Fornalutx Petit Hotel

Fornalutx Petit Hotel fills a former convent of nuns on Carrer de l'Alba, a two-minute walk from the village square. The building went on to serve as the village school and now holds 18 rooms. The village is the reason to come. It sits in the Sóller valley between Sóller and the Puig Major massif, the island's highest ground, began as a farmstead in Islamic times, and has spent decades keeping its stone lanes intact: a silver plaque from the Foment del Turisme de Mallorca in 1983, and a place among Los Pueblos más Bonitos de España since 2017. The surrounding Serra de Tramuntana is a UNESCO World Heritage landscape.

The rooms are simple Mallorcan doubles, about 20 m², with a private bathroom, satellite television, a safe and wifi. What separates them is the outlook. The cheapest look onto a quiet village lane, the next step faces the mountains, and the one above that adds a private balcony to sit out on, with the terraced mountainside rising in front of you. The mountain rooms also overlook the hotel's orange trees. Then comes the Exclusive Suite, the convent's old chapel, about 50 m² with a king-size bed and its own terrace over the mountains and the valley. Breakfast is a buffet, eaten on the patio terrace when the weather allows and in the vaulted dining room when it does not, so check what your rate includes, and a massage can be booked in your room.

It is the find because of what the money buys. From about 180 euros a night in May you get a room in a village that has won awards for keeping its looks, a terrace that looks over orchards and terraced olive groves to the steep mountainside opposite, a small pool and the square two minutes away. You eat dinner in the village, walk down to Sóller in under an hour and drive to the beach at Port de Sóller in 12 minutes. The chapel suite, at about 330 euros, is the room to book for an anniversary.

The trade is the building and the hill. Inside the old convent there are stairs and no lift, some walls are thin, and the pool is small and partly tucked under the house, a cool dip rather than a place for lengths. Outside, the village's stepped lanes mean no parking at the door. Book it if you walk, or want a real Mallorcan village at a modest price and will carry a bag up a few steps. Look elsewhere if you need a lift, a long pool or the sea under your window, or are travelling with young children.