Mallorca, Balearic Islands, Spain

La Seu — the Gothic Cathedral of Palma — is the most spectacular building in the Balearic Islands and one of the most impressive Gothic churches in Spain. Construction began in 1300 on the site of a mosque following the Christian conquest, and the building was largely completed by 1601 — though modifications continued through the 20th century, most notably the Modernista interior redesign by Antoni Gaudí between 1904 and 1914. The cathedral's extraordinary rose window (the largest Gothic rose window in the world, at 12.6 meters in diameter) and the Gaudí-designed baldachin (canopy of lights) suspended over the altar are the defining interior elements. The evening illumination of the cathedral's honey-colored limestone facade over the harbor is one of the finest architectural nightscapes in Spain.

The Serra de Tramuntana is Mallorca's defining natural landscape — a limestone mountain range running 90 kilometers along the island's northwestern coast, rising to 1,443 meters at Puig Major, designated a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 2011 for its cultural landscape of terraced olive groves, traditional dry-stone walls, and villages perched on clifftops above the Mediterranean. The range provides the finest hiking and cycling in the Balearic Islands — the GR221 long-distance trail (Dry Stone Route) traverses the range from Andratx to Pollença in stages, passing through Estellencs, Banyalbufar, Valldemossa, Deià, and Sóller. The road from Sóller to Sa Calobra (a 9-kilometer descent through a series of hairpin bends to a dramatic gorge and beach) is one of the most memorable drives in Europe.

Deià is the most celebrated village in Mallorca — a small hilltop community of approximately 800 residents on the northwestern coast, surrounded by the Tramuntana mountains above and the Mediterranean below, which has attracted an extraordinary roll-call of artists, poets, and writers since the early 20th century. Robert Graves, the English poet and author of I, Claudius, made Deià his home in 1929 and lived there until his death in 1985 — his house, Ca N'Alluny, is now a museum. The painter Joan Miró spent his last decades in Mallorca (though primarily in Palma). The German Bauhaus artist and teacher Heinrich Koch lived in Deià. Today the village remains remarkably un-commercialized, its stone houses, olive trees, and church with the graveyard where Graves is buried unchanged in character despite the world-class hotels that now occupy its outskirts.

Palma's Old Town (Casco Antiguo) is one of the finest historic city centers in the Mediterranean — a compact district of narrow streets, Renaissance palaces, Baroque fountains, and Gothic churches that surrounds the cathedral and the Arab Baths (the finest surviving Moorish monument in Mallorca). The neighborhood of Santa Catalina, west of the old town, is Palma's most vibrant food and nightlife district — a grid of streets around the covered Mercat de Santa Catalina where the best tapas bars, wine bars, and restaurants on the island are concentrated. The Passeig des Born is Palma's grand promenade — a plane-tree-shaded boulevard through the city center connecting the cathedral to the art galleries.

The eastern and northeastern calas (coves) are the finest beaches in Mallorca — hidden limestone coves of turquoise water and white sand accessible by foot path, boat, or narrow road, largely inaccessible to mass tourism due to their remoteness. Cala Varques (south coast, accessible only by a 30-minute walk through pine forest — the finest secluded beach on the island), Cala Mondragó (Parque Natural, excellent snorkeling), Cala Pi (deep inlet with extraordinary blue water), and the beaches around Cala d'Or on the southeast coast provide the most rewarding beach exploration on the island. The north coast's Cala Formentor, within the grounds of the Four Seasons (formerly the historic Formentor hotel), is one of the most photographed beaches in Spain.