Four Seasons Resort Mallorca at Formentor

Hotel Formentor opened on 24 August 1929 at the head of Formentor beach, built by an Argentine art lover, Adan Diehl, before the road arrived, so guests came by boat. It became the island's literary address: publishers meeting there in 1960 founded the prize that Beckett and Borges shared in 1961. Barceló sold it in 2020 and the old building did not survive: gutted in 2021, its last walls came down in 2022. Estudio Lamela rebuilt it on the same line, copying the façade and windows so from the bay it looks much as before, and the garden terraces and main steps to the sea were kept. It opened as Four Seasons Resort Mallorca at Formentor in August 2024.

All 110 rooms and suites face the bay side of the building and have a terrace. What changes up the ladder is whether you see the sea, and that comes down to the category: the sea-view rooms and suites are all on the third and fourth floors, the top two, above the pines. Pine-View Rooms, the 40 m² entry level on the second to fourth floors, look into gardens and pines; Sea-View Rooms are the same size with the water in front. Grand Sea-View Rooms share those floors and that view at about 50 m², adding a sofa bed and terrace loungers. Garden-View rooms with plunge pools sit at garden level and look at the garden. The interiors are pale and natural, and the glass walls fold back onto the terrace.

The reason to book is the setting that made the name: a long white hotel at the head of nearly a kilometre of pine-shaded sand, with the bay in front and the mountains behind. The steps run down through the pines to the beach, where the hotel keeps its own loungers and service and runs Llum i Sal for grilled fish and rice. It suits families: a family pool with a children's area framed by three old olive trees, an adults-only pool, a free kids' club from ten to five every day and a teenagers' room open until nine. Shima cooks Nikkei and Mel the Mediterranean menu.

The trade is price and distance. The entry room costs about 1,830 euros on a May night and looks at the pines; a full sea view starts at the Sea-View Room. It is 71 minutes by car from Palma airport and 19 from Port de Pollença, so it is a stay-put hotel, not a base for the island. The beach is public and busy with day visitors in summer, and the hotel closes from November to mid-March. Book it for a beach week with children or a big occasion, and pay for the sea view.