Why Majorca is my love island
Let me show you an idyllic getaway far away from the reality television show
THE island of Majorca has long been a favourite with A-listers with Michael Douglas, Pierce Brosnan and hotelier Francis Brennan owning holiday homes on the Island. With 300 days of sunshine and beautiful beaches it’s no surprise that it attracts so many Irish holiday makers and this time of the year it’s in the headlines more than ever.
Firstly because of reality show Love Island, for those of you who haven’t seen it (though your teenagers will have) it’s a nightly ITV2 show where 12 singletons mostly in skimpy swimwear are put in a gorgeous Majorcan villa for six weeks to see if any romantic sparks will fly.
The show has been a massive ratings hit and provides daily office gossip as to who paired up with who and who should be dumped from the island... even the Lions team is said to be hooked!
The other reason Majorca is popular at this time of year is because of the thousands of Irish Leaving Cert students who celebrated the end of their exams by heading for the party town of Magaluf.
IWAS that soldier 25 years ago and so it was with a smile I spotted lots of palelooking teenagers boarding the Ryanair plane with a sparkle in their eye and hopefully factor 50 in their luggage.
Don’t worry if you are planning a trip to the island you can holiday there and never once see a neon all-you-can-eat sign especially around the north which is beautiful.
We only had three nights on our stay as we were temporarily child-free so time was of the essence and a hotel not far from the airport was a priority.
So twenty minutes after arriving in Palma airport we found ourselves inside the family-run Bon Sol Hotel in the suburb of Illetes clutching a welcome cocktail.
The coat of armour in reception is the first clue that the Bon Sol is just a little bit quirky and full of character and charm.
It’s been in the same family since 1953 and unlike the concrete jungle buildings that occupy so much of the Spanish coastline it’s nestled among pine trees and split in half by a quiet street.
No two rooms in the hotel are the same and we were escorted to ours via an underground tunnel full of antiques. Our room was definitely Old Worldly with pink carpet and chintzy sofas overlooking the water.
The hotel has its own private sandy cove covered in wild pur- ple gorse and this is where we spent the majority of the trip jumping off the rocks.
The cove is the heart of the property and overlooking it is the outdoor restaurant, a delightful place to melt in the sunshine under white strips of cotton for shade and watch expensive yachts sail by.
White linen tablecloths and pink flowers decorate the tables and dinner plates full of fresh prawns and white wine were put before us on the first night as the sun went down.
The Bon Sol is a hotel that has been built around nature, fullsize pine trees and palm trees overlook the bar, there is a miniwaterfall and dozens of trees full of pink Bougainvillea flowers which contrast with the whitewashed walls.
Staying here was quiet and relaxing and during our stay the clientele were definitely much older though the manager told me during the summer the hotel is full of families.
On our second night we decided to venture into Palma jumping onto the No.3 bus that runs every ten minutes from the Hotel Bonanza next door at a cost of €1.50.
Palma is a city worth seeing just for its port alone which is home to some of the most expensive yachts in the Mediterranean many of which have helicopter pads attached.
For culture there is the impos- ing Palma Cathedral, a magnificent Gothic cathedral that seems to rise out of the sea and is one of the top attractions in the city.
We had a recommendation for tapas at the upmarket La Bodeguilla which is up a side-street and it didn’t disappoint.
Fried calamari and croquetas de jamon were paired with glasses of crisp Albarino wine followed by tender rib eye with foie gras and suckling pig for mains. The décor was cool, high stools and wooden tables and the walls were covered with different types of wine.
Tapas is a must in Majorca but when eating out do try the paella for two in any of the seafood restaurants as the seafood here is so fresh, but beware it takes half an hour extra to cook.
We left Majorca refreshed and with lots of extra freckles, it was 32 degrees daily.
We spent our last afternoon looking out over the water at the constant stream of yachts sailing by the Bon Sol restaurant dreaming of when we would be coming back.