For big spenders
PALACIO CA SA GALESA It was a former Sheriff of Glamorgan who
turned this ancient palace in the old town into a boutique hotel. Ten years
on, and now owned by locals, the “Palace of the Welsh Woman” is still the
best address in town. With most of its original 16th-century features
intact, and just a dozen rooms, the Galesa feels like a mix of private house
and museum, the antiques complemented by a collection of modern art,
including two Miros.
It’s next door to the cathedral, but, unusually for such an urban bull’s-eye,
not plagued by traffic noise. It has a small pool in the vaulted cellar, as
well as a sauna, a massage room and a solarium. It also scores on caring
touches, such as the help-yourself suncream on the roof terrace, the bikes
for scooting about town, the serve-yourself tea and cake in the Monet-yellow
kitchen (a replica of the original in Giverny) and the sherry in the lounge.
There is no restaurant, but a full room-service menu is served wherever you
fancy - roof terrace, bishop’s garden, fountained courtyard, or in a picnic
basket, ready for the beach.
Doubles from £208, room-only; 00 34 971 715400, www.palaciocasagalesa.com
For tight budgets
HOSTAL CUBA This ornate, turn-of-the-century listed building,
with an original speckled-marble and wrought-iron staircase, has recently
been renovated. It is situated in Santa Catalina, the
on-the-verge-of-happening barrio just a short stroll from the middle of town
across the pleasant Faixina gardens. So it scores high for location.
Cuba has 19 rooms, all ensuite, with tall, green-shuttered windows facing out
to the cathedral. Try to bag one of the corner rooms (103 or 204), which are
blessed with windows on two aspects.
There are no public areas, but that’s not a big problem — the next-door Bar
Cuba belongs to the owners. For a substantial breakfast, there’s a French
bakery; for cheap eats, the daily fruit-and-veg market is just a short
meander up the road. There are also lots of nearby neighbourhood (as
distinct from touristy) places to eat at night.
Any downsides? The noise of traffic and the sentry-box shower rooms — but at
these prices, it’s a steal.
Doubles from £20 (£30 for a corner room); 00 34 971 738159
For trend monkeys
PURO Billed as an urban oasis, Puro, meaning pure, is white
right down to the goose- feathered lamps and the T-shirt-and-trousered
staff, but with splashes of colour from its Asian/Indian/Moroccan
furnishings. Most of the superfashionable clients wear jet black, moving
around the place like pieces on a chessboard.
Everything about the 26 rooms, with their slate-black bathrooms segregated by
carved wooden screens from Burma, is chic sim- plicity, apart from the
television and the sound system. The Puro mood is cool, especially in the
candlelit bar and the courtyard, where beautiful folk loaf on Arabian-style
sofas, puffing away at the house hookah pipes.
Another popular chillout space is the wooden-decked rooftop, with canopied day
beds arranged around the plunge pool. Puro could easily have gone the way of
style over substance, except that the substance is actually rather
impressive, the staff are pretty but very pleasant, and the food in the Opio
rest-aurant is pretty but very good.
Doubles from £150, B&B; 00 34 971 425450, www.purohotel.com
For rooftop views
TRES Opened last June, Tres is in the historic and happening
La Lonja barrio. Part of it is converted from a 16th-century merchant’s
house; the rest is a 1960s block whose interior has been softened by fabric
loosely lining the corridor walls. Of the 41 rooms, 18 are in the original
building, and have beams and loftier ceilings.
Those in the newer wing are lighter, with full-length windows opening onto the courtyard,
where breakfast is served beneath a towering palm tree. The lounge has a
real fire and a large plasma-screen television. The rooms are fashionably
uncluttered, with arty nude photos over the beds and clever bed-width tables
on wheels that you can roll up to your pillows for breakfast (or supper with
a DVD from the library).
The Tres has a fifth-floor roof terrace, with views head and shoulders above
most of the neighbours, a plunge pool and a sauna with a window looking
across to the cathedral. Abaco, Palma’s Fellini-esque nightspot, is
right next door.
Doubles from £130, B&B; 00 34 971 717333, www.hoteltres.com
For escaping fellow Brits
PORTIXOL The seafront hotel is Swedish-owned and Scandic chic.
What makes it romantic is a combination of ingredients. The first is its
location, just that little bit adrift from mainstream Palma in the small harbour
village of Portixol, which is a 20-minute walk east following the sea.
The second is the unlikelihood of having to share your escape with other Brits
(certainly none who have come on a package, as the owners don’t do
tour operators).
The third is the place itself. This is a self-contained entity with a light, spacious,
boaty feel, a good restaurant — seafood is a speciality — a
lively bar (with jazz on Thursdays), a lounge with an LP deck and a
collection of 2,000 albums, a gym with a sauna and massages, a large pool
and an out- door deck. All that for just 23 rooms of muted colours, wood
floors and big beds with crisp white linen. All in all, a bit of a find.
Doubles from about £125, B&B — but pay another £20 for
a romantic Med view (binoculars provided); 00 34 971 271800, www.portixol.com
