Quiet in Mallorca is mostly a matter of where you sleep. The rowdy stretches are named in law: the Govern's decree for responsible tourism marks out Magaluf's Punta Ballena and the Platja de Palma, and none of these eight is in either. Beyond them, the island offers three kinds of quiet: a country estate with nothing around it, a small house in a town where dinner is on foot, and a stone village in the Tramuntana.
Four of the eight limit who can stay: Can Cera takes no one under 14, Can Ferrereta adults and children over 14, Maristel Hotel & Spa guests of 16 and over, and L'Avenida Hotel adults only. The other four rely on their setting: a castle estate, a village convent, a hillside of olive groves and a valley slope. Season decides too: Can Cera stays open all year, Fornalutx Petit Hotel sells winter nights too, and the other six close for the winter.
Castell Son Claret stands inside its own 132-hectare estate on the road from Es Capdellà up to Galilea, with the first folds of the Tramuntana behind it and no village around it: Es Capdellà is five minutes away by car. It is registered as a rural hotel and run for calm. There are 43 rooms and suites and no kids' club, the spa and Sa Clastra take guests aged 14 and over, and the outdoor pool has house rules: an adult supervises children at all times, and jumping and inflatables are discouraged. Olivera serves dinner every night, so the evening never needs the car.
The room to book
Deluxe Double
37 m²€723 a night
37 m² under wooden beams in the castle, with windows looking out over the gardens or the hillside behind rather than into the courtyard.
Can Cera is an 18th-century noble house on a narrow lane in Palma's old town, Carrer de Sant Francesc, and very little of the city gets past its door. You come in under two low stone arches into a small planted courtyard, and beyond it the salons, the library and the black marble bar of the red salon are kept for the guests of 14 rooms. No one under 14 stays. The spa, with a Finnish sauna, a steam room and a hot tub, can be booked for your sole use at no extra charge, and loungers on the roof terrace look across the old town's rooftops. The cathedral is six minutes away on foot.
The room to book
Signature Junior Suite
45 m²€727 a night
The one category with a gallery of its own, looking inward over the planted courtyard, and 45 square metres, as large as any room short of the Suite Can Cera.
Can Ferrereta stands behind tall wooden doors on a narrow one-way street in Santanyí's old centre, in a market town rather than a resort. It takes adults and children over 14 only, and every room is sold for two at most, so its 32 rooms and suites make a calm house: nobody at the pool or in the spa is under 14. Behind the old house, the 25-metre garden pool lies between cypresses and olive trees, and the spa has a 10-metre heated indoor pool, a hammam and a sauna. The Wednesday and Saturday market is three minutes away on foot, for the mornings you want company.
The room to book
Terrace Suite
45 to 50 m²€1,606 a night
In the new building at the back of the plot, with a private garden, sun loungers and an outdoor shower, so the afternoon is yours rather than the pool deck's.
L'Avenida Hotel fills a 1912 townhouse on Gran Via, a tree-lined street a short walk back from Sóller's main square, and nights on Gran Via are quiet. It has twelve rooms and takes adults only. The bistro serves lunch by the pool but no dinner, so the evenings belong to the town, with the square four minutes away on foot, and the staff will book your tables before you land. Breakfast, with eggs cooked to order, is in the courtyard garden beside the pool, and the wooden tram to the sea leaves from in front of the station, five minutes away.
The room to book
Luxury Suite
45 m²€456 a night
The largest room in a twelve-room house, 45 m² under high original ceilings, with a four-poster king and the only roll-top baths in the hotel, for a slow evening in.
Maristel Hotel & Spa is in Estellencs, one of the smallest villages on the island's west coast, its stone houses stepped up the slopes of the Tramuntana and the parish church two minutes' walk from the door. It takes guests aged 16 and over. The spa runs by appointment, a one-hour thermal circuit booked at reception, with a Finnish sauna, a Turkish bath and a heated indoor pool. Evenings are a drink on the Sunset Cocktails Terrace and dinner at the Maristel Bistro, which serves every night of the season, and the GR221 Dry Stone Route passes through the village for walkers. The sea-view rooms look out over the coast road, so for the quietest night, book the Garden Junior Suite.
The room to book
Garden Junior Suite
25 to 30 m²€179 a night
Sold as the quiet room: a seating area and, in most, a balcony, facing the mountains, the village or the garden rather than over the coast road to the sea.
Fornalutx Petit Hotel occupies a former convent, later the village school, on Carrer de l'Alba in Fornalutx, a Sóller valley village counted among the most beautiful in Spain. There are 18 rooms. Nights in the village are quiet, the lanes are steep, stepped and cobbled, and cars stay in the public car parks about 200 metres away. The hotel serves breakfast only, on a patio terrace facing the mountains when the weather allows, so dinner is a short walk into the village, two minutes to the square. It also sells winter nights, which makes it the quiet mountain stay for winter (check your dates).
The room to book
Habitación vista montaña y terraza privada
about 22 m²€212 a night
On the mountain side, away from the lane: about 22 m² with a private balcony facing the Tramuntana, and the view yours alone.
La Residencia, A Belmond Hotel is two manor houses of the 16th and 17th centuries on the edge of Deià, its gardens and olive terraces climbing the hillside behind. The quiet here is a slow week: painting and sculpture classes in the hotel's studios, walks with the resident donkeys through the olive groves to a stone shepherd's hut high over the sea, and dinner at El Olivo, in an old olive mill or on its terrace facing the village. The church is five minutes away on foot. Children are welcome, and the Smile Club for 4 to 12-year-olds runs from May to September.
The room to book
Deluxe Junior Suite
50 to 55 m²€2,655 a night
Your own large tiled terrace with a table and chairs, facing Deià and the mountains from the hillside Tramuntana building, for evenings outside on your own.
Cap Vermell Grand Hotel is built like a Mallorcan hill village, with low buildings, lanes and a square, on the slope of the quiet Canyamel valley at the far eastern end of the island. It is a resort, with 142 rooms and a free kids' club for 4 to 11-year-olds, but every room has a terrace and the junior suites start at 53 m², so there is space to be quiet in. Serenitas Spa has a rose quartz sauna, the Canyamel golf course is next door, and dinner at Voro, with two MICHELIN stars, is on the square, for guests aged 16 and over.
The room to book
Junior Suite Valley View
53 m²€616 a night
The same 53 m² as the cheaper junior suites, with the terrace facing across the Canyamel valley rather than the resort's own lanes.
It stands in La Calatrava, Palma's old tanners' quarter and now a quiet residential corner of the old town, and its roof terrace is calm in the mornings, before Palma comes up for the sunset.
From about €245 a night
Questions people ask
Good questions about Mallorca
Which hotels in Mallorca are adults only?
Four of ours limit who can stay. L'Avenida Hotel, a twelve-room townhouse in Sóller, is adults only. Maristel Hotel & Spa, in Estellencs, takes guests aged 16 and over. Can Cera, in Palma's old town, takes no one under 14, and Can Ferrereta, in Santanyí, takes adults and children over 14, with every room sold for two. Castell Son Claret welcomes children, but its spa and Sa Clastra are for guests aged 14 and over, and there is no kids' club.
Which part of Mallorca is quietest?
For nights with nothing around you, the countryside: the south-west foothills, where Castell Son Claret stands alone on a 132-hectare estate, or the Pla in the middle of the island, farm country and market towns with quiet evenings and no sea. For quiet with a village to walk to, the Tramuntana: Estellencs, Fornalutx and Deià. The zones to avoid are named in the Govern's decree for responsible tourism: Magaluf's Punta Ballena, and the Platja de Palma and s'Arenal, where drinking in the street carries a fine of 500 to 1,500 euros.
Can you have a quiet stay in Palma?
Yes, if you choose the house. Can Cera has 14 rooms on a narrow old-town lane, behind two low stone arches and a planted courtyard; it takes no one under 14 and lets you reserve its spa for yourselves at no extra charge. Es Princep is in La Calatrava, a quiet residential corner of the old town just inside the sea walls. The Govern's decree for responsible tourism covers the Platja de Palma and s'Arenal, on the bay south of the airport, not the old town.
Which quiet Mallorca hotels are open in winter?
Two of these eight. Can Cera, in Palma, is open all year, and November to February is its cheapest time, at about half the rates of June and September. Fornalutx Petit Hotel, in the Sóller valley, sells winter nights too, and its rates barely move with the seasons. The other six close: Castell Son Claret and La Residencia, A Belmond Hotel from mid-November to mid-March, Can Ferrereta from late November to early March, Maristel Hotel & Spa from around the third week of November to early March, L'Avenida Hotel from November to February and Cap Vermell Grand Hotel from November to late March.
Which quiet hotels in Mallorca have a spa?
Most of them. Can Cera's spa, with a Finnish sauna, a steam room and a hot tub, can be reserved for your sole use at no extra charge. Can Ferrereta has a 10-metre heated indoor pool, a hammam and a sauna, and Maristel Hotel & Spa a Finnish sauna, a Turkish bath and a heated indoor pool, booked as a one-hour circuit. Castell Son Claret's spa, for guests aged 14 and over, has a hammam, a sauna and an indoor water area. La Residencia, A Belmond Hotel has a heated indoor pool, and Cap Vermell Grand Hotel's Serenitas Spa a rose quartz sauna.
How did you choose these hotels?
Independently, through extensive research, trusted sources and first-hand visits. Hotels cannot pay to be included, and every one of the ten has to exist for a different reason.
The special one
