quite frankly by the end of March, I am…