Playa de Palma Holidays

Beaches don’t come much more by the book than this one. Playa de Palma’s textbook-perfect mix of white sand and sky-coloured shallows – to match the Blue Flag – comes up trumps for pretty much everyone, from castle-building tots to adrenaline-seeking windsurfers.

This part of Majorca doesn’t just deliver with its bonny beach, it also takes the cake in the food department. The whole seafront's backed by a chain of restaurants – from in-and-out takeaways to slap-up steakhouses. You can even munch on the colours of Spain's flag by combining skillets of paella with smoky links of chorizo. And, you’ll find a bevy of snack shacks – aka balnearios – dotted along the sand, too.

Majorca’s capital city is just a shimmy along the coast – nip through the town of C’an Pastilla to get there. Along with the massive cathedral, one-off cafés, art museums and splash-out boutiques crop up along the palm tree-studded streets. There’s a squad of trendy tapas joints to tear ‘n’ share your way through, as well. Live music fans have lucked out – two of the best jazz bars in the Balearics are in the city centre.