8 Things That Surprised Us in Mallorca

Before going to a trip, one can’t help imagining how this place (whoever or whatever) will be, basing on all kind of information that can reach the traveller in question. We are not an exception and nor is Mallorca. In our last article about our wonderful road trip in Mallorca, we want simply to share several things that surprised us, and no matter how obvious they might seem, we were genuinely pleased to discover them all. One more proof that it’s better to go to check everything by yourself rather than imagining on what other people can tell about any place.

I know, right? Well, the thing is that before going there, I thought about Mallorca only as a cheap resort island, where half of Europe comes to grill themselves until the boiled lobster condition. Obviously, such vision of things denies completely any authenticity whatsoever. Imagine our surprise, when we discovered, that Mallorca is not only a tourist factory, but actually it has a true Spanish spirit including all the necessary attributes like siesta, tapas and flags of Spain all around. Yes, it does sound stupid, but I can’t suppress my pleasure of being in a place with its own soul and not in a “what I thought it would be”.

…or so the Germans claim. :D Mallorca is incredibly popular with German tourists, who obsessively come here with a surprising regularity. To the point that they started calling Mallorca their 17^th federate state. Their presence result in German bierhaus and restaurants serving their typical sausages and sauerkraut, the locals working in the tourism master German better than English, and in some spots on the East coast, you can spend an hour eavesdropping on the streets without hearing anything apart from German speech. To be honest, I don’t find it shocking or sad, but rather FASCINATING. The world movements in the 21^st century be like…

But not to worry, the number of tourists from the UK and France is speeding up, so probably the German invaders holidaymakers will soon be pushed away from their beach kingdom.

The last thing we expected to see were these mountains on the West coast. No wonder, that Mallorca is not only for the beach pleasures, but also a perfect place for hiking or mountain cycling, which brings us to the next point…

In our post about the road trip in Mallorca we were pointing out that such amount of cyclists (hoards of them on each road of the West coast) can make the driving less fun, so once again we were happy to be on a Vespa rather than by car. I assume though, that it might depend on the season, considering that riding a bike under the violent summer sun is a doubtful pleasure.

Our biggest joy was to find out that no matter how touristy certain destinations can be (and Mallorca IS touristy with 18 million of tourists who came to Balearic islands in 2016), it doesn’t necessarily mean, that you are condemned to be in a crowd. Not at all. Naturally, it’s better to take care of the accommodation in advance, but if you manage to be in Mallorca just before the high season or right after – you can have the island all to yourself (or almost!)

We were expecting some dilapidated Mediterranean charm, which is so greatly admired on Italian coast, but nothing of this sort. On the contrary, towns, roads, villages, let alone the tourist infrastructure in Mallorca are in excellent state and perfectly clean. No charm of ruins here, apparently!

These brown goats in Mallorca quickly merge with the scenery all around, but actually, these creatures’ nature is much more decisive and determinate than our own. :D

Like most of people passionate about travelling, we tend to be snobbish in regard of lots of things while trying desperately to travel “not like the others” and “to be more authentic”. At the end, staying in a resort hotel in a resort town with hoards of German aged people does seem like an adventure. And you know what? It was absolutely fine! In fact, this was the strongest throwback to all those summers with our parents on the seaside, when the two things mattered: sea and food. Neat and clean, budget friendly, we enjoyed that one night in a “cheap and uninteresting” resort hotel. A good lesson to stay open-minded towards everything.

Yes, yes! And if not, then you should live first three years in England, and then check again. :)