Sailing Mallorca: A 7-Day Tramuntana Coast Charter from Palma

The week starts in Palma. Fifteen minutes by road from PMI airport, the city's three main yacht facilities — Marina Port de Mallorca, Real Club Náutico de Palma, and STP — sit along the western arc of Palma Bay under the Cathedral La Seu. Your crew meets you at the slip with cold drinks and the chart briefing. The galley is already stocked, the steward settles your luggage into cabins, and the chef walks you through the welcome plate while the captain readies the boat to leave.

By late afternoon the captain is slipping lines. A twenty-two-nautical-mile run west around the headland past Magaluf and Santa Ponsa to Port d'Andratx — the working fishing harbor at the western tip of Mallorca, the staging port for any Tramuntana week. The anchorage in front of the harbor sits in 8 to 15 meters of sand; the captain anchors offshore or picks up a stern-to mooring inside the harbor depending on availability. Tender ashore for dinner — the quay-side restaurants along the Andratx waterfront run from working sailors' grills to the gastronomy of Restaurante Layn at the end of the breakwater. The first night is the captain's call; the rhythm of the week starts here.

A morning's reach west to Sa Dragonera, the uninhabited islet that's been a Natural Park . Visitor cap on the island is ~150 at a time; charter yacht parties tender ashore at the official dock at Cala Lladó for a walk to Far de Llebeig — the SW lighthouse, on a four-kilometer round-trip path — or just a swim in the strait between the islet and Mallorca's coast. Sa Dragonera takes its name from the silhouette: from the mainland the islet looks like a sleeping dragon along the horizon.

By midafternoon the captain points the bow north along the Tramuntana coast — twenty-five nautical miles of granite-and-limestone cliffs falling six hundred meters into the water under Puig Major. The cliffs are the protected mountain coast; the cruising-coast view of them is the half of Mallorca most visitors don't get to see. Sa Foradada sits roughly halfway up — the L-shaped peninsula with its famous through-hole near the tip, the open paella restaurant on the cliff above (operational status varies — verify with your captain before counting on the day-of dinner ashore), reachable by tender from the cove or by a forty-five-minute hike up to the Ma-10 coast road. Anchor in the cove, swim under the through-hole, dinner ashore or on board depending on what the captain finds open.

A short run north and east to Cala Deià, the rocky cove below the village of Deià where Robert Graves lived and the literary expat circle of the 1960s settled. Anchor in the cove (the captain reads the swell — the cove is exposed to NW so on settled days only); tender ashore for lunch at Ca's Patró March, the cliff-top restaurant the same family has run for three generations. Fish of the day comes up directly from the catch boat moored below; the tables sit at the cliff-edge under awnings; the captain books the table the morning of arrival.

By midafternoon the captain repositions the yacht ten nautical miles north into Port de Sóller — the only natural harbor on the entire Tramuntana coast, 605 berths, the Tren de Sóller wooden train running up to the village square through the orange groves . Stern-to in the marina or anchored in the outer bay. Sóller's town square hasn't changed character since the 1920s; dinner is at one of the quay-side restaurants or up in the village. The town is the operational base for the entire Tramuntana week; the captain refuels and re-provisions if needed before the next day's run north.

A twelve-nautical-mile run east-northeast under the highest stretch of the Tramuntana — Puig Major's 1,445-meter summit (closed military zone) and Puig de Massanella's 1,364-meter accessible peak both rising directly off the bow. Sa Calobra sits at the foot of the cliffs — the stone-and-sand cove where the Torrent de Pareis ravine debouches into the sea. The ravine is a Spanish Natural Monument designated 2003, three kilometers of limestone slot through the Tramuntana, hiked in from the beach (scrambling and sometimes wading) for guests who want it.

By midafternoon the captain repositions a short hop west into Cala Tuent — the quieter sister cove on the other side of the Morro de sa Vaca headland, sheltered from the NW swell, deeper water for anchoring (8 to 11 meters on a rock-and-sand bottom). Cala Tuent has a small chapel above the cove (Ermita de Sant Llorenç, founded 1230) reachable on a half-hour walk from the beach. Dinner is on board — there's no taverna on Cala Tuent, no quay, no village — just the cove and the cliffs and whatever the chef has put together from the morning's market stop in Sóller.

A thirty-nautical-mile run east along the Tramuntana coast to Cap Formentor — the northernmost point of Mallorca, the lighthouse built in 1863, the eastern terminus of the Sierra de Tramuntana. The cape projects into the open Mediterranean like a knife; the cruising-water view of the cliffs from below is genuinely different from the famous overlook road view from above. The captain reads conditions before committing — Cap Formentor takes the full force of any northerly weather, and the lee side at Cala Figuera (the small protected cove on the SW face) is the standard overnight in any condition that isn't dead-calm.

Cala Figuera below the cape is a deep, dramatic cliff-rimmed anchorage in 15 to 30 meters of water — the kind of bay where the yacht swings on a long scope and the swimming is straight off the swim platform into very deep blue. Overnight here on settled days; alternatively the captain runs another six nautical miles into Pollença Bay for the larger sheltered anchorage at Puerto de Pollensa, with quay-side restaurants in the town and an easier early-morning departure for the next day's southern run.

The longest day of the week. A fifty-five-nautical-mile run south down Mallorca's east coast — the captain reads the morning wind and decides whether to round the coast inside or jump offshore. Cabrera National Park sits seven nautical miles south of Mallorca's south coast; the permit anchorage opens at 18:00 on the day of arrival and the captain has booked the buoy twenty days in advance through https://www.caib.es/rescabfront/. The reservation system caps fifty boats per day across the three mooring fields at Port de Cabrera, Es Burrí, and Sa Coveta Roja, and the park enforces a limited charter quota when oversubscribed — peak July/August Saturdays carry a twenty-boat waitlist in practice.

The afternoon at Cabrera is the marquee yacht-only-access moment of the week. Tender ashore to the dock at the harbor, then a short walk up to the medieval watchtower on the eastern headland — free, self-guided, climbed for the panoramic view. Swim in the harbor basin in water that looks like the Mediterranean did fifty years ago. Dinner is on board at anchor. The island has no shops, no fuel, no restaurants. Cabrera's silhouette under stars is the kind of view that stays with people.

An early start. The captain pulls off the buoy before breakfast and runs the tender or repositions the mother yacht three nautical miles north to the Cova Blava — the forty-meter sea-cave on Cabrera's west coast, the visual money shot of any Balearic charter. The cave entrance is six meters high; inside the natural arch climbs to twenty meters and the noon-hour light comes in through the opening to turn the water electric blue. Visit windows run typically before 11:00 to beat the commercial day-boat surge from Colònia de Sant Jordi.

By midmorning the captain points the bow north for the forty-five-nautical-mile run back to Palma. The afternoon is the long, slow re-entry into the bay — the Cathedral La Seu growing from the horizon, the marina taking the boat back at the slip mid-afternoon. Disembarkation is typically 09:00 Saturday morning, but guests who want one more night on board can extend at anchor in Palma Bay, with the captain returning the boat to the marina the morning of departure. The week ends with the chef's last plate and a final aft-deck sundowner on Mallorca's southern bay.