Maristel Hotel & Spa and Fornalutx Petit Hotel. The Maristel, from about 135 euros a night, the lowest of our ten, has a pool that looks down the valley to the sea, and a spa built round a heated indoor pool. Fornalutx Petit Hotel, from about 180, is a former convent whose rate barely moves with the seasons.
2 of our ten · Hand-pickedHotels cannot pay to be hereLast checked: October 2026
Value on Mallorca is not the cheapest bed on the island. It is the island's finest scenery for a fraction of what the famous names charge. In Deià, La Residencia, A Belmond Hotel is typically from about 1,805 euros a night. Our two value picks are in the same mountains, the Serra de Tramuntana, a UNESCO World Heritage landscape since 2011, for a tenth of that or less: stone villages where the square is two minutes from the door and dinner is a walk away.
Two things stretch the money further. The season: July and August bring the island's highest rates, and seven of our ten close for the winter, so a price that holds steady and a door that stays open are worth more than they look. And the room: at both hotels the view is a small step up the price list, not a leap. Choose the Maristel for the sea and a spa, Fornalutx Petit Hotel for the mountains in any month.
Maristel Hotel & Spa has the lowest typical rate of our ten, from about 135 euros a night, and it spends the money where you notice it. Estellencs is a small stone village on the wild west coast, 150 metres above the water, and from the outdoor pool, its bar and the sea-view rooms you look down the valley to a wedge of open sea about a kilometre off. The spa is where the value shows most: a heated indoor pool with a swan-neck cascade, bubble jets and a counter-current, a Finnish sauna, a Turkish bath and sensory showers, taken as a one-hour circuit booked at reception.
Around that is a grown-up village house of 56 rooms, open to guests aged 16 and over, with a bistro serving a five-course tasting menu, the GR221 Dry Stone Route passing through Estellencs and TIB's 202 bus to Palma at the door. Its rates are lowest in March and from late October.
The room to book
Dreaming Sea
about 25 m²€199 a night
On a May weekday, roughly 40 to 60 euros a night above the entry twin buys bay windows looking down the valley to the sea, a 210 cm king and, in almost every room, a balcony.
Fornalutx Petit Hotel is from about 180 euros a night, and that figure barely moves: the walking months of April, May and October cost about the same as high summer. It sells winter nights too, when seven of our ten are shut. The money buys one of 18 rooms in a former convent of nuns, later the village school, in a village counted among the most beautiful in Spain. Breakfast is on a patio terrace facing the terraced slopes of the Tramuntana, the small pool opens onto the wooded hillside, and the convent's old chapel is now the one suite, with a terrace of its own.
Dinner is the village's job: the square is two minutes' walk away, with five places worth eating at within five minutes on foot. Sóller is 7 minutes by car or a 46-minute walk down the valley, and the beach at Port de Sóller is 12 minutes by car.
The room to book
Habitación vista montaña y terraza privada
about 22 m²€212 a night
About 30 euros a night more than a double on the lane, in any month, buys a private balcony facing the Tramuntana: your own seat for the first coffee and the last light on the peaks.
If the budget stretches, L'Avenida Hotel is the next step up, typically from about 235 euros: a twelve-room, adults-only townhouse in Sóller with a garden pool, the square four minutes on foot and the wooden tram to the port five.
From about €235 a night
Questions people ask
Good questions about Mallorca
Where can you stay in Mallorca's Tramuntana mountains for less?
In the villages, rather than at the famous names. Maristel Hotel & Spa, in Estellencs on the coast road, is typically from about 135 euros a night, with a sea-facing pool and a heated indoor pool in its spa. Fornalutx Petit Hotel, in the Sóller valley, is typically from about 180, in a former convent two minutes from the village square. In the same mountains, L'Avenida Hotel in Sóller is typically from about 235 and La Residencia, A Belmond Hotel in Deià from about 1,805.
When are rates lowest in the Tramuntana villages?
It depends on the hotel. At Maristel Hotel & Spa, rates are lowest in March and from late October into November, and August runs about a quarter above March; it is shut from late November to early March. Fornalutx Petit Hotel's rate barely moves with the seasons, so April, May and October cost about the same as high summer. That makes it the stronger value in July and August, when rates across the island peak, and the one of the two for a winter trip.
How much is the tourist tax at Maristel Hotel & Spa and Fornalutx Petit Hotel?
From 1 May to 31 October, the Maristel, a four-star, charges 3 euros per person per night and Fornalutx Petit Hotel, an interior-tourism hotel, 2 euros, against 4 at the island's five-stars. VAT of 10 per cent goes on top. From 1 November to 30 April the tax is cut by 75 per cent, from the ninth night in the same place it halves again, and children under 16 pay nothing. A couple's week in July comes to 56 euros at a five-star and 28 at Fornalutx Petit Hotel, plus VAT.
Is breakfast included at these two hotels?
Check your rate at both. At Maristel Hotel & Spa breakfast comes with some rates and not others: a buffet from 7:30 to 11:00 with local produce, fresh pastries and a vegan corner, about 15 euros a head on a room-only rate. Spa entry works the same way, as a one-hour thermal circuit booked at reception. Fornalutx Petit Hotel sells its rooms with breakfast, but check that your rate says so: a buffet from 8:00 to 10:00, out on the patio terrace facing the mountains in fine weather and otherwise under the vaults of the dining room.
Do you need a car, and what does parking cost?
A car is the easy way to see these mountains, and both hotels use the village car parks rather than their own. At Maristel Hotel & Spa the public car parks are free, 100 to 200 metres from the door, with charging points for electric cars, and TIB's 202 bus to Palma stops at the door, 3.60 euros by card. At Fornalutx Petit Hotel the car parks are about 200 metres away; the blue bays cost 1 euro an hour for up to two hours, or 15 euros for a holiday permit lasting up to a month, issued with a note from the hotel.
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 smart money
