Pla de Mallorca Voyage Tips and guide

Pla de Mallorca is the central region of the island of Mallorca. "Pla" in Catalan or "Llano" in Spanish means a plain - it's Mallorca's flattest and best farmland. Here and there hills rear up, and several are adorned by hermitages.

39°36′0″N 3°0′0″E

Map of Pla de Mallorca

• 39.7641673.1538891 Can Picafort is a large beach resort.
• 39.642543.010342 Sineu has an old centre, but the main sights are further out.
• 39.514343.021973 Porreres has the large church of Nostra Senyora de la Consolació.

Pla is a geographical region or comarca; it's not an administrative entity. It comprises 16 municipalitiesː the largest are Santa Margalida and Muro, both of which include part of the sprawling beach resort of Can Picafort. The rest are agricultural small towns with few tourist facilities, that visitors flash past on the highway. This plain is the best farmland on the island, and one way to experience it is to stay at a finca, a farmstead with upscale accommodation. You'll be plied with locally produced wine and meat, not sent out at dawn to muck out the milking parlours.

Highways radiate from Palma: Ma-13 for Alcúdia then turn off for Can Picafort, Ma-3011 to Sineu, and Ma-19 to Montuïri then turn off for Porreres.

TIB buses ply these routes. Trains run hourly from Palma to Inca, Sineu, Petra and Manacor.

You need wheels: the distances are reasonable for cycling and the gradients not stiff except for the hilltop hermitages.

Public transport is adequate along the radial routes from Palma, but is tedious for other journeys.

• Museu Etnològic dels Calderers is a museum of Mallorcan life in a mansion of 1750. It's near Sant Joan, south of Sineu.
• Son Fornés Archaeology Museum is in a 19th century windmill in Montuïri. It displays findings from talayotic settlements 2 km north.
• Puig de Randa west of Porreres is a peak of 543 m with three medieval hermitages.
• S'Albufera Natural Park is a wetland and birdlife reserve on the boundary between Can Picafort and Alcúdia.
• Finca Son Real near Can Picafort exhibits historic farming methods.
• Necropolis of Son Real near Can Picafort is one the island's best-preserved prehistoric sites, with stone tombs from the 7th to 4th century BC.

• Can Picafort has beach and water activities.
• Golf: the nearest is Rotana Hotel near Manacor.

All the towns have bars and cafes with trad Spanish fare.

This is a wine-growing region, with vineyards mostly north towards Inca.

Beware traffic and safeguard valuables, same as anywhere else.

• Raiguer is the region northwest, the strip between mountains and plain. Alcúdia is its beach resort and port, with ferries to Menorca.
• Llevant is the busy resort area east.
• Migjorn is the coastal area south.