Nick wrote here recently about the pleasures of eating on the Mediterranean island of Mallorca. Let me add a recommendation for somewhere to stay .
Read’s Hotel, about which Nick wrote, is an obvious choice for those looking for some serious cosseting, a particularly well-run spa and both indoor and outdoor pools. It’s less than half an hour’s drive north of the busy capital Palma (a sort of mini Barcelona) in pretty farmland with views of the Tramuntana mountains (pictured here).
But if you want something less expensive right up in those mountains, you could do very much worse than rent one of the four apartments that Mark Williamson of Willi’s Wine Bar in Paris has just created out of a fine house 
with courtyard in the cobbled streets of Fornalutx, once voted prettiest village in Spain. It is absurdly pretty, yet is a working village rather than a tourist spot, and has the most wonderful setting too, right up in the Tramuntana mountains with the most extraordinary views – especially from the terrace you can see in this picture. It’s very close to the lively town of Soller and also to Port Soller with its beach and port – and about half an hour’s pretty scary drive north of the village of Deia, famous as the home of the poet Robert Graves and La Residencia hotel.
See here for more details of these B Casa Mi (strange name?) apartments, whose décor nicely combines shades of hip hotel with local influences and some very English furniture.
