Palma de Mallorca DIY - NEW

[FL Sunshine]

Hi, does anyone have experience with using a walker in Palma de Mallorca? I will be traveling with my husband, a friend and daughter, they would be able to help with steps etc. Looking for experiences with taxis letting the walker to be put in the trunk. Can walkers be taken on buses? I am looking forward to seeing as much as I can in this beautiful port. We will be arriving on June 24th, 2024 on the Oasis of the Seas. Thank you so much. 😊

Edited January 10 by FL Sunshine
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[roger b]

3 hours ago, FL Sunshine said:

Hi, does anyone have experience with using a walker in Palma de Mallorca? I will be traveling with my husband, a friend and daughter, they would be able to help with steps etc. Looking for experiences with taxis letting the walker to be put in the trunk. Can walkers be taken on buses? I am looking forward to seeing as much as I can in this beautiful port. We will be arriving on June 24th, 2024 on the Oasis of the Seas. Thank you so much. 😊

Hi, 

You should  have no trouble  with your husband  using a walker. 

Taxi drivers are all ways very helpful and will help  with your husband.

The buses have disabled  facilities  with let down steps to enter and seats especially  for the disabled .

The Spanish are respectful of older people  and I have have been offered a seat when  the buses are crowded. 

Roger b 

[benel204]

We would greatly appreciate advice on how to spend a leisurely partial day in Mallorca. This will be our first time to visit. Our NCL Escape ship arrives May 6, 2024 at 7 AM but I don't envision we'll be off until about 8 or 8:30 AM.  The ship leaves at 3 PM so not a lot of time to spend.

We are not interested in packing in too many sites, or beaches.

A short bike or e-bike tour sounds interesting, but not for 3 or 4 hours.

We definitely want to spend time in Palma, and imagine that might be the only place we visit this trip.

This board has so many posts, it's hard to sift through it all.

 

Any suggestions for a leisurely and satisfying DIY day to give us a first taste of this beautiful island?

 

[roger b]

11 minutes ago, benel204 said:

We would greatly appreciate advice on how to spend a leisurely partial day in Mallorca. This will be our first time to visit. Our NCL Escape ship arrives May 6, 2024 at 7 AM but I don't envision we'll be off until about 8 or 8:30 AM.  The ship leaves at 3 PM so not a lot of time to spend.

We are not interested in packing in too many sites, or beaches.

A short bike or e-bike tour sounds interesting, but not for 3 or 4 hours.

We definitely want to spend time in Palma, and imagine that might be the only place we visit this trip.

This board has so many posts, it's hard to sift through it all.

 

Any suggestions for a leisurely and satisfying DIY day to give us a first taste of this beautiful island?

 

Hi , 

If you go back just a few posts there was a similar question of someone who also had a short time for a visit.

Since nothing opens before 10 am , take the shuttle bus or taxi and start at the central market :

https://www.mercatolivar.com/en/home/?

and have an early morning coffee with the locals,work your way down from there towards the cathedral.

plenty to see.

or do the free walking tour:

https://www.guruwalk.com/palma-de-mallorca?pro=true&ref_campaign=20904527979_1042_destinos_palma-de-mallorca_en_free-walking-tour-palma-de-mallorca_161238526990&ref=deea1f3qdwm8ly4fejra&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAwP6sBhDAARIsAPfK_wZzVyMqCGNWkWnZBWfqOQikcWYzLHeD8Xu_x4Xx6-2IPdpTu933wbQaAvXoEALw_wcB

Roger b 

 

 

[benel204]

22 hours ago, roger b said:

Hi , 

If you go back just a few posts there was a similar question of someone who also had a short time for a visit.

Since nothing opens before 10 am , take the shuttle bus or taxi and start at the central market :

https://www.mercatolivar.com/en/home/?

and have an early morning coffee with the locals,work your way down from there towards the cathedral.

plenty to see.

or do the free walking tour:

https://www.guruwalk.com/palma-de-mallorca?pro=true&ref_campaign=20904527979_1042_destinos_palma-de-mallorca_en_free-walking-tour-palma-de-mallorca_161238526990&ref=deea1f3qdwm8ly4fejra&gad_source=1&gclid=Cj0KCQiAwP6sBhDAARIsAPfK_wZzVyMqCGNWkWnZBWfqOQikcWYzLHeD8Xu_x4Xx6-2IPdpTu933wbQaAvXoEALw_wcB

Roger b 

 

 

Thank you Roger B, this sounds like a good idea. We might also do a bike ride early and then make our way up the hill.

[roger b]

32 minutes ago, benel204 said:

Thank you Roger B, this sounds like a good idea. We might also do a bike ride early and then make our way up the hill.

I think these people will meet you at the port :

http://www.portbikemallorca.com/en/

Roger b 

[GAgaltravel]

My daughter and I will be traveling by cruise ship to Palma de Mallorca in June. Would like to spend that day at a beach club with access to chairs, restrooms, snacks, etc. I would love recommendations that are easy to reach from cruise terminal. TIA!

[GAgaltravel]

Ignore previous question! Roger, I just found your post with suggestions! Thanks!

[rc888]

On 5/30/2023 at 6:53 PM, 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?

 

On 5/30/2023 at 7:14 PM, roger b said:

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.

 

 

Hello @cruisegal415 

we are planning for our upcoming day in Palma port in March.    Interested in doing what you did last year.  I also want to see Palma, Soller, Port of Soller & Valdemossa.  Debating between DIY vs hiring a private tour.  @cruisegal415: can you PM the name of the private guide?  We will be in port from 8am to 6pm. 

@roger bIf we are going to DIY, I am planning to take a taxi to Palma first thing in the morning, explore the old city a bit, check out the cathedral before taking the train to Soller  We can explore Soller, Port of Soller, take a taxi or bus to Valdemossa, walk around and then take the bus or taxi back to Palma or the cruise terminal.  Do you think this is too ambitious?  Or is it better to go to Valdemossa first by taxi, then take a taxi or bus to Soller.  Return to Palma on the vintage train, 

By the way, I spent the entire morning reading all your insightful recommendations.  Thanks so much. 

Thanks in advance

 

[roger b]

3 hours ago, rc888 said:

 

Hello @cruisegal415 

we are planning for our upcoming day in Palma port in March.    Interested in doing what you did last year.  I also want to see Palma, Soller, Port of Soller & Valdemossa.  Debating between DIY vs hiring a private tour.  @cruisegal415: can you PM the name of the private guide?  We will be in port from 8am to 6pm. 

@roger bIf we are going to DIY, I am planning to take a taxi to Palma first thing in the morning, explore the old city a bit, check out the cathedral before taking the train to Soller  We can explore Soller, Port of Soller, take a taxi or bus to Valdemossa, walk around and then take the bus or taxi back to Palma or the cruise terminal.  Do you think this is too. ambitious?  Or is it better to go to Valdemossa first by taxi, then take a taxi or bus to Soller.  Return to Palma on the vintage train, 

By the way, I spent the entire morning reading all your insightful recommendations.  Thanks so much. 

Thanks in advance

 

Hi , 

I took a group  from the port 2 years ago .

 We did Palma first we saw the Arab baths,  the cathedral  and walked through  Palma seing most of the sights  caught the 12.50 train to Soller  had  snack took   the tram to Pt de Soller and drove on to   Valdemossa, we did Belver Castle  also the way back to the port we were back by 5pm .

A bit rushed but got most of the sights in.

You can do it the other way round  but you will only have 2 hours in Palma , so look carefully  at the times  of the trains .

If you want a driver email  me on shoeuk at hotmail.com .

Roger b 

 

 

 

[rc888]

5 minutes ago, roger b said:

Hi , 

I took a group  from the port 2 years ago .

 We did Palma first we saw the Arab baths,  the cathedral  and walked through  Palma seing most of the sights  caught the 12.50 train to Soller  had  snack took   the tram to Pt de Soller and drove on to   Valdemossa, we did Belver Castle  also the way back to the port we were back by 5pm .

A bit rushed but got most of the sights in.

You can do it the other way round  but you will only have 2 hours in Palma , so look carefully  at the times  of the trains .

If you want a driver email  me on shoeuk at hotmail.com .

Roger b 

 

 

 

@roger b Thanks for your reply... is it easy to catch a taxi from Valdemossa back to the port we are done? 

[roger b]

4 hours ago, rc888 said:

@roger b Thanks for your reply... is it easy to catch a taxi from Valdemossa back to the port we are done? 

 

[roger b]

Just now, roger b said:

 

No guarantee on getting  a taxi but here are the bus times :

https://www.tib.org/es/lineas-y-horarios/autobus/-/linia/203

[cjc23]

On 5/30/2023 at 11:18 PM, cruisegal415 said:

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.

 

On 5/31/2023 at 9:46 PM, silkworms said:

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.

May I ask whom the private excursion was with, as wanting tp book half day morning soller by train and tram.

[cruisegal415]

18 minutes ago, cjc23 said:

 

May I ask whom the private excursion was with, as wanting tp book half day morning soller by train and tram.

Mallorca Private Guides was the name of the company.

[roger b]

On 1/14/2024 at 8:35 PM, cjc23 said:

 

May I ask whom the private excursion was with, as wanting tp book half day morning soller by train and tram.

 

On 1/14/2024 at 8:35 PM, cjc23 said:

 

May I ask whom the private excursion was with, as wanting tp book half day morning soller by train and tram.

Hi all,,

I think cjc23 made a perfect tour on his day in Palma , it was made so much easier having a private guide to coordinate everything.

This is not to detere people doing it on their own ,but this takes away the stress 

 This is now where I will point this question to in future.

Roger b 

 

[tmt218]

Roger

We will be in Palma in April from 7am to 5pm. We would  like to see the cathedral and the castle. Is the hop on hop off bus a good way to see those sites? 
 

We plan to take the cruise ship shuttle into town and  then catch the HOHO after to the castle and see more of the city. Anything we should add to the list of must see? 
 

Thank you 

Tanya 

[roger b]

53 minutes ago, tmt218 said:

Roger

We will be in Palma in April from 7am to 5pm. We would  like to see the cathedral and the castle. Is the hop on hop off bus a good way to see those sites? 
 

We plan to take the cruise ship shuttle into town and  then catch the HOHO after to the castle and see more of the city. Anything we should add to the list of must see? 
 

Thank you 

Tanya 

Hi Tanya,

      Perfect the Ho Ho bus has a stop at the port if you want to go back to the ship.

   Palma is an easy walkable town and most of the sights are are around the old city .

My favorite walk is from the Mercat Olivar ( central market) down for the cathedral.

The points on route :

https://www.abc-mallorca.com/mercat-olivar-palma/

https://ipanematravels.com/art-nouveau-palma-de-mallorca/

 

ttps://www.seemallorca.com/sights/religious/banys-arabs-arab-baths

Roger b 

     

[tmt218]

24 minutes ago, roger b said:

Hi Tanya,

      Perfect the Ho Ho bus has a stop at the port if you want to go back to the ship.

   Palma is an easy walkable town and most of the sights are are around the old city .

My favorite walk is from the Mercat Olivar ( central market) down for the cathedral.

The points on route :

https://www.abc-mallorca.com/mercat-olivar-palma/

https://ipanematravels.com/art-nouveau-palma-de-mallorca/

 

ttps://www.seemallorca.com/sights/religious/banys-arabs-arab-baths

Roger b 

     

Roger ,

Thank you so much! You are a a true gem on this board. I look forward to visiting. 

[smokeykat]

Hi Roger

Reading through all the messages looking for a really nice tapas bar that is open on Sundays. We are arriving Sunday September 8th at 12 noon and will depart at 11pm on NCL Escape. Its our 45th anniversary that day! We plan to take the shuttle to start at the Cathedral and then walk to the Palace. After that tapas and shopping.

I read that you recommend OMBU which I see is open on Sunday. Would you have another Sunday recommendation?

[roger b]

1 hour ago, smokeykat said:

Hi Roger

Reading through all the messages looking for a really nice tapas bar that is open on Sundays. We are arriving Sunday September 8th at 12 noon and will depart at 11pm on NCL Escape. Its our 45th anniversary that day! We plan to take the shuttle to start at the Cathedral and then walk to the Palace. After that tapas and shopping.

I read that you recommend OMBU which I see is open on Sunday. Would you have another Sunday recommendation?

Hi, 

As there will not many places open on a Sunday,  you will only need  a couple of hours in Palma .

Ombu is good but as it is your anniversary. 

I am going  to give you my favourite  restaurant for a true Spanish

experience, this where the King goes when  he holidays in Mallorca. 

 It will be very busy so you will have to book ,try to ask for the terrace. 

Try for around 6pm  .its a 20mins in a taxi .

 

https://www.canpedro.es 

Roger b 

 

[smokeykat]

Thank you Roger! This looks amazing ☺️

[roger b]

Hi All,

        You no longer have to worry about finding a taxi or a pick-up from the port , since you can book an Uber also you will not have to worry about cash as it goes on your credit card.

https://www.uber.com/es/en/r/cities/taxi/palma-es-ib-es/

Roger b

[bkjewett]

We will be in Mallorca on April 3rd.  I have teenagers that are determined to swim in the Mediterranean and I think this stop will be our best option.  Are the beach clubs that you mention in this topic open during this time?  Or would it be better to just find a beach closer to town?  If so, any recommendations?  I read a bit about Portixol Beach?  Thanks so much.  This forum has been super informative.

[roger b]

3 hours ago, bkjewett said:

We will be in Mallorca on April 3rd.  I have teenagers that are determined to swim in the Mediterranean and I think this stop will be our best option.  Are the beach clubs that you mention in this topic open during this time?  Or would it be better to just find a beach closer to town?  If so, any recommendations?  I read a bit about Portixol Beach?  Thanks so much.  This forum has been super informative.

Hi ,

  Everything will be open by April , Portixol beach is quite open and not pretty there is only one beach club  ,l have been  there but would not rush back as it can be quite windy there, personally I would go for a beach club in Illetas .

https://balnearioilletas.com/invierno-balneario-illetas/

 

https://www.purobeach.com/es/beach-club-illetas//?utm_source=google&utm_medium=GMB&utm_campaign=PuroBeachIlletas_GMB

Roger b