FOR SOME, Majorca means Magaluf and beer, but increasingly this fertile island with its necklace of white sand beaches has come to mean discreet luxury, dished out at a handful of rustically gorgeous fincas turned into hotels on peaceful hillsides covered by citrus groves.

Son Net is one of the grandest and most successful, once a private home, several centuries old, steeped in atmosphere, draped in traditionally woven Majorcan tela de lenguas cloth and infused with quiet charm.

Guests are the kind who wear silk and linen sports jackets, Armani jeans, and don’t mind a 20-minute drive to the beach. They return year after year to enjoy the sanctuary of this beautiful and sympathetically restored 15th-century finca with its stone flagged floors, rustic beams, arched corridors, spacious, quirky suites and the kind of smoothly efficient service only long-serving staff can deliver.

This season a new hotel is born. To Son Net in the south-west, a sister, Son Julia, just opened in the lush green fields and orange groves of the southeast between the historic town of Llucmajor and the white sand beaches of Es Trenc.

While a night of Son Net’s subtlety lulled me, Son Julia made me sit up and pay attention. Son Net is all about discreet luxury, but this child thumbs its nose at the idea that “less is more”. The raw materials are not dissimilar — Son Julia is a pale butter- yellow old finca flanked by shady patios, gardens and one of the prettiest stone-terraced pools I’ve ever seen. Once inside this ancient home of the Julia family, though, instead of natural stone flags, it’s wall-to-wall marble, the shiny acres strewn with Persian rugs or, in the glass-ceilinged bar — formerly a courtyard and half a footie pitch in size — uncovered and glittering beneath low tables and lipstick-red and caramel leather stools.

In the suites, velvet sofas and silk cushions in eyecatching coral, raspberry and deadly nightshade vie for attention, but fail to compete with the giant plasma TVs parked in front of both bed and sofa, and in the £2,075-a-night Imperial Suite, before a whirlpool bath into the bargain. The chic and simple Superior Garden rooms escape with only one telly (in my opinion quite sufficient).

On the second floor of the main house, one corridor can be closed off and booked for exclusive use, a loo thoughtfully positioned by the lift for any bodyguards in attendance. From here it’s a short ride down to the basement spa for an anti-ageing treatment with star quality. Products, such as Re-start anti-ageing serum, are by the LA-based Ole Henriksen, “facialist” to the Hollywood likes of Charlize Theron. There is more: a helipad, 25 more rooms (there are 23 at present) and another pool are still to be built, I learn, in the grounds.

Hang on, is this a finca or is it Spain’s answer to Sandy Lane?

No such identity crisis in the kitchen. The restaurant, a serious waiters-in-white-gloves affair, dishes up Majorcan flavours: sobrasada sausage, fresh seafood, Ribas wine and a banana lemon tart destined to become a classic. In-room dining is refreshingly healthy yet classy, with simply grilled fish and vegetables and fresh fruit salad among the options.

Other aspects, though, only heighten my confusion. Most historic Balearic houses have a chapel and Son Julia’s is utterly gorgeous, simple and small, vaulted, colour-washed sky blue and with relief depictions of the 12 stations of the cross hanging six on either side above the rows of wooden benches. In stark contrast, more recent owners have had an “Arab Room” installed, an intricately carved, gilded, inlaid and tiled homage to the Levant which is neither small nor simple but certainly staggering — and available for banquets. To walk from one to the other is like crossing from Europe into Asia without soiling your shoes.

Surely it can only be a matter of time before the Beckhams jet in from Madrid to sample Son Julia’s brand of Balearic bling and I can’t help smiling, because once this place gets a summer season under its belt I think it’s going to be rather fun.

Need to know

Getting there: Sally Shalam travelled with easyJet (0905 8210905, www.easyjet.com). Fares in May start at £40.98 one way from Luton.

Gran Hotel Son Net (00 34 971 147000, www.steinhotels.com/sonnet) has doubles from £145 a night until May 31, and from £275 a night in summer. Gran Hotel Son Julia (669700, www.steinhotels.com/sonjulia) has doubles from £252 a night.

Majorca's summer hip list

After a year closed for renovations, Castillo Son Vida, Palma’s 13th-century castle-turned-hotel, has reopened its doors with a suite designed by Loewe (so expect lots of yummy leather), new restaurant Es Vi with a wine cellar that includes 50 vintages of Mouton Rothschild, a kids’ club and silver Seraph Rolls-Royces for airport transfers. Rates from £345 B&B. Castillo Son Vida (00 34 971 606029, www.hotelsonvida.com).

Look out for Flor de Sal — appearing sprinkled into dishes of olive oil on every restaurant table this summer. These flavoured salts come from the salt beds at Es Trenc. Nicest — because it’s pink — is hibiscus flavour, about £4.50 from traditional grocers Charcuteria La Pajarita, Calle San Nicolas, Palma.

Don’t waste time tanning — you could be shopping. Palma is a shopaholics’ paradise, especially now with a new shopping guide to 40 shops and 50 cafés on a choice of routes designed to showcase the most exclusive, historic or lively areas. Free from tourist offices around the island, including: Placa d’Espanya, Edificiao Parc de ses Estacions (www.palmavirtual.es).