Palma de Mallorca, ES

A wine bar and small-plates restaurant from the team behind London's Barrafina, operating in Palma's old town with a long narrow counter and an open kitchen visible from every seat. The cooking is precise modern Spanish — grilled Padrón peppers, zucchini flowers with molten goat's cheese, cuttlefish in its ink — treated with the same quality standards as the London mothership. Always busy; walk-ins welcome.

A destination restaurant in a converted 17th-century monastery in the La Missió neighbourhood, with a calm cloister setting and tasting menus built around fresh Balearic ingredients treated with modern European technique. The lunch tasting menu is better value than dinner and runs shorter. The cooking is the most refined in the city centre.

A compact tapas bar in the Sant Jaume neighbourhood with a house vermouth poured from giant terracotta urns and an enormous tortilla pintxo that has developed a cult following. The format is standing, bar-only, with a short menu of pintxos and raciones to accompany the vermut. Queue starts early on weekend lunchtimes.

A Mallorcan-Italian small-plates bar in a converted bakery in the Sant Jaume neighbourhood, with exceptional charcuterie boards loaded with local sobrasada, Mallorcan cheese, grapes and jams, plus creative pasta and small Mallorcan-accented plates. The bakery interior with original stone walls is a pleasant room. Walk-in friendly.

An 11-course tasting menu restaurant in La Calatrava dedicated to traditional Mallorcan recipes researched from historical sources — razorfish with fried egg, prawns with sobrasada, lamb with seasonal vegetables — all executed with fine-dining precision. The cooking is rooted in the island's history rather than contemporary trends. One of the most distinctive meals on the island.

A tiny restaurant in Santa Catalina run by a Chilean-Peruvian couple, with a short menu of small plates that blend Latin American acidity with Mallorcan ingredients — house-made sourdough with chimichurri butter, ceviche-style seafood, Mallorcan cheese with yuzu. The room is small and romantic; the cooking is the most interesting in the neighbourhood.

An old-school tavern that has been a neighbourhood gathering point since the 1940s, serving house wine by the glass, vermut from barrels and simple Mallorcan raciones in a no-frills bar environment. The place runs on regulars and locals and has not changed its approach. An anchor of unchanged Palma in a neighbourhood that has gentrified around it.

A cosy pintxo bar near Plaça Major with a counter stacked with small bites — patatas bravas topped with sobrasada, thick tortillas, croquetas and jamón pintxos — all made in-house. The format is bar-only with a standing section and a few stools, serving Mallorcan snacks that cost less than most of the neighbourhood. The bravas here are among the best in the city.

A heritage bakery in the Sant Nicolau quarter producing Mallorcan baked goods from recipes collected from convents and farmhouses across the island — ensaïmades in dozens of varieties, coca pastry, robiols and orange blossom-scented cakes. The most historically grounded pastry shop in Palma, run by a baker dedicated to preserving recipes that had nearly disappeared.

A plant-forward alfresco restaurant in the garden of a 16th-century mansion in La Llotja, with Mediterranean and global vegetable-led dishes that take produce seriously rather than treating vegetarian as a reduction. The garden setting with its stone walls and fig trees is the most beautiful outdoor dining room in the city centre. Good for groups with dietary diversity.

A nighttime-only bar-restaurant in Santa Catalina serving small plates designed to be eaten with cocktails — ceviche-and-coconut-foam cones, tempura-fried soft shells, creative finger food — in a dark, energetic room. The kitchen is playful rather than serious, and the cocktail programme is the strongest in the neighbourhood. Opens late and stays busy until midnight.

A Canarian-focused restaurant in the Sa Gerreria neighbourhood with an outdoor terrace, known for papas arrugadas (wrinkled potatoes served in volcanic-stone bowls) with mojo sauces and fresh fish. It is the most dedicated expression of Canarian cooking in the Balearics — an unusual find that comes from the owner's island origins. Good for warm evenings on the terrace.

A Japanese restaurant in Palma's old town with locally sourced fresh fish, offering sushi, sashimi, temaki tacos and a few fusion-leaning dishes that suit the island setting. The quality of the Mediterranean fish used in the sushi sets it apart from generic Japanese restaurants. A good option when the all-Mallorcan menu at other restaurants becomes repetitive.

A Mallorcan brunch spot overlooking the Santa Catalina market, serving the classic llonguet — a soft Mallorcan roll stuffed with Mahón cheese or cured ham and shredded tomato — alongside eggs, coffee and local pastries. The terrace seats with market views make it the most pleasant breakfast spot in the neighbourhood. Busy on weekend mornings.

A tasting menu restaurant in a restored 17th-century mansion in the Sant Jaume neighbourhood, with a Mallorcan-produce menu that incorporates pan-Asian technique — yuzu, fermentation, Japanese seasoning — applied to island ingredients. The dedicated vegetarian tasting menu is as strong as the standard menu. One of the more ambitious kitchens in the city.

A refined Mallorcan restaurant in a historic building in the Sant Jaume neighbourhood, with a menu that presents island classics in carefully plated form — suckling pig with ensaïmada glaze, crunchy squid-and-aioli sandwiches, seasonal Mallorcan vegetables. One of the more expensive options in the city but delivers cooking quality that justifies the position.

A 5km loop through the medieval core of Palma, passing La Seu, La Lonja, the Arab Baths, the Palau March and the Santa Catalina market, with side detours into the patio-filled alleys of La Calatrava. Entirely flat and paved, the walk links every major historic site in the city in a logical sequence. Best done in the morning before heat and crowds peak.

A clifftop walk along the western edge of Palma Bay from Cala Blava to the rocky headland of Cap de Cala Figuera, with views back to the cathedral and out to the open Mediterranean. The path runs about 8km one-way with good undulating terrain and occasional scrambling sections near the cape. One of the more rewarding half-day walks accessible from the city without a car.

A 4km walking circuit through the municipal pine forest surrounding Bellver Castle, shaded throughout and rising to the castle battlements for a panoramic view over the city and bay. The circular forest trail connects to the castle entrance, making it a natural combination — forest walk followed by castle visit. Excellent in summer when the shade is essential.

Mallorca's premier long-distance trail running 167km through the Serra de Tramuntana UNESCO mountains from Andratx to Pollença. Individual sections can be walked as day routes — the Valldemossa to Deià section (about 12km) is among the most popular and manageable, passing through terraced olive groves above a dramatic coast. A refuge network allows multi-day traverses.

One of the most dramatic gorge walks in Spain, a 3.5km descent through a limestone canyon in the northern Tramuntana to the sea at Sa Calobra, navigating boulders and scrambling through narrow choke points where the walls nearly touch overhead. The route is seasonal and not passable after heavy rain. A logistically complex but genuinely memorable half-day.

A southern Mallorca coastal walk linking Cala Mondragó Natural Park to the cala at Llombards, about 6km through low maquis scrubland with views of turquoise coves below and the option to swim at several points. The terrain is easy to moderate and the route is shaded only by scrub — go early or late in summer. A good half-day combining walking and swimming.

A collection of 20th-century Spanish art in a restored 18th-century mansion in Palma's old town, with holdings covering Picasso, Miró, Dalí and Joan Miró alongside younger Mallorcan artists. Free entry and consistently uncrowded makes it the easiest gallery visit in the city. The permanent collection is deeper than a quick name-drop would suggest.

The Gothic arched walkway running alongside the Cathedral and the Almudaina Palace gardens above the Parc de la Mar, one of the most atmospheric evening promenades in Palma. The combination of Gothic stonework, the reflecting pool below and the warm evening light makes this a slow walk worth spending time on. Connects to the Passeig des Born in either direction.

Palma's main opera house and theatre, a 19th-century venue on Plaça Weyler with a programme of opera, dance, classical music and theatre year-round. The building interior is ornate and worth experiencing for the right programme, and the outdoor café terrace on the plaza is one of the more pleasant places to wait for a curtain. Check the season before your trip.

A contemporary art museum built into the 16th-century sea bastion walls of Palma, with a permanent collection of modern and contemporary work by Balearic and Spanish artists alongside international touring exhibitions. The rooftop terrace with views over the port is freely accessible even without a museum ticket. An intelligently converted historic military structure.

The cluster of wine bars, tapas spots and cocktail bars in the streets around the Mercat de Santa Catalina — Carrer de Fàbrica, Carrer dels Solers, Carrer de la Fàbrica — that forms the most concentrated evening drinking and eating scene in Palma. The area is walkable and the bars spill onto pavements in warm months, making it natural to move between them. Starts filling after 8pm.

Joan Miró's Mallorcan studio complex in the Cala Major neighbourhood west of Palma, preserving his working spaces exactly as he left them and holding a substantial collection of paintings, sculptures and graphic works. The studio itself — where the artist worked until his death — is the most immediate experience in the collection. Less visited than the city's central museums.

A massive Gothic cathedral on the waterfront, started in the 13th century and completed over several hundred years, with a nave considered one of the tallest in the world and 60-plus stained glass windows that flood the interior with blue and gold light. Gaudí contributed a modernist baldachin above the altar in the early 1900s, which still divides opinion. The exterior from the Parc de la Mar reflecting pool is the view to find.

A 15th-century Gothic merchants' exchange building on the waterfront, considered the finest example of Mallorcan Gothic civil architecture. The interior is a single soaring hall with twisted limestone columns, free to enter and almost always quiet compared to the cathedral nearby. Currently used for art exhibitions, which gives a reason to go inside beyond the architecture.

A 14th-century circular Gothic castle on a wooded hillside above the bay of Palma, one of the few circular castles in Europe and the only one with a circular courtyard. The History of Palma Museum is inside, but the main draw is the panoramic view over the city and the bay from the battlements. Accessible by car or a 30-minute walk through pine woods.

The most complete surviving remains of Moorish Palma, an 11th-century hammam with a horseshoe-arched chamber and a domed ceiling supported by slender columns with mismatched capitals recycled from earlier Roman and Visigothic buildings. Small and easy to miss, but the architectural detail is genuine and rare in the Balearics. In a peaceful garden setting in the La Calatrava quarter.

A 20th-century mansion near the cathedral housing a private art collection with works by Dalí, Moore, Rodin and Chillida displayed on an open-air terrace with direct views of La Seu's flying buttresses. The juxtaposition of the Gothic cathedral and 20th-century sculpture makes the terrace one of the more unusual art experiences in the city. Small museum, rarely crowded.

Palma's liveliest neighbourhood market, in the Santa Catalina barrio that has become the city's main food and bar district. The market hall itself has stalls of Mallorcan produce — sobrasada, ensaïmades, cheese and fish — plus a bar section and sushi counter inside. The surrounding streets are where the best restaurants and wine bars in the city have clustered.

A 20km-long rocky finger extending northeast from Mallorca into the Mediterranean, with pine-covered cliffs, a lighthouse at the tip and the long sandy beach of Playa de Formentor halfway along. The road to the lighthouse is one of the most dramatic coastal drives on the island, with vertiginous switchbacks above turquoise water. Subject to vehicle access restrictions in summer.

A mountain village in the Serra de Tramuntana, 17km north of Palma, with stone streets, flower-filled façades and the Carthusian monastery where Chopin and George Sand spent a winter. The village itself — not just the monastery — is worth the drive for its setting against the grey Tramuntana peaks. Busier with visitors at midday; quieter in morning and late afternoon.

The medieval core of Palma below the cathedral, a tangle of narrow lanes with Renaissance palaces, Baroque churches, Arab remains and hidden courtyards that open off nondescript doors. The patios of the old noble houses are the main discovery — many open their carriage-gate doors during business hours, revealing fountain courtyards invisible from the street. No single route, just wandering.