Sea Like Tropical Islands

I was coming out of a bad spell and set off almost by chance for Majorca with a friend of mine to distract myself; I had no expectations and thought I'd find a Spanish 'Rimini', that is lots of fun but sea and nature not at their best. Instead it turned out to be the nicest surprise of the whole of 2006. I had the hotel's catalogue and thought they'd altered the colour of the sea with Photoshop to make it appealing, and instead it was really like that! Beautiful!! The Hotel Mediodia is in the locality of El Arenal, the 'German' part of the island, a few km from Palma. I recommend this locality because it's a stone's throw from the capital and less expensive than other parts of the island. The three-star hotel wasn't bad, clean, and dinner was self-service style (obviously the quality isn't Italian cooking but that's well known).

We booked half board and I recommend it, because at lunchtime you find little baguettes with tuna, lettuce and tomatoes, always fresh, everywhere; it's excellent and costs very little. From what I could gather, Majorca is 'divided up' into zones according to where the tourists come from; we were in the German zone, the least expensive, then there's the British zone, the Arab one (among the most expensive) and so on. I advise not to stop just in front of the hotel's beach but, if you don't want to hire a car and the like, you can join the organised excursions so as to visit the island's most characteristic spots. I personally did the excursion to Es Trenc beach, one of the most beautiful in the Mediterranean, and the one to the bay owned by Claudia Schiffer, emerald-coloured!! Fantastic. I also recommend the excursion to Cap de Formentor, which is a bit reminiscent of Ireland.

A stop that can't be missed is Palma de Majorca, both from an architectural point of view and from a shopping point of view. Especially for the girls: there really are loads of shops for every budget. I recommend a week to everyone because, besides relaxing, you can enjoy nature, do cultural visits, go shopping, do sport, all without spending a fortune and a stone's throw from home!! The cost I incurred (2006) for the hotel and the flight (charter) for eight days was 470.00 euros including taxes; the excursions vary but the average seemed to be around 40 euros each.