Hotels in Pollença

Pollença is northern Mallorca at its most composed: a stone-built old town at the foot of the Serra de Tramuntana, best known for the 365 cypress-lined Calvari steps climbing to a hilltop chapel and a Sunday market that fills the Plaça Major. It has long drawn painters and writers, and Agatha Christie set a short story at its bay. The town proper sits several kilometres inland, so beach time means heading down to Port de Pollença, whose sheltered, shallow bay suits families and windsurfers more than anyone after dramatic sand, or out to the coves of Cala Sant Vicenç.

The surrounding mountain roads make it a serious cycling and hiking base, and the Formentor peninsula is on the doorstep, though that road gets badly congested in high season. Be honest: this is a calm, slightly older-skewing, very British-friendly destination with little nightlife to speak of. Stay in the old town for character and restaurants around the square, or in Port de Pollença if you want to walk to the water.