Palma

Gaudi reworked the interior in the 1900s and 1910s, hanging a huge iron canopy over the altar. On the mornings of 2 February and 11 November, light from the east rose window falls beneath the rose on the far wall, and people wait from early on.

The palace beside the cathedral was rebuilt by the kings of Mallorca where an Islamic fortress stood. The Spanish royal household still holds official receptions here, so it shuts to visitors on those days. A Gothic chapel and tapestry halls are open.

A round fourteenth-century castle, its circular courtyard ringed by two storeys of arcades, rare in Europe. It crowns a pine hill west of the centre, a half-hour climb through the woods. The city history museum is inside, and Palma Bay spreads below the roof.

On the Cala Major hillside where Miro spent nearly his last thirty years. The studio his friend Josep Lluis Sert designed keeps brushes and canvases in place, and many people visit chiefly for it. Buses take twenty-odd minutes from the centre.

A narrow-gauge line laid in 1912, its wooden carriages tunnel through the Tramuntana range to Soller in about an hour. At Soller station the same company's tram carries on down to the port. Morning trains fill first, so settle the return trip before you go.

Chopin and George Sand rented monks' cells here through the winter of 1838, and Sand wrote a book about that winter. The village sits halfway up the mountain, cooler than Palma, and nearly every door carries a tile of Saint Catalina, who was born here.

The central market of the city, with the fish hall its largest part. Tapas bars inside serve seafood and oysters you eat standing, so lunchtime is crowded. It is closed on Sundays.

Limestone caves at Porto Cristo on the east coast, with Lake Martel deep inside. The visit ends with a short classical recital played from boats on the lake; entry goes in timed groups, so tickets carry a time. The drive from Palma takes about an hour.

A thin peninsula at the island's north tip, its road winding along the cliffs to the lighthouse. In peak summer, private cars are barred by day and access is by bus from Port de Pollenca. The Colomer viewpoint on the way is where the classic photo is taken.

A broad tree-lined avenue laid over an old watercourse, the city's spine between old town and sea. Shops and cafes line it, and from the south end the sea wall and cathedral are right in view. People are out until late, which makes it the evening stroll.

Modern art set on a sixteenth-century bastion of the city walls, gathering twentieth-century and later work tied to Mallorca. Out on the rampart terraces, harbour and cathedral share one view; locals drift up onto these walls around sunset.

Almost the only building left from Islamic-era Palma. Its horseshoe arches rest on columns whose capitals all differ, likely salvaged from older buildings. The bath is just two rooms; visitors linger longer in its front garden of cacti and palms.

A Franciscan church begun in the late thirteenth century; Mallorcan philosopher Ramon Llull lies in a chapel behind the altar. Cloister columns change girth and pattern stretch by stretch. Out front stands Junipero Serra, missionary to California.

A former fishermen's quarter west of the old walls, built round a market dating from the early 1900s. Its counter bars pour morning coffee with seafood bites; butchers and fishmongers pack up by mid-afternoon. Old windmills line the Es Jonquet rise next door.

Parkland on reclaimed ground below the cathedral's southern walls, where waves once reached, around a big artificial lake. The cathedral mirrored on that lake is a classic Palma shot; across the water a wall bears a huge tile mural after Joan Miro.

A little cove where a road coiling down through the Tramuntana runs out; one bend loops over itself like a knotted tie. Two rock tunnels lead from it to a pebble beach where the Torrent de Pareis gorge meets the sea. Coaches pile in by midday, so come early.

Stone houses climb a Tramuntana slope in this village, long home to English poet Robert Graves. His house is now a memorial museum, and he lies in the small cemetery behind the hilltop church. Downhill is Cala Deia, a pebbly cove.

Mallorca's chief place of pilgrimage, deep in the Tramuntana, keeping a dark-faced statue of the Virgin. A boys' choir, the Blauets, carries on its singing here. Pilgrim lodgings are attached, so hikers sleep a night here, then set off on the next stage.