Hotel BonSol Resort & Spa is an eco-friendly property, located in Illetas on the southwest coast of Mallorca, Spain, a 20-30 minute drive from the Palma de Mallorca Airport (PMI), depending on the traffic. The resort was founded by the Xamena family in 1953 and is currently operated by its third generation. The BonSol theme is luxury with a vintage flair, which is exactly what you get on arrival, with fresh and renewed touches.

Yellow parasols might be the unintended mascot of the hotel, but attention to detail through intricate branding is everywhere: embossed on white tablecloths and yellow beach towels, printed on custom coasters, sweet treat packaging, and sparkling wine labels.

All images by Kateryna Topol.
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This experience was hosted by Hotel BonSol, which did not review or approve this story.

Hotel BonSol Mallorca is a beach resort with a small sandy cove. The resort wraps around the water, with two other hotels picking up the rocky shore on each side. Everything you need can be found at the hotel, one of the many reasons families have been coming here for decades. “We’ve been coming here for 32 years, my kids basically grew up here,” an English woman shared with me unprompted at the pool bar over piña coladas. The resort is a family-friendly, full-service property offering babysitting, fresh flower deliveries, ironing and mending services, and access to on-premises medical staff.

“First visit?” a Scottish couple asked in the elevator, noticing the resort map in my hands. I nodded yes with a smile. “We’ve been coming here for seven years. You’ll find your footing around in no time,” she added, returning the twinkle.

By definition, Hotel BonSol is a boutique property. Cascading down towards the water, most rooms have a sea view. A ten-thousand-square-meter garden fills in the spaces between the buildings, pools, and other amenities. Heavy palm trees and other vegetation indigenous to Mallorca trails through the terrace gardens. Designed to reduce the hotel’s water consumption and support Mallorca’s natural ecosystem, the gardens are their own unique attraction. 

Spread across its many levels are the resort’s many amenities: tennis and squash courts, table tennis and billiard tables, and on the upper deck in a rainforest garden is mini golf. It takes no effort to lose track of time, and aside from knowing the time of your dinner reservation, the fluidity of time can be – and should be – easily embraced. 

Above: Various sitting areas on the first floor of Hotel BonSol. Below: Table tennis room.

Under the yellow parasole 

Looking at Hotel BonSol, the yellow umbrellas are at the forefront of most images. Their bright and welcoming appearance is naturally photogenic, dotting the seaside with colourful contrast. The yellow motif carries through in all beach accessories. Branded yellow beach towels are prepared for a day out in the room, folded inside a large BonSol beach bag. Stuffed with books, water, and sunblock lotion, the beach bag is a token of voluntary uniform embraced by the hotel guests.

Guests spread on sunbeds in layers around the sea, taking turns aimlessly floating in the ocean in the striped yellow tire beach floaties, stacked to the side of the beach steps. The hotel’s regulars find serenity by the shaded garden pool or up on the adults-only terrace. Rearranging furniture to their own liking for a full day of reading and relaxation. Having fully committed to a beach day, I took my turn out in the sea, letting the waves gently rock my yellow floaty across the cove.

A glimpse of the garden pool, beach steps with sunbeds layered on different levels, in the background are guest suites.
Last image, with the white roof, is the seaside restaurant, Cala Brugit.

Balance in paradise

In coastal environments like these, wellness comes naturally, but Hotel BonSol is also a Spa, so here, wellness is dialled up. Every weekday morning, guests are invited to join the in-house yoga instructor, Saraj Jane, for a yoga session out on the terrace. This spacious open-air yoga room looks out to the sea, creating an ideal atmosphere for relaxation and exercise. Both of which were high on my list after a 24-hour travel day. The hotel also offers occasional yoga retreats as complete wellness packages, and the next one is coming up in October (23-26, reservation by email). 

Tucked away near the small gym is Nirvana Spa, available by appointment. Here guests can access a sauna, sanarium, Turkish baths, footbaths, and a jacuzzi, in addition to a full massage services menu. Modelled after a Moroccan wellness centre, this area is a great place to escape from your escape.

Romanticising dinner

Strongly encouraged to make a dinner reservation upon arrival, I opted for the main dining room, Las Antorchas Restaurant. As the main restaurant and a local dining destination, Las Antorchas has a dress code and live entertainment. Throughout the evening, a piano player accompanied by a talented vocalist, set the mood for a tasteful evening, surrounded by live flowers and white table cloths.

This particular evening, Chef Mr. Egea prepared a special tasting menu featuring seasonal selections. My dinner lineup began with an anglerfish and mussels cream soup, poured over the fish at the table. This dish was decadently light and delicious, despite its typically heavy composition. My second course, a shrimp cocktail, arrived paired with Can Axartell Blanc-Premsal Blanc, a typical Mallorcan grape, crisp and refreshing. 

Options for the main included four types of protein: hake, sirloin, duck, and lamb. The BonSol-style Wellington sirloin called my name. The sirloin medallion came with a side of vegetables and a flaky wellington pastry, nested on a shallow pool of juicy steak sauce. For the wine pairing, MX ∞ Edición Especial 80 Aniversario D. Martín Xamena, an organic red wine with aromas of dark fruit and minerality in the background, perfectly capturing the essence of Mallorca.

Morning and afternoon meals are served on the beach at the Cala Brugit restaurant or in the Winter Garden on the first floor. Cala Brugit restaurant (open April – October, weather permitting) overlooks the beach and offers guests a la carte or buffet lunch options. The half-board meal plan at the hotel includes breakfast and a choice of lunch or dinner, encouraging guests to try other nearby restaurants. 

Throughout the day, beachgoers flock to the Gala Brugit pool bar, tucked away by the larger pool, to order tropical cocktails and cold beers. People looking for afternoon aperitifs, nightcaps, and a cooler atmosphere gather at the Piano Bar. This space, located directly to the right of the main entrance, is a gorgeously decorated lounge with a spacious terrace, adorned with colourful flowers. In the middle of the summer, however, the heat made it nearly impossible to sit outside, but on a cool fall afternoon, this terrace would be a dream.

Home away from home

There are 73 rooms at Hotel BonSol, spread across various levels of the resort, looking into the garden or facing the sea. All rooms are spacious, thoughtfully decorated, and have at least a small balcony (Classic Double). The room that took my breath away, however, is the Family Suite. This large hotel room has a full-size bedroom with a sitting area, a living room, and a private terrace with sun loungers. The two bathrooms allowed us each to have a personal vanity, while the living room was ideal for late-night catch-up and inevitable remote work.

Two small TVs are available in both rooms, but with a view like that, accompanied by the sounds of nature and the star-dotted sky, turning them on felt unnecessary. Every morning began with a moment on the terrace, looking at the sea, setting a calm mood for the day.

Everything is green

The hotel’s commitment to the environment is particularly noticeable in the guest suites. All guests are encouraged to be conscientious with the use of electricity and AC, thoughtful with water consumption, and use of towels. The shower runoff water is reused to flush the toilets. Much of the electricity is gathered with solar power, one of Hotel BonSol’s many environmental initiatives. 

Three euros from each guest booking is dedicated to the upkeep of 220,000 teak trees Xamena family planted in Costa Rica in 2005, to make up for the air travel impact of their international guests. 

Leaving the resort

Illetas is a resort town, close to other resorts, public beaches, and family restaurants serving fresh fish and cold Spanish wine. If a city day out is on your agenda, a bus just outside one of the main street entrances will take you directly to Palma de Mallorca (by bus: 45 min, by car: 30 min). 

Other beaches nearby: Main Illetas beach 500 meters away, Cala Comtessa 800 meters away, and Es Forti is 1050 meters away.

Getting to Mallorca

From Canada, all trips to Mallorca will have at least one stopover. Multiple airlines fly to the island with stopovers in various cities across Europe. If you are planning to visit multiple countries, consider booking a return trip to the major city with a side trip to Mallorca. For example, a return flight to London, England, paired with a return flight to Mallorca from there can be a cheaper and more flexible option than a combination stopover or an open-jaw flight. 

As of June 2026, Air Canada will introduce a new route to Palma de Mallorca (PIM) on board the new Airbus A321XLR. This flight also seems to include 1-2 stops, depending on the route.

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Unlike a traditional walking tour, FTB tours are self-guided. Created by two food-loving friends, Emily and Michelle, the company aims to facilitate the real taste of Mallorca “without the research, the hassle, or the tourist traps”. 

Emily and Michelle spent years exploring the culinary scene, getting to know chefs, and building up connections. The current offerings are Wine & Dine and Brunch & Ride (on the e-scooter). The concept is simple: Emily and Michelle plan your itinerary and make timed reservations in the city’s best restaurants. Each visit includes a food and beverage pairing, showcasing the island’s true culinary essence as local chefs envision it. Each experience comes with a guided tour, accessible through a web app, with a clear map. A selection of cultural points of interest with historic annotations are noted along the way. 

The tour is incomparable to the traditional walking food tour, not only because it is self-guided, but mostly because it takes you to new and elevated restaurants, offering a unique experience for each visit. 

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This experience was hosted by Food Tours Balearics, who did not review or approve this story.

Vermuteria La Rosa: Russian potato salad with anchovies, served with an Iberian ham croquette and blue cheese, a spinach croquette, and house-made vermouth. Images by Kateryna Topol.

Decision-making behind the scenes

Emily and Michelle have built a network of restaurant partners and keep a close eye on all new openings in the city. “When a new spot opens, we’re usually among the first to try it and see if it fits our standards,” Michelle added. The duo try every dish with the restaurant’s chef, who might even create a custom dish for the visit. The dishes chosen typically reflect that restaurant’s speciality, “if a place is famous for its meat, we won’t serve dessert there”.

“We aim to start the tour with lighter fish or vegetarian dishes, have a more filling meat dish in the middle, and finish with dessert,” Michelle shared. The order of the restaurants is based on their capacity to receive guests that specific evening and the logistics of getting easily from one place to another. Naturally, this means that today’s tour might not be the same as the tour tomorrow.

When selecting restaurant partners, Emily and Michelle look for three key qualities: excellent and welcoming service, willingness to share the story behind the palace and the dish, and the quality of food. “We’re not doing a standard tapas tour, so the food needs to be creative, high quality, and part of a more gourmet experience,” Michelle stressed.

The points of interest stops are chosen based on the restaurant route, “Palma is full of stories, so there’s something interesting to mention around every corner”.

The Wine & Dine Tour of Palma Old Town

The Wine & Dine Tour of Palma Old Town took us away from the tourist centre and into the neighbourhoods. Our tour started at La Rosa Vermutería, steps away from Plaça del Mercat. La Rosa is a vermouth taberna with an old-fashioned vibe, framed with subway-tiled walls and curved brick arches. The walls are stacked with preserves, drying vegetables, and cured meat in that uniquely odd manner where food becomes interior decor. On today’s menu is a Russian potato salad with anchovies, served with an Iberian ham croquette and blue cheese, and a spinach croquette for contrast. House-made red vermouth over ice is served as a beverage pairing. 

Further away from the centre, past La Misericòrdia, we find L’ànima Restaurant in an airy plaza. It is still early in the day, so at first, the co-owner Adrià Salas Rotger is able to give us his complete attention, recommending wine (Els Vinyerons Pregadéu Rosé) and sharing insights about the business. On the menu are roasted lettuce hearts with escalivada and falafel. Spicy olive olives hit the table first with the wine, in case we got there a little peckish.

The next stop takes us to Palma’s brand new 5-star hotel Concepció by Nobis, a Michelin guide hotel with a beautiful restaurant, Xalest. Led by an award-winning chef, Xema Álvarez, Xalest offers a sharing menu of tapas, pintxos, appetisers, and entreés to showcase not only Mallorcan food by the Spanish way of dining. An artfully plated pork cheek, served on a vegetable puree, is paired with a generous glass of Spanish red wine, neatly wrapping up the savoury portion of this experience. To complete the meal, we head to El Neo for a sweet treat, taking us back closer to the city centre.

Xalest: Pork cheek served on a vegetable puree. Images by Kateryna Topol.

The post Finding the hidden gems in Palma de Mallorca with Food Tours Balearics appeared first on Paths to Travel.

We met Joan from Nofrills Excursions Mallorca in the plaza near the Royal Palace of La Almudaina, surrounded by street vendors and caricature artists seated in the palm tree shade. Equipped with a bottomless backpack (water? napkin? I got you), Joan handed each of us a map of the route for the Foodie tour in Palma de Mallorca. Having taken a brief look at the map, everyone promptly tucked it away in their pocket and proceeded to blindly follow the orange t-shirt through sunny Palma.

This article might contain affiliate links. Read the disclaimer about affiliate links & PR gifting here.
This experience was hosted by Nofrills Excursions Mallorca, who did not review or approve this story.

Royal Palace of La Almudaina, Palma de Mallorca. All images by Kateryna Topol.

Joan has been hosting food tours for ten years, “last year, I took 2,000 people on a tour,” he proudly announced. Throughout the day, he swiftly switched between English and Spanish, occasionally translating various narratives to German for a family in the group. Mallorca uses three languages: Spanish (Castilian), Catalan, and Mallorquí (local Catalan dialect), but most people speak at least some English. With direct flights from most of the UK, this part of Spain has been a popular tourism destination for decades, attracting hospitality workers from around the world. This part of Spain is where I’ve spoken the least Spanish. 

Weaving through the city streets, Joan shared various pieces of historic knowledge, occasionally gathering us in a tight circle to share a story. “See this building,” he points our attention to Can Forteza Rey, “it looks like an Antoni Gaudí building, doesn’t it? It is actually the work of his student, Lluís Forteza Rey”. Gaudí’s influence is very prominent in Palma’s modernist architecture, so this was not the first architectural work of art we came across on this day.

Empanadas from Ca na Cati Pastisseria, Palma de Mallorca.

Having situated us by Palma City Hall, Joan ran across the street to bring us the special treat: Empanadas Mallorquinas. This round pastry, made with soft crumbly dough, encloses a delicious combination of jamón ibérico (Iberico ham) and a mix of vegetables in a perfectly rounded little pocket. The dish is typically served on the last day of Easter and requires an extensive amount of labour to produce, “altogether it takes eleven hours to make this,” Joan paused for effect. Ours came from Pastisseria Cort (Ca na Cati Pastisseria), “best empanadas in Palma,” he pointed at the corner shop.

We looped through Carrer de Sant Miquel pedestrian street multiple times, “watch your bags on this street,” Joan patted his backpack. The first sit-down portion of the tour took us to Omare, where the team greeted us by promptly pouring wine for the table, some of which they produce themselves. One by one, tapas plates began to hit the table: tortilla Española (Spanish egg omlet), croquetas de pollo (chicken croquettes), followed by octopus with potatoes. And for the grand finale, a charcuterie board with local cheeses, grapes, and jamón ibérico. Gasps of excitement echoed across the table at the sight of the sharing plate. 

“Bon profit!” he held up his wine glass, “that’s how you say bon appétit in Catalan”.

For the next half hour, we were instructed to explore Mercat de l’Olivar, solo. My initial confusion dissolved as soon as my eyes met the open market. Fresh produce stalls, cheese vendors, multiple ibérico ham counters with rows and rows of ham hanging from the ceiling. All the brightly lit up pintxos stations, and quick service bars were calling my name. Some tour attendees chose to shop. Others, having quickly toured the market, found a spot between the locals to enjoy a quick glass of sparkling wine and absorb the vibes of the casual afternoon market magic. The free time was well justified. 

Looping back around and into a narrow alleyway, we made our way to Orxateria I Xocolateria Ca’n Joan de s’Aigo for a sweet surprise. This intricately decorated cafe has a rich local history, both cultural and culinary, but that bit, you will have to hear from Joan. On the menu as a parting sweet note is ensaïmada – a light, sugared pastry made with reduced lard from ibérico. Yes, it sounds weird, but it is absolutely delicious. The pastry is accompanied by a cold glass of “almond milk ice,” something you can only get here, in this shop.

Like most food tour groups, we all got to know each other a little better. Joan’s new family portrait was taken shortly after, under the one-thousand-year-old olive tree in Olivera de Cort. 

Vegetables at Mercat de l’Olivar on each side and the thousand-year-old-olive tree at the centre.

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