Mallorca, Spain

After a long week of classes and going out, my friends and I decided to take a last minute trip to Mallorca. Without knowing anything about Mallorca, we didn’t really take into consideration the fact that it is the off-season there, so a lot of hotels were closed. We booked a flight for 30 euros and booked a random hotel that looked nice and didn’t do much research about it. We got no sleep and left for the airport at 5 in the morning, so we were exhausted. The plane ride was short, only about an hour, so we arrived at around 8 or 9 in the morning and hopped in a taxi to our hotel. We arrived at our hotel and were confused about if we were at the right place. It was a luxury hotel, where they brought us champagne, water, and asked if we wanted anything to eat. We had no idea that we booked a 5 star hotel because it was so cheap. This is when we realized it was definitely the off-season. The hotel concierge informed us that this was actually the first day that they were open for the season, and that we were the very first guests to arrive. We thought this was hilarious, the fact that we booked a random hotel and it turned out to be one of the nicest and well-known hotels in all of Mallorca.

After checking in and getting settled, we headed out in hopes of finding brunch. We took the bus to downtown Palma and found a cute brunch place nearby, called BrunchIt. They had a bit of everything, we got pancakes, burgers, fries, croissants, and more. The outside of the restaurant was decorated with pretty flowers.

After we ate, we decided to explore the city and walk around. We stopped at little markets, tried on sunglasses, picked up a few beers, and enjoyed the nice weather. We stopped at the Cathedral Basilica De Santa Maria and admired it, stopped at the Royal Palace of La Almudaina, and walked around the Parc de la Mar. All of these spots were all very beautiful and we took time to get great pictures along the way. We then went to Llotja de Palma, saw Can Forteza Rey, walked down Paseo del Borne, and tried our best to hit all of the tourist spots in Palma.

After a long day of exploring, we went back to our hotel where we relaxed for a bit, and got ready for our dinner reservation. We wanted to stay close to the hotel for dinner, so we took our hotel’s recommendation of eating at a local spot nearby. The food was pretty good, it was a little difficult for me to find food that I could eat since I am a very picky eater, but luckily the menu was very diverse and they had many options. We got drinks, took shots with our waiter, and had a wonderful time. After dinner, we were all exhausted considering we didn’t sleep for over 24 hours so we called it a night pretty early and went to sleep so that we could wake up early the following morning.

The next day was a blast. We woke up and enjoyed an extremely nice breakfast buffet at our hotel and started making plans on what to do. Our hotel was very helpful in providing recommendations and giving us an itinerary for the day. We ultimately decided to rent mopeds so that we could have a fun way of transportation to explore the rest of the island and not just Palma. I was a little too nervous to rent one for myself so I hopped on the back of one of my friends and we all headed down the west coast of the island and explored. This was so much fun because we could go at our own pace and of course riding mopeds is more fun than taking a bus or taxi. The weather was great and we took amazing pictures and stopped at cool rocks, yacht clubs, and more.

We took the mopeds back to our hotel after a long day and got ready for our dinner reservation. Our friends convinced us to take the mopeds to dinner, which was definitely not the best idea. It was freezing cold at this point and without jackets, the wind blowing in our faces on the highway was unbearable, but very funny at the same time. We had a delicious Italian dinner and drank wine before getting blankets from our restaurant for the moped home. We were bummed we couldn’t go out to any of the clubs – they were closed due to the off-season but we did check out a few bars around Palma that were pretty cool, just not our scene.

The next morning was a bit hectic. We started the morning off strong as we got massages at our hotel which was so relaxing and much needed. What we didn’t realize is the drop-off for the mopeds was during our massage, so we were late. We had to rush and get the mopeds to the moped rental place as soon as we could. Since we were in such a time crunch, we took the highway route back to Palma which is technically not legal on the mopeds we were on. We arrived at the moped place 3 hours late and the rental man was very angry to say the least. He informed us that the police, as well as other locals had called and asked why we were driving on the highway illegally. He was mad but he also thought it was hilarious. We finally returned the mopeds and decided to have a nice long lunch by the water before checking out of our hotel and heading to the airport. I was sad once we reached the airport, I loved Mallorca and am hoping to go back again during the summer season.