As Mallorca gets recommended quite a bit here, I’m guessing lots of us go there for family holidays.

We’re headed there this year with another couple of friends + their similar aged toddler to ours…first time for us after threatening to go a few years. Got a house in the countryside just five or ten minutes drive from Alcudia – found it on housetrip.com (not a bad site for renting properties a la AirBnB type affair).

Thought this might be a handy thread for recommendations for must-see/must-avoid both for families child-free travellers.

As far as I can gather, Alcudia looks like a good child friendly beach so I think that’ll do us for quite a few visits over the fortnight. Any other beaches worth the hike? We’ll have a couple of cars so we’re pretty mobile.

Oh great…I was hoping someone would start one of these. 😀

Meant to ask…anybody have any car rental from Palma airport heaven/hell stories to share?

#completelyignoringyourquestion

I’m there for a long weekend on Thursday. 😀

Just sayin’

Well I hope it pisses down then. 😛

#justsayin

(Nah, have good one! 🙂 )

anybody have any car rental from Palma airport heaven/hell stories to share?

Avoid Record Car Hire unless you want bald tyres and a heap of junk

Meant to ask…anybody have any car rental from Palma airport heaven/hell stories to share?

The queues at the airport are generally atrocious.
Last time we rented from Hiper, who are a 5 minute shuttle bus away. Previously I would have tried to avoid renting outside the terminal but it was totally fine, very easy and efficient mini bus service, no queues at the pickup point. We did it with child and 2 weeks worth of family luggage in tow and it was no hassle. Hiper themselves were good, I read decent reviews of Hasso too, who are based nearby, and again would help avoid the airport desk madness.

I am sure I have posted along these lines before.

In relation to the details you have given, Alcudia, the old town part was nice for a day trip, but if you are already going to be driving to get to the beach at Alcudia my recommendation would be to drive 5 minutes further south to Playa de Muro. There is much less there so the beach is quieter and cleaner. It’s the perfect beach for kids, the tide only seems to come in about 2m and the water is knee deep for about the first 50m. If you carried on south you get to Can Picafort, which I preferred to Alcudia, but the beach is smaller there and less sheltered.

Plenty of nice beaches, we hired a car and just drove around checking out at the beaches, all shapes and sizes and all within 30 mins drive

the tide only seems to come in about 2m

The med officially is not tidal, in reality the water level does change, but not by more than a few cm’s. The air pressure has more bearing on the water level than the moon does.

If you are going to post pics…

No MILFs, ta.

Car hire – if you arrive at same time as lots of other flights (and Mallorca airport is enormous) there can be big queues at the car rental desks. I always use Sixt – pricy but everything can be prebooked and they operate with Germanic efficiency.

Formentor beach beyond Port de Pollenca is a nice change from the Alcudia beach – smaller and more scenic but similarly child friendly. About 30/40 minutes drive. Carry on to Cap de Formentor for spectacular scenery.

Other must do with kids is to head over to Soller and get the tram from town down to the Port (another beach).

We have done Mallorca for the last two years with 7 and 9 year old, but not in the high summer. Would second the beaches at Playa de Muro. We all enjoyed a day out in Palma, interesting old town to walk around and kids were not too bored. Always planned to hire a bike out there but havent made it yet, friends go out there and report the (road) riding is great. A great chilled out island and very friendly/family orientated. Enjoy.

What are the sea temperatures like at the end of May? We’ve got somewhere booked in the northwest of the island.

What are the sea temperatures like at the end of May?

Will most likely be 19-21 deg celcius at the very end of May.

Sea temperature peaks at around 27-29 deg celcius in Mid/late august.

Essentially (during the summer) it lags behind the average air temperature by a couple of weeks.

Cheers – that’s sort of like the summer in UK, isn’t it? Was pondering whether to take some cut-off wetsuits for the kids.

Cheers – that’s sort of like the summer in UK, isn’t it? Was pondering whether to take some cut-off wetsuits for the kids.

I wear at wetsuit at the beginning of may, but by end of may I dont bother with one and will just be in shorts.

However my son (aged 5) will not go in without a wetsuit until July.

Ta – that’s v useful.

Cala Millor (south east) is a good beach , very busy these days.
When we first went there ,there was just a hut..
We’re going to visit family in June, hurrah.

Brain freeze earlier , I meant Sa Coma near Cala Millor….soz.

Centauro for car hire – avoid the queues in the airport.
The shuttle bus goes from the upper level, runs every 15 mins and takes 5 minutes to the depot.
Formentor beach makes a nice trip out.
Drive out to Soller and take the tram and/or train to Palma
Palma aquarium is great as is the cathedral
I have a couple of recommendations for food in Puerto pollenca and Pollenca- I’ll dig em out!

If you fancy a walk, the hike up to Castell d’Alaro is worth it for the views. My daughter enjoyed the glass bottom boat trip from Porta Pollensa round Cap Formentor.

We went to Cala d’Or last year and absolutely loved it – loads of places to eat and drink. Fairly touristy, but not lairy.

We stayed at Hotel Cala d’Or and it fronts straight on to this beach…

[url=https://flic.kr/p/x2K3gt]470-477[/url] by davetheblade, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/x2K2WR]439-441[/url] by davetheblade, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/wZqu6q]hotel-cala-d-or[/url] by davetheblade, on Flickr

Take the boat trip up to Cala Mondrago National Park and spend an hour diving off the two storey ferry into the beautiful clear bay, before docking…

[url=https://flic.kr/p/x2K3Bt]actividades-excursiones-marinas01[/url] by davetheblade, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/wK8b9A]Mondrago[/url] by davetheblade, on Flickr

[url=https://flic.kr/p/w5SCSX]slider7[/url] by davetheblade, on Flickr

Yeah, that all looks really shit TAFKAS. Not sure how you stuck it at all. 🙂

I love Mallorca. Beautiful island.