Palma is the capital of Mallorca and of the Balearic Islands, and the first thing to get straight is that it is a city rather than a resort. Around 420,000 people live here, which is more than half the island's population, and it has the government offices, the university, the hospitals and the traffic that go with that. The old town is a dense medieval and Renaissance quarter of sandstone courtyards and narrow lanes, and it is lived in rather than preserved.
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links. If you buy through them, Roman Trail earns a small commission at no extra cost to you.
This distinction matters more here than almost anywhere, because Mallorca's reputation abroad was built by two strips of coastline that most of the island resents being judged by. Playa de Palma and Magaluf are resort developments some ten and twenty-five kilometres from the city respectively, and the FCDO's alcohol restrictions apply to them specifically. If you are staying in Palma itself you are in a different place with a different character, and this guide is about the city.
What dominates it is La Seu, the cathedral, a Gothic bulk standing directly above the sea wall with a rose window said to be among the largest in the Gothic world and an interior partly reworked by Gaudi in the early 1900s. Next to it sits the Almudaina, a royal palace that was a Moorish fort first, which is the clearest single statement of the island's history you will get.
What you pack is set by a hot dry summer, a mild wet winter, a lot of walking on polished stone, and the Tramuntana mountains an hour away.
The Old Town, La Seu and the Waterfront
One great cathedral, a Moorish palace, and a maze of courtyards you have to walk to find.
La Seu takes an hour properly and is worth going early, both for the light through the rose window and because it closes to visitors on Sunday mornings for services. The Almudaina next door is still an official royal residence and the state rooms are open when not in use. Below both runs the Parc de la Mar, an artificial lake built to reflect the cathedral, which is why so many photographs of Palma look identical.
The real pleasure of the old town is less organised. The lanes behind the cathedral hold a few dozen patios, private courtyards of the merchant houses, many with their street doors propped open so you can look in at a staircase, a well and a lemon tree. There is no route; you wander and look. The Arab baths, a small tenth century survival in a garden, and the Basilica de Sant Francesc with its cloister are the two paid sights worth adding.
Es Baluard, the modern art museum, sits in a bastion of the old city walls and is good, with a terrace that gives the best free view back at the cathedral. The Mercat de l'Olivar is the city's main food market and is where to eat lunch rather than on the cathedral square.
Along the front, the Passeig Maritim runs west past the marinas toward the Bellver castle, a circular fourteenth century fort on a wooded hill with a view over the whole bay. The walk up through the pine woods takes about forty minutes from the centre and is the best short outing in the city.
Recommended Tours and Experiences
Beyond the City: Tramuntana, Trains and Beaches
The mountains are the reason to come in spring and autumn, and the vintage train is not a gimmick.
The Serra de Tramuntana runs the length of the island's north-west coast and is a UNESCO World Heritage landscape, listed for its terracing and water systems rather than only its scenery. From Palma you can be in it in under an hour. Valldemossa and Soller are the usual first stops and both are live on this site already, so the practical point for a Palma base is that the mountains are a day trip rather than a separate holiday.
The Palma to Soller railway is a narrow gauge line from 1912 running wooden carriages through orange groves and tunnels to the north coast, connecting with an equally old tram down to the port. It is touristy and it is also genuinely the nicest way to cross the ridge.
Hiking in the Tramuntana is serious in places: the GR221 dry stone route runs the range in stages, the limestone is sharp and slippery when wet, and there is no shade on the upper sections. Spring and autumn are the seasons for it. In July and August the mountains are hot enough that most walking stops by mid-morning.
On beaches, Palma's own are modest. Cala Major and Can Pastilla are city beaches, and Playa de Palma is the long resort strip. The good swimming is a drive away on the north and east coasts. If beach days are the point of the trip, Palma is a base with an airport and a city attached rather than the destination itself.
When to Go
April to June and September to October. July and August are hot and the island is at capacity.
Spring, April to June, is the best window by some distance. Temperatures move from the high teens into the high twenties Celsius, the almond and citrus are out, the Tramuntana is green and walkable, and the city is busy without being overwhelmed. The sea is cold until about June.
Summer, July and August, is hot, routinely in the low thirties and sometimes higher, with high humidity in the city and warm nights. Palma holds heat because it is built of stone and tarmac, and the old town lanes are an advantage at midday because they are shaded. This is also the peak of the island's visitor load, with cruise ships and charter flights at maximum, so queues, prices and traffic are all at their worst.
Autumn, September and October, is excellent: the sea is at its warmest of the year, the heat eases through September, and October is mild and much quieter. The risk is rain, which arrives in short violent bursts in October and can flood streets.
Winter, November to March, is mild at around 15C in the day and 8C at night, wet, and very quiet. A lot of the resort infrastructure closes and the city does not: this is when Palma is most itself, with the markets and restaurants serving residents. It is also the almond blossom season in late January and February, which is a real thing worth seeing.
Is Palma Safe for Women Travelers
Palma is a safe European city. The FCDO's Spain-specific warnings are about theft, drink spiking and the resort strips.
The FCDO publishes no advised-against areas anywhere in Spain, and the country is one of the most straightforward in the world to travel in. Its safety and security page concentrates on petty theft, which is the realistic risk, and on the fact that Spanish police require you to report a theft in person to get the denuncia your insurer will ask for.
Three of those bear directly on a Palma trip. The theft warning is the main one: organised pickpocketing works the airport, the Playa de Palma strip, the cathedral square and the number 1 bus between the airport and the centre, and the FCDO's description of teams using distraction is accurate. Keep a bag closed and in front of you, do not put a phone in a back pocket, and be most alert in exactly the places where you are distracted by something.
The drink-spiking warning names GHB and liquid ecstasy rather than hinting, and it applies anywhere with a late bar scene, which in this area means both the city's Santa Catalina and La Lonja districts and, far more so, the resort strips. Keep your drink with you and in sight.
The third needs the geography stated precisely rather than vaguely. The alcohol restrictions the FCDO describes, banning happy hours, open bars and organised pub crawls, apply in MAGALUF, PLAYA DE PALMA and San Antonio on Ibiza. Those are resort developments, not Palma: Playa de Palma is about ten kilometres east along the bay and Magaluf twenty-five kilometres west. The same rules also cover the thing those strips are notorious for, which is people falling from hotel balconies: it carries fines and eviction, and it kills visitors every year. If you are staying in the old town none of this will touch your trip, and if you are staying on the strip it is the single most important paragraph here.
Day to day the city is comfortable and unremarkable for a woman alone. Violent crime against visitors is rare, the old town and Santa Catalina are busy and lit well into the night, eating alone is completely ordinary, and Spanish dining hours mean restaurants are full at eleven. Street harassment is mild by Mediterranean standards.
The physical risks are heat and stone. Palma in August is genuinely draining and the old town has no breeze; the sensible shape of a summer day is early, siesta, late. The lanes and the Bellver approach are polished limestone and marble that become slick in rain. In the Tramuntana, the hazards are real walking hazards: loose limestone, exposure, and no water on the routes.
Spain is in the EU, so a UK Global Health Insurance Card or an EU European Health Insurance Card gives you state-provided medically necessary care on the same terms as a resident. That is not the same as free, it does not cover repatriation or a private clinic, and on the islands and the costas many clinics aimed at visitors are private and will bill you, so check before you are treated. Spanish public hospitals are good and a farmacia handles minor problems without an appointment. Tap water is drinkable across the mainland and the Balearics. Heat is the realistic summer health risk rather than anything exotic.
The Palma Packing List
Base layers, for heat and for air conditioning
Fine wool in a Mediterranean summer sounds wrong and is the right answer, because the problem here is moisture rather than cold. You sweat walking the old town, then sit in a restaurant cooled to twenty degrees, then stand on a ferry deck in a breeze. Merino at 160gsm moves moisture off the skin instead of holding it, stays fresh across several days in heat without a wash, and does not develop the smell synthetics do. Our merino base layers are 100% Australian merino at 17.5 micron with no synthetic blend. A long sleeve merino wool base layer for women also covers your shoulders for the cathedral, which enforces a dress code, and gives sun cover in the Tramuntana where there is none.
Shoes with grip, not sandals
Walking shoes with grip for the old town, which is polished stone and marble and slick in rain, and for the climb up to Bellver. Merino wool socks, which handle heat and sweat far better than cotton over the distances you will walk here.
Proper boots if the mountains are in the plan
Waterproof hiking boots for the Tramuntana, where the limestone is sharp and uneven, the dry stone paths drain badly after rain and ankle support matters more than breathability. Day trips to Valldemossa or Soller by train need nothing more than the walking shoes.
Sun protection
A wide brim sun hat, high SPF sunscreen and real sunglasses. The island sits at 39 degrees north with strong summer sun, and the sandstone and water both reflect. There is no shade on a Tramuntana ridge or on the Parc de la Mar.
A light layer and a rain shell
A fleece mid layer for winter evenings, for boat decks and for the mountains, which are several degrees cooler than the coast. A packable rain jacket for women for the autumn and winter downpours, which are short and heavy rather than drizzly.
Something for the water
A swimsuit and a quick-dry towel. Water shoes if you plan to swim on the rocky north and east coast calas, where the entries are stone and sea urchins are present.
The small things
Something to cover shoulders and knees for the cathedral and the basilica, both of which enforce it at the door. A refillable bottle; the tap water is drinkable in Palma though it tastes heavily of minerals, which is why many residents buy bottled. Cash in euros for the markets, though cards work almost everywhere. A European two-pin adapter. And a bag that closes properly, which is the single most useful anti-theft measure in this city.
Essential Resources for Women in Palma
Emergency numbers: 112 for police, ambulance and fire, free from any phone including a locked mobile, with operators who will find an English speaker. It is the single number across the whole European Union.
Non-emergency police: the Policia Nacional handle crime reports and the Policia Local the city. A theft needs an in-person report, the denuncia, to produce the document an insurer will require, and there is a dedicated tourist-facing service in the centre in season. You can start a report by phone in English through the national tourist assistance line before completing it in person.
Main hospital or clinic: Son Espases is the main public hospital in Palma and is large and modern, with Son Llatzer the other major one. There are also several private hospitals used to foreign patients and insurers. A farmacia handles minor problems without an appointment and the duty rota is posted in the window.
Official health authority: the Spanish Ministry of Health. A UK GHIC or EU EHIC gives you state-provided care on the same terms as a resident, which is not the same as free, and note that many clinics on the costas and the islands are PRIVATE and will bill you, so check before being treated
US Embassy: the United States Embassy in Madrid. Madrid, with a consular agency on Mallorca itself, which is the nearer first contact
Official tourism authority: Turespana, the national tourism board. With the Palma city tourism office for the patios opening programme and La Seu's visiting hours, which change seasonally and close on Sunday mornings
The resort strips, stated precisely: the FCDO's alcohol restrictions, which ban happy hours, open bars and organised pub crawls, apply in MAGALUF and PLAYA DE PALMA, not in Palma itself. Playa de Palma is about ten kilometres east of the city and Magaluf twenty-five west. The same rules carry fines and hotel eviction for dangerous balcony behaviour, which kills visitors on this island every year.
Heat: Spanish summers are getting hotter and the state meteorological agency issues heat warnings that are worth acting on rather than noting. In a city built of stone, the practical response is to move your walking to early morning and evening.
US State Department travel advisory: the Spain advisory. Read the current level there directly rather than relying on a figure printed in any guide.
UK FCDO travel advice: gov.uk/foreign-travel-advice/spain, and read the safety and security page rather than only the landing page, because that is where the substance sits.
Solo women safety assessment: Palma is one of the easier European cities to travel alone, and being a real city rather than a resort is most of the reason: the old town and Santa Catalina are full of residents into the late evening, Spanish dining hours mean you are never the only person eating at ten, and a woman walking or eating alone attracts no attention at all. Violent crime against visitors is rare and street harassment is mild. The realistic risk is theft, which the FCDO describes accurately as organised teams using distraction, concentrated at the airport, on the number 1 bus into town, around the cathedral and along the Playa de Palma strip: a closed bag held in front of you handles nearly all of it, and a phone should never be in a back pocket. The drink-spiking warning names GHB and liquid ecstasy and applies to any late bar scene, so keep your drink with you. On the resort strips, the alcohol restrictions and the balcony fines exist because people die falling from hotel balconies here every year, and that is worth knowing even if you never go there. What will actually shape your trip is heat: August in a stone city is draining rather than pleasant, so plan early starts, and if you walk in the Tramuntana treat it as mountain walking with sharp limestone, no shade and no water on the route.
Reading On
For the country-level picture, start with the Spain travel guide for women. For why fine wool belongs in a Mediterranean summer, read the guide to merino wool base layers for women. Every destination we cover is indexed at the travel packing guide for women, and the base layers are at the Roman Trail collection.
If the outer journey is calling you, the inner one usually is too. Explore SoulMap at romantrail.com/blogs/soulmap.
