Palma de Mallorca DIY - NEW

[TXCruiser2]

Hello, we are a party of four.  Two of us are unable to do a great deal of walking.  We hope to see Soller, Valldemossa and Palma.  What is your recommendation for how to accomplish this.  I saw an email in an.earlier thread so my apologies if this is a duplicate request.

[roger b]

3 minutes ago, TXCruiser2 said:

Hello, we are a party of four.  Two of us are unable to do a great deal of walking.  We hope to see Soller, Valldemossa and Palma.  What is your recommendation for how to accomplish this.  I saw an email in an.earlier thread so my apologies if this is a duplicate request.

Hi I will write back on an email ,I am working on it .

Roger b

[cl.klink]

On 5/1/2023 at 4:48 AM, roger b said:

 Hi Joel,

             My recommendations are Lilas or the Skybar both restaurants have lovely views and food (15 /20 mins from port)

https://www.lila-portals.com/

https://www.hotelalmudaina.com/en/sky-area

Make sure you Book !!!!

roger b

 

 

Just left Palma. Went to Skybar and really enjoyed. Thanks!

 

- Joel

 

[roger b]

14 hours ago, cl.klink said:

 

Just left Palma. Went to Skybar and really enjoyed. Thanks!

 

- Joel

 

 No Problem!! Glad you enjoyed my pick, enjoy the rest of your cruise.

 roger b 

[cruisin73]

Just got back from bellaneario.  Not sure I’m spelling that right but it was a perfect beach day.  Only 15 min taxi ride to beach club from cruise port and 15 euro with taxi. Didn’t get sun bed just chose to lay on towels but even at 12:00 still plenty available. Made reservations for lunch before we came and had a delicious lunch.  High recommend this beach club.  

[roger b]

7 minutes ago, cruisin73 said:

Just got back from bellaneario.  Not sure I’m spelling that right but it was a perfect beach day.  Only 15 min taxi ride to beach club from cruise port and 15 euro with taxi. Didn’t get sun bed just chose to lay on towels but even at 12:00 still plenty available. Made reservations for lunch before we came and had a delicious lunch.  High recommend this beach club.  

Great,glad my recommendation went down well!!

Roger b 

 

 

 

[cruisin73]

33 minutes ago, roger b said:

Great,glad my recommendation went down well!!

Roger b 

 

 

 

Roger sorry about that meant to say thank you to you.  It really was a great recommendation.   Thanks for all your help in planning this day.  

[6leafclover]

Hello, 

We will be on Royal Caribbean Symphony, and I am wondering the best way to get out of the port to see a little bit and maybe visit a beach? Taxi? There are beach day excursions, but looking to get out and look around without a tour.

Julie

[Cruisin'Mama 10]

HI There! 

 

We are planning on being in Palma in October from 7 am - 4 pm on a cruise. We rented a car from Roger's recommended car rental agency (Arash Rent a Car). We are planning to drive to Valldemossa then taking the winding road along to coast to Andratx stopping to enjoy the scenery then back to port. Google says it's a 2 hour circle with no stops. So it would allow us about 1-2 hours in Valldemossa then some quick stops on the way back. Sound reasonable timewise? Thanks in advance for any comments and feedback. Have a great day everyone!  

[roger b]

1 minute ago, Cruisin'Mama 10 said:

HI There! 

 

We are planning on being in Palma in October from 7 am - 4 pm on a cruise. We rented a car from Roger's recommended car rental agency (Arash Rent a Car). We are planning to drive to Valldemossa then taking the winding road along to coast to Andratx stopping to enjoy the scenery then back to port. Google says it's a 2 hour circle with no stops. So it would allow us about 1-2 hours in Valldemossa then some quick stops on the way back. Sound reasonable timewise? Thanks in advance for any comments and feedback. Have a great day everyone!  

 Hi ,

        If  ship docks at 7am , I would do your propsed tour the other way round ,if you go to Valldemossa first nothing will be open (open at 10am ).

        Go to Andratx first have a look at Port de Andratx a lovely village before your drive . Stop at Banyalbufar this the prettiest village in Mallorca and a world heritage site .

         Doing it this way you won't be rushed and  will get back without watching the clock.

roger b

 

[roger b]

33 minutes ago, 6leafclover said:

Hello, 

We will be on Royal Caribbean Symphony, and I am wondering the best way to get out of the port to see a little bit and maybe visit a beach? Taxi? There are beach day excursions, but looking to get out and look around without a tour.

Julie

 Hi Julie ,

            If you look back just one or two pages you will see my recommendations for a day on the beach you might get some time in Palma as well.

            Get taxis they are cheap and the quickest way to get around.

roger b

 

               

[Cruisin'Mama 10]

1 hour ago, roger b said:

 

Thank you for the insight Roger. Wonderful idea. Thanks! 

[LynnC822]

We have only 8:30-3:30 in Palma today. Do you think we have time to see old town and spend time at the beach club? 

[roger b]

22 minutes ago, LynnC822 said:

We have only 8:30-3:30 in Palma today. Do you think we have time to see old town and spend time at the beach club? 

You could possibly do both since nothing opens in the old town until 10am , my advice is take a taxi to the. beach ,have a swim and and leave by 11/11.30 then you could have two  hours in Palma.

Just do the cathedral and have a walk around there.

https://www.gpsmycity.com/tours/palma-de-mallorca-introduction-walking-tour-6234.html

Roger b

 

[Mark Da]

On 5/15/2023 at 6:36 AM, LynnC822 said:

We have only 8:30-3:30 in Palma today. Do you think we have time to see old town and spend time at the beach club? 

For Palma old town if you just walk it, get an icecream and a coffee you can see it within 3 hours. This is not going in anywhere or get held up. You would still have time for a beachclub. most famous is nikki beach but you will need a taxi to get there as the walk is about 45 minutes.

[roger b]

1 hour ago, Mark Da said:

For Palma old town if you just walk it, get an icecream and a coffee you can see it within 3 hours. This is not going in anywhere or get held up. You would still have time for a beachclub. most famous is nikki beach but you will need a taxi to get there as the walk is about 45 minutes.

 Sorry Mark your idea will leave them with very little time for the beach shops  dont open until 10/11 am,so as long as you don't  mind wandering  round empty streets it is O.K.and you would not have enough  time to go to Nikki beach

You would  need a deep pockets for Nikki beach is ultra expensive  !!

[Tranquility Base]

Thanks roger b for pointing me to this thread.

There is lots of good info which I will read over the next few sea days.

 

Edited May 19, 2023 by Tranquility Base

[TXCruiser2]

Just have to say if you are in need of assistance, guide, advice in Mallorca, contact Roger on this thread.  We had a last minute cancellation of our Mallorca excursion and Roger came to our aid.  We had a wonderful,relaxing day.  He showed us all the sites, gave us thorough instructions and was where be said he would be,and when he said he would be.  I highly recommend Roger!  Mallorca is a beautiful island!

[roger b]

Free walking tours in Palma !!

https://www.majorcadailybulletin.com/holiday/attractions/2023/05/29/113387/palma-free-tours-english.html

[cruisegal415]

I just wanted to follow up to update everyone on what we ended up doing in Palma. Our ship docked at 7 am; on board time was 5:30 pm.  My original idea was to take a taxi to Valldemossa, then to Port of Soller, then the tram to Soller, then take the train back to Palma and explore Palma/see the Cathedral.  Thanks to suggestions from Roger, we switched the itinerary to start from Palma, to Soller, to Port of Soller, to Valldemossa, back to Palma and see the Cathedral. 

 

I played around with the idea of doing it ourself, taking a taxi to Palma town center to catch the train to Soller at 10:10, booking the 12 pm tram to the Port, then taking a taxi or bus to Valldemossa and taking the bus back to Palma, but my husband was nervous about doing it on our own.  We ended up booking an excursion with a private tour company, which turned out to be worth the expense for the following reasons.

 

(1) First of all, it is a long drive from the port to the town center.  Celebrity did offer shuttles, for a fee, but it was nice to be picked up at the port.  There was a lot of traffic.  We were picked up at 9, and had a 9:50 am train reservation.  I learned that if you do it yourself, you get on one train, where there are a lot of people, and the first train doesn't leave until 10:10.  If you are only buying tickets one way, I think you have to purchase them the day of, in cash.  There were an awful lot of people buying tickets and waiting on the train, and it looked crowded.  One thing I found out was that if you book a private tour, the tour guide gets the tickets in advance, and there is a separate train running on a parallel track that seems to be only for tour people. Our tour guide booked us into a private car on the train (for an extra amount of $, but I think it was worth it) so our group had our own car on the train.

 

(2) When we got to Soller, we had some time to explore the town and taste the orange ice cream. We had tickets on the 12 pm tram to Port Soller, again, if we did it ourselves, it was quite crowded and some people didn't have seats.  Our tour guide managed to get us on the tram first, and made sure we had seats.  If we did it ourselves, we may not even have had seats.

 

3) We only had about a half hour in Port Soller, which was more than enough time.  There isn't a whole lot there, but there are lots of restaurants on the water.  If I were to do it again, I might skip Port Soller to give us more time in Soller, Palma, or Valldemossa.

 

4) The drive from Port Soller to Valledemossa was amazing! But scary! You are on mountain roads, very curvy, and quite close to the edge, which is a long drop.  We passed quite a few buses, which was very scary as it doesn't seem like there is enough room for two cars (or a car and a bus).  I don't know if we would have found a taxi in Port Soller, I didn't see any.  There was a bus that we could have taken, but I don't know if the bus schedule would have lined up to when we left.  

 

5) We didn't spend too much time in Valldemossa as we were concerned to return to Palma in time to see the Cathedral and get back to the ship on time.  Since there was so much traffic coming out of the port, we didn't know if it would take as long to get back to port from Palma (it didn't). But it was reassuring to have our own guide and driver to make sure we left in time and had enough time in Palma.

 

6) Our guide took us through the Cathedral, which was nice. Some of our group did not care to see it, so they had more free time in Palma.  We did a tour of the Cathedral in Valencia with just the audio guides, and it is a big difference to have a real, live, guide instead of just the audio guide.

 

This is a long post so I am going to post my recommendations for a true DIY visit separately.

[cruisegal415]

As a follow up of the above post, if I were to do it again, without a tour guide, I think I would do it this way:

 

1) Buy tickets a week in advance for the train and the tram on line.

 

2) Take the ship's shuttle or a taxi from the port to the center of town (Palma), then take the 10:10 train to Soller to get the most out of the day.  Alternatively, explore Palma a little and wait for the crowds to thin out and take a later train.

 

3) Spend about an hour or so in Soller, then take the tram to Port of Soller.

 

4) Eat a leisurely meal in Port of Soller.  There are a lot of nice looking restaurants right on the water that looked very inviting. 

 

5) Take the tram back to Soller, and catch the last train at 2 pm back to Palma.  That would give adequate time to explore Palma and see the Cathedral (really not to be missed).

 

This eliminates the trip to Valldemossa, but it makes for a more relaxing day.  I felt rushed trying to do Soller, Port of Soller, Valldemossa, and see the Cathedral in Palma.  We really didn't have enough time to even explore Palma, which we would have liked to do.  The drive from Soller/Port of Soller to Valldemossa is beautiful, if not scary, but I felt we were trying to fit too much into one day and still get back to the ship in time for all aboard.  Maybe if we had more time there (all aboard was 5:30, but because of the distance from Palma to the port, and the fear of traffic, we had planned on leaving Palma no later than 4:30).  

 

Our ship docked at 7 am, but there was no point in rushing out because the first train to Soller wasn't until about 10 am; the Cathedral in Palma doesn't open until 10 am; and I'm not sure but I think I read that stores don't open early, either. If you plan on visiting Valledemossa in addition to Palma, Soller and Port of Soller on your own, be mindful of the train and tram times, as well as the bus schedule.  But while Valdemossa was nice, and the right there was beautiful, we didn't really spend more than 45 minutes there, an hour in Soller and a half hour in Port of Soller, so that's really not enough time to enjoy those places.

[larry_s_taco]

Question: We were in Palma last October (2022). Celebrity did not charge for the shuttles to the cathedral. They were running back and forth about every 20 minutes. It was very convenient.  Is the charge for the shuttle something new?

[roger b]

1 minute ago, larry_s_taco said:

Question: We were in Palma last October (2022). Celebrity did not charge for the shuttles to the cathedral. They were running back and forth about every 20 minutes. It was very convenient.  Is the charge for the shuttle something new?

No some cruise lines do and some don't!!

[roger b]

Hi Cruisegal,

I am pleased everything worked out for you and you were able to see a large slice of what Mallorca has to offer.

Just one point that you might not have realized is that you still have to queue to pick up your tickets if you book on line.

 I did a tour for some friends a week ago and they were able to do everything that you did but did Palma and the cathedral first .

 They caught the 12.15 train Soller then the 2.00 pm tram to pt de Soller ,spent a little time in Valdermossa and made it back to the ship by 5.00 pm.

  Their ship did not leave until 8.00 pm !! I agree it's down to timing if you do it yourself and how much you want to see personally I feel that one way  train journey is enough and I would have got a taxi back to Palma then one would have more time in Palma following your plan to do it on one's own.

 

 

[silkworms]

Hi Roger b

 

in Palma off cruise ship Saturday 10 June. In port 10am to 8pm

we wish to meet friends at San Joan Restaurant, Carrer de Sant Joan for tapas lunch.

If we meet them at Cathedral is the restaurant walkable (I have booked it for 1.30] or do you suggest getting a taxi from port direct to restaurant.Many thanks.