Where to stay in Mallorca: city, mountains or beach, area by area

Palma is a city of more than 400,000 people, almost half the island, and its old town is the one base where a car stays parked. From Plaça de la Reina, at the foot of the Born, the cathedral is 5 minutes on foot, Plaça Major 8 and the Olivar market 13, and Es Baluard's museum of contemporary art is 8 the other way. The city beach, Can Pere Antoni, is 750 metres of dark sand with lifeguards in summer, 21 minutes on foot from the square.

It is also the easiest base to arrive at. EMT's A1 bus runs from the airport to the centre for 5 euros, and from Plaça d'Espanya, 20 minutes' walk, the wooden Sóller train takes an hour to Sóller and TIB's buses cover the island.

The cost: July and August average 31 degrees by day at the airport, much of the old town is a restricted-traffic area where hotels register guests' cars, and the sand is a walk away.

Both of ours stay open all year. Es Princep, 12 minutes from the airport, stands just inside the old sea walls, its roof terrace and pool looking over the bay; Can Cera, 18 minutes out, is an 18th-century house in the lanes behind the cathedral, with no guests under 14.

Sóller fills a valley of orange and lemon groves in the Serra de Tramuntana, the range UNESCO listed as a World Heritage cultural landscape in 2011. It is a working town, not a resort. From Plaça de sa Constitució, the station is 3 minutes on foot and Biniaraix 27 minutes up a lane through the orchards, where the stone steps of the Barranc climb into the mountains. Fornalutx, counted among the most beautiful villages in Spain, is 8 minutes by car.

The wooden tram, running since 1913, takes half an hour to Port de Sóller, whose beach is 800 metres of sand and fine pebbles on a sheltered bay. The train, open since 1912, takes an hour to Palma, and TIB's 204 bus 30 to 40 minutes. By car, Palma Cathedral is 34 minutes from the square.

The cost: the town's car parks charge all year, up to 9 euros a day from March to mid-November and 10 at Sa Calatrava, the historic centre is a low-emission zone for authorised cars only, and Fornalutx's lanes are steep, stepped and cobbled.

L'Avenida, an adults-only townhouse of 12 rooms 4 minutes from the square, is 34 minutes from the airport. Fornalutx Petit Hotel, a former convent in the village, is 41 minutes out and sells rooms through the winter.

South-west of Sóller, the Ma-10 runs along the seaward side of the Tramuntana through small stone villages. Deià comes first, the village where artists settled in the 1960s, with Robert Graves's house, open to visitors, 11 minutes on foot from the church. Cala Deià, 70 metres of stones and coarse sand with no beach services but fish restaurants beside it, is 28 minutes down on foot. By car, Son Marroig, the Archduke's estate above Sa Foradada, is 9 minutes, Valldemossa 16 and Sóller 17. Estellencs, 44 minutes along the coast, is smaller still, with a cove of pebbles and rocks below.

This is walking country: the GR 221 runs through both villages, and its stretch from Valldemossa to Deià takes about five hours. TIB's 203 reaches Palma from Deià in 45 to 55 minutes, the 202 from Estellencs in just over an hour.

The cost: the coast road is all bends, neither has a sandy beach, and Deià charges for parking from April to October, 4 euros for three hours.

Belmond La Residencia faces Deià from its hillside, 5 minutes' walk from the church and 45 from the airport, with a kids' club in summer. Maristel, in Estellencs, takes guests aged 16 and over, is the least expensive of our ten and is 49 minutes from the airport.

The municipality of Pollença takes in the old town, the resort of Port de Pollença on its bay, Cala Sant Vicenç and the Formentor peninsula. In the old town, 365 steps climb to the Calvari chapel, 9 minutes on foot from Plaça Major, and on Sunday mornings some 300 market stalls fill the square and Plaça de Ca les Monnares. Port de Pollença's beach runs beside a promenade, partly under old pines, and Cala Barques and Cala Molins at Cala Sant Vicenç fly the Blue Flag in 2026, as does Formentor.

By road from Plaça Major, Cala Sant Vicenç is 10 minutes, Port de Pollença 11, Formentor's beach 23 and Palma Cathedral 49; the airport is 47. TIB's 301 runs from Pollença to Palma in about 65 minutes.

The cost is Formentor's summer road. From 15 May to 18 October, 10:00 to 22:00, cars pass the barrier only while the beach car park has spaces and the lighthouse road is closed to private cars; TIB's 334 runs from Port de Pollença to the beach in 25 minutes.

Four Seasons Resort Mallorca at Formentor stands at the head of that beach, on the site of the 1929 Hotel Formentor, 71 minutes from the airport, with a free kids' club every day: a beach week you barely leave.

Alcúdia is two places. The old town is walled, with a market on Tuesdays and Sundays and the remains of the Roman city of Pollentia. Below it, Port d'Alcúdia runs into Platja d'Alcúdia, more than 3 km of fine sand and shallow, clear water, with lifeguards along several stretches and wooden walkways for wheelchairs: the Govern's tourism site says families have chosen it for years. It flies the Blue Flag in 2026, as does Platja de Muro next door. Nearest the harbour come the promenade and most of the leisure activities; towards Muro it is quieter, and behind it lies s'Albufera, a natural park of wetlands with marked paths and bird hides.

It works without a car. TIB's A32 runs from the airport to Alcúdia in about an hour from late March to October and the A33 in winter; the 302 goes to Palma all year, and boats cross to Ciutadella, on Menorca, in just over an hour. By road from Port d'Alcúdia, the airport is 48 minutes and Palma Cathedral 50.

The cost: it is a resort, and along the promenade the beach is backed by hotels, bars and restaurants.

None of our ten is on this bay; for a family week with one of them, Four Seasons at Formentor is 32 minutes by road.

Santanyí is a small inland town with galleries and art workshops in its back streets, and a market of more than 150 stalls that fills Plaça Major and the streets around it on Wednesday and Saturday mornings. The municipality has more than 40 km of coastline, and the coves are close by car: from Plaça Major, Cala Santanyí is 6 minutes, Cala Figuera's fishing harbour 8 and the car park at s'Amarador, in the Mondragó Natural Park, 12. Cala Santanyí is a deep inlet of clear water, a 70-metre beach between low cliffs, with bars, showers and a diving school; Cala Mondragó and S'Amarador fly the Blue Flag in 2026, and Mondragó's car parks charge in summer and are free out of season.

By road, the airport is 42 minutes and Palma Cathedral 50; Es Trenc, in its own natural park, is 25. Buses are thin: TIB's 516 serves Cala Santanyí and Cala Figuera, and the 515e runs to Palma in summer.

The cost: every swim means the car, and the coves are small; the Govern's tourism site calls Cala Santanyí very lively in summer.

Can Ferrereta, a manor built in 1774 and hung with contemporary Spanish art, is 3 minutes' walk from the square. It opens from early March to late November, for adults and children over 14.

At the island's eastern tip, the municipality of Capdepera has three faces: the old town below its 14th-century castle, the resort of Cala Ratjada, and Canyamel, a valley running down to a beach the Govern's tourism site calls ideal for families. From Canyamel, the Coves d'Artà are 17 minutes on foot; by car, the old Torre de Canyamel is 5 minutes, Capdepera castle 11, the town of Artà 12 and Cala Ratjada 13. Cala Mesquida and Cala Agulla are the beaches further north, and the walking routes look across the channel to Menorca.

This corner is a long way from the rest. By road from Canyamel, the airport is 70 minutes and Palma Cathedral 76, and Formentor to Cap Vermell is 76. In summer, TIB's 411e runs from Cala Ratjada to Palma, and the 424 links Cala Ratjada, Canyamel and the east-coast resorts.

The cost is the drive, and the season: our hotel here closes from November to late March.

Cap Vermell Grand Hotel is a low resort built like a hill village on the slope above the valley, under half an hour's walk from Canyamel beach and 71 minutes from the airport. Voro, on its square, is the only two-MICHELIN-star table in the Balearics, and the free kids' club takes 4 to 11-year-olds.

Calvià has two halves: a coast of resorts, from Magaluf and Palmanova to Santa Ponça and Peguera, and an interior of small villages and old estates where the Tramuntana begins. Es Capdellà is one of its inland villages. The road from it up to Galilea passes the Finca Pública de Galatzó, a public estate the town hall opens for walking, with the 1,027-metre Puig de Galatzó above.

There is little to walk to, so plan on a car. From Es Capdellà, Peguera's beaches are 11 minutes by road, Santa Ponça 14, Camp de Mar 15, Port d'Andratx 18 and Palma Cathedral 30; the airport is 33. TIB's 107 runs from the village to Palma in about an hour, 13 times a day from Monday to Saturday and six on Sundays.

The cost: evenings mean a drive, and the nearest sand is at Peguera, where the Govern's tourism site calls Torà very busy in summer.

Castell Son Claret stands on its own 132-hectare estate on the Galilea road, 5 minutes by car from Es Capdellà, 19 minutes' walk from the Galatzó gate and 38 minutes from the airport. It is registered as a rural hotel, the category Balearic law keeps for old buildings on at least 49,000 square metres: the edit's country stay, with Sa Clastra's MICHELIN star in the courtyard.

The Pla is rural Mallorca: farmland and small stone towns in the middle of the island. Sineu was the medieval centre of the interior, where Jaume II built a royal residence, and its Wednesday market, founded in 1306, is the only weekly market on the island with live animals. Petra, 14 minutes away by car, is the birthplace of Fray Junípero Serra, holds a Wednesday morning food market and sits in the Pla i Llevant wine country.

This is where the finca idea lives. Balearic law licenses two kinds of country stay: the agroturisme, in a building older than 1960 on a working farm of at least 21,000 square metres, and the rural hotel, in a building older than 1940 with at least 49,000. The Govern's register lists 300 agroturismes and 38 rural hotels trading on Mallorca.

The train makes it practical. TIB's T3 runs from Palma through Inca to Sineu in about 50 minutes, then on to Petra and Manacor; Sineu station is 4 minutes' walk from Plaça des Fossar. By road from the square, the airport is 37 minutes, Palma Cathedral 41 and Platja de Muro, on the bay of Alcúdia, 28.

The cost: no sea, and quiet evenings. None of our ten is here; the edit's country estate is Castell Son Claret, in the south-west foothills.