Mallorca (Majorca) is one of the beautiful Spanish Balearic Islands in the Mediterranean Sea. With the capital at Palma de Mallorca, this destination is perfect for sports or just for having fun and relaxation.
I have never seen so many cyclists on the roads anywhere I’ve been traveling before. Driving from one place to another can be difficult, as they often use an entire lane. But “it is what it is,” and make no mistake, Mallorca deserves the struggle.
Here’s a first taste of architectural details in Randa. Of course, there are some cyclists in the area. No surprise there 🙂
Holiday in Mallorca
We went to Mallorca for a seven days holiday, on the 6th of April. In all this time, we only had rain in one night. The temperature was very friendly, about 20 degrees Celsius every day. Not suitable for swimming, but perfect for hiking.
On the morning of the first day, we traveled to Pollenca to climb the well-known 365 steps, one for each day of the year. These are flanked by cypress trees and blooming bushes, and they lead to the Calvario Chapel. On top, you’ll discover spectacular views.
From there, we followed the road down, leading to a small Roman bridge made of stone and back to the parking spot. This is an easy one-hour trip with many beautiful landscapes and architectural details. If you’re into street photography, there are also many opportunities to test your skills.
Famous beaches in Mallorca
For the rest of the day, we chose to go easy and visit some of Mallorca’s famous beaches. As I love landscape photography, these places gave me a lot of shooting opportunities. The clear blue sky and the turquoise water blend amazingly for fantastic pictures.
The below images are taken at Cala Barques. The mountain goes right into the sea, which helps for a perfect composition.
On the second day, we decided to visit some famous caves and continue shooting the fantastic views at Mallorca’s calas (beaches).
This is the Rock Es Pontas at Cala Santanyi.
Top caves in Mallorca
We started in the morning with the Coves d’arta. A lovely light show during the visit helps a lot for shooting in the dark and enhances your pictures with an unnatural but pleasant feeling.
These caves are situated in the northeast of Mallorca. An excellent network of underground caverns with strange stalactites and stalagmites grows about one centimeter every one hundred years.
Jules Verne visited these caves and became inspired to write his Journey to the Center of the Earth.
Here we made new friends. While shooting some pics with my wife, we were talking Romanian. In our group, there were other Romanians who heard us and said “hello.”
It started a great friendship, and we met every single day after that, visiting all the following places together.
They are Bogdan and Corina Carcel, a man and wife living in Germany. Bogdan is also a photographer, and I have learned quite a few more tips in photography with his help. He is more experienced than me, and I took full advantage of that 🙂
Here you can find out more about Bogdan Carcel.
We continued together to the next cave, Coves dels Hams. Before entering, we were approached by a nice girl who took a picture with us. We love it, we paid for it, and here it is:
The caves are located in the Manacor area, about one km west of Porto Cristo.
It is a 500 meter walk through 12 different areas of the caves. You will enjoy the “Magical Mozart” concert accompanied by a light show. At the beginning of the tour, it will be a video projection directly on the cave’s walls, relating some historical details.
It is an exciting show, from the discovery and exploration of the caves to the engineering behind the first illuminating inside.
The caves get their name from the unique formations of the stalactites and stalagmites (hams is the Mallorquín means „fish hooks”) – credit to xmallorca.com
Visiting Mallorca
On the third day, we started with Valldemossa—lots of opportunities for cityscape photography. Valldemossa Charterhouse, which is a former royal residence, stood stately in the middle of a park, demanding attention.
Coffee shops everywhere are making it easy for tourists to relax while enjoying the views.
Next, we head to Cova de Sa Foradada. This is one of the most famous viewpoints in Majorca:
It was about three hours walk through a fantastic olive trees orchard. One hour to go down to the seashore and two hours to climb back to the parking.
It is worth every minute. The shooting opportunities for photographers were fantastic. From the landscapes to shooting the majestic olive trees, we couldn’t stop taking hundreds of pics from this location only.
Here’s a sample with the olive trees:
Next we drive to Cala Deia. Another famous beach in Mallorca, where you can enjoy the beautiful views while serving the best fish meal and a perfect coffee at the restaurant.
Some brave people dared to swim. The water was too cold. If you want to enjoy splashing in Mallorca, I recommend visiting from June to August.
We ended the day in Port de Soller. After a lovely evening walk we stopped at a restaurant for dinner, where we enjoyed fantastic food and the best Sangria.
On the fourth day we took it easy again. We met our new friends in the morning and went to visit birds watching places near our accommodation, just a 15-minute drive.
We walked about three hours, enjoying the views and taking close-up photos of birds.
A very relaxing day. After this walk we headed to our place and spent high-quality time together for the rest of the day. We had some drinks, tested the local food specialties and got to know each other better.
Here are some pics from the bird-watching trip:
On the 5th day we visited Puig de Randa, especially for Santuari de Cura. It is possible, easy even to drive straight to the location. But we left the cars at the bottom of Randa town (free parking) and hiked to the top.
It was an easy one-and-a-half-hour climb. Again, lots of opportunities for photography, especially for landscapes.
On top you may visit the chapel, the gardens and the Ramon Llull cave, as seen below.
There is a hotel and a big restaurant on the location, so no worries about food, drinks and accommodation.
On the sixth day, we had a long walk in La Albufera, a beautiful natural park that is a nature preserve. It contains the largest and most important wetland of the Balearic islands.
You can easily see fish in the water, which is very clear.
The place’s flora is impressive, and we couldn’t stop shooting close-up pics with flowers.
You can also see animals living free in nature. Those are semi-wild horses, as humans only interact with them a few times yearly.
You can see everywhere contrasting natural colors. This adds complexity to your photography in an enjoyable way.
Agriculture is a prominent part of the economy, and the central part of Mallorca deals with farming. Crops such as almonds, olives, citrus fruits and grapes have been grown since forever.
Palma de Mallorca
The last day we reserved for visiting Palma de Mallorca.
We enjoyed a long walk on the shore and I spent some time shooting boats. My Sony 24-240 mm lens only helped me a little. Neither with the ships nor with the birds. During this holiday, I decided to purchase the Sony FE 200-600mm f5.6-6.3 G OSS Lens, and I hardly wait to test it.
After that, we head to see the cathedral and the palace. Again the weather was perfect for shooting, making our last day in Mallorca another successful one.
We bought souvenirs, enjoyed lunch, and kept walking. We had to be at the airport at about 16.30, so our last day was almost a full one.
We didn’t use carriage rides, but it is good to know they are available.
I saw kids having fun, and I couldn’t stop myself from joining. Even if only from a distance 🙂
The architectural details in Palma de Mallorca are absolutely fantastic.
Here’s a taste of what we saw:
Conclusion
During this holiday I have used my best camera – Sony A7RII with Sony FE 24-240mm f/3.5-6.3 OSS. If you want to read the review for this camera, please follow the link.
If you’d like to see the image quality of this camera, you can just view my profile on Unsplash. For this post I had to resize all photos, but you can see them in full resolution and download and use them for free if you wish.
So, this holiday in Mallorca was another successful one. We viewed terrific places and made new friends. Nothing more to wish for. All was perfect.
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