Best Day Trips from Palma de Mallorca: 10 Trips by Train, Bus and Car

Every morning at breakfast in Casa Roca, somebody asks the same question: where should we go for the day? We have answered it hundreds of times now, and the answer depends on three things. How long you have, whether you want the mountains or the sea, and whether you have a car. Most of our guests do not, because a stay in the historic centre of Palma means you can walk out of the door and be somewhere worth being in ninety seconds.

The good news is that the best day trips from Palma de Mallorca are all within reach of the Old Town, and in 2026 most of the travel costs nothing. From our door on Carrer dels Hostals you can reach a mountain village, a working market town, a horseshoe bay or an underground lake, spend most of the day there, and be back on the rooftop for a glass of Mallorcan wine before dinner. The ten trips that follow are the ones we recommend most, with the routes, journey times and prices you will actually pay.

Day Trips from Palma de Mallorca at a Glance

Mallorca is small enough that nothing on this list is more than about ninety minutes from Palma, and large enough that the island changes completely as you go. The Serra de Tramuntana runs along the north-west coast, a UNESCO World Heritage landscape of terraced mountainsides and stone villages. The flat interior is farmland, almond groves and market towns. The east and south coasts are caves, coves and long white beaches. A day trip from Palma can take you into any of the three.

The table sets out every trip side by side, with the simplest way to get there from the Old Town and the 2026 fare. Interurban buses and trains are free this year with an Intermodal Card, so the fares that remain are the private Sóller railway and its tram, plus entry tickets at the attractions themselves.

Day trip from Palma	How to get there	Journey time	2026 price	Best for
Sóller	Ferrocarril de Sóller vintage train	About 65 minutes	€23 single, €30 return	The journey itself
Port de Sóller	Train to Sóller, then the tram	65 min plus 30 min	€40 combined return	A harbour and a swim
Valldemossa	TIB bus 203	About 30 minutes	Free with Intermodal Card	The easiest half day
Deià	TIB bus 203	About 50 minutes	Free with Intermodal Card	Views and slow lunches
Fornalutx	Train or 203 to Sóller, then walk	About 2 hours	Train fare or free bus	A mountain walk
Alcúdia	TIB coach from the Intermodal	About 1 hour	Free with Intermodal Card	Medieval walls and beaches
Pollença and Formentor	TIB coach, then bus 334 in summer	About 1 hour 30	Free with Intermodal Card	Cliffs and lookouts
Sineu	Train to Sineu	About 40 minutes	Free with Intermodal Card	Wednesday market day
Drach Caves	Train to Manacor, then bus	About 1 hour 30	Free travel, cave ticket €18.50 online	A rainy day
Es Trenc	Hire car or taxi	About 50 minutes	Car hire and parking	A white-sand beach

Map of Day Trips from Palma de Mallorca

Palma sits on the bay in the south-west of the island. The Tramuntana villages of Valldemossa, Deià, Sóller and Fornalutx run along the mountains to the north, Alcúdia and Pollença sit at the top of the island, Sineu is in the centre, and Porto Cristo and the Drach Caves are on the east coast. Es Trenc is due south-east, past the salt flats of Ses Salines.

Getting Around Mallorca Without a Car in 2026

Almost every bus and train on the island leaves from one building. The Estáció Intermodal sits under Plaça d’Espanya, about a ten-minute walk from Casa Roca, and it is where the TIB coach network, the Palma metro and the Manacor and Sa Pobla train lines all meet. The station for the Sóller railway is next door. There is no changing across town and no separate coach station on the outskirts.

Mallorca’s regional transport is run by TIB, Transport de les Illes Balears, and in 2026 the Balearic government has kept interurban travel free of charge. That covers TIB buses, the island’s train lines and the Palma metro. It is not automatic, though. To travel free you need an Intermodal Card or a Single Card, which you can pick up and load at the Intermodal, and you have to validate it when you board and again when you get off. Without a card, cash fares run from about €3 for a short hop to about €13.50 on the longest routes.

🌿 Insider Tip: Free travel applies to the interurban network only. Palma’s own EMT city buses and the A1 and A2 airport lines are charged separately, and the Sóller railway is a private company outside the scheme. Get the card on your first afternoon rather than on the morning you want to travel, because the machines at the Intermodal have a queue at nine.

Two route numbers do most of the work. The TIB 203 runs the Tramuntana corridor from Palma through Valldemossa and Deià to Sóller and Port de Sóller, so one bus reaches four of the island’s best-known places. Most of the other destinations are single, direct services from the same building. The network thins out on Sundays and public holidays, and the last return service from the mountain villages leaves earlier than most people expect, so check the return time before you commit to a long lunch.

The 10 Best Day Trips from Palma de Mallorca

The trips are ordered roughly by how easy they are on a first visit. The first four use the mountain railway or the 203 bus and suit anyone with a free morning. The next four take a full day. The last two are for a rainy day and for guests who hire a car.

1. Sóller by Vintage Train: The Classic Day Trip from Palma

The Ferrocarril de Sóller has been running since 1912 and has never been modernised, which is the entire point. Wooden carriages, brass fittings and a narrow-gauge line climb out of Palma, tunnel through the Tramuntana and drop into the Sóller valley through terraces of orange and lemon trees. The journey takes about sixty-five minutes, and the last twenty are the reason people come.

The station is on Plaça d’Espanya, the same short walk from the Old Town as the Intermodal. A single is €23 and a return €30, and because the railway is privately run those fares are not covered by the free travel scheme. Book online in July and August or you will be queuing for a later departure. Sóller itself is a handsome working town with a modernist church on the main square, the Plaça Constitució, and enough cafés under the plane trees to lose an afternoon. For something to do once you arrive, walk the lanes behind the square and try the orange juice and ice cream that the valley is known for.

2. Port de Sóller by Tram: The Best Half-Day Trip from Palma

From Sóller station an open-sided wooden tram rattles down the middle of the street, past front gardens and orange groves, and leaves you on the seafront at Port de Sóller about thirty minutes later. It runs roughly every half hour from eight in the morning until about half past eight at night and costs €10 each way on its own. The combined train and tram return at €40 is the better buy if you are doing both.

Port de Sóller is a near-perfect horseshoe bay with calm, shallow water that suits families, and a lighthouse walk on the western arm. This is the trip to choose if you want the mountain scenery and a swim on the same day without renting anything. Allow an hour for the walk up to the Far del Cap Gros lighthouse if the light is good, and stay for the sunset over the open sea before the tram back.

3. Valldemossa: The Easiest Village Day Trip from Palma

Valldemossa is thirty minutes from Palma on the 203 and it is the trip to take if you have half a day and no appetite for logistics. The village is a tight cluster of honey-coloured stone houses stacked up a hillside, with the Real Cartuja monastery at the top. Chopin and George Sand spent the winter of 1838 in the monastery cells, and the cells are still open to visitors, with a separate entry ticket bought at the door.

Valldemossa is worth visiting for the village as much as the monastery. The streets are lined with pots of geraniums and painted tiles of Santa Catalina Thomàs, the island’s own saint, who was born here. The village empties out after four in the afternoon when the coach tours leave, and the last hour before the light goes is the best of the day. Buy a coca de patata, the soft potato bun the bakeries here are known for, and sit on the steps of the Cartuja.

4. Deià: The Most Scenic Day Trip from Palma

Twenty minutes further along the same 203 route, Deià is smaller and steeper than Valldemossa. Ochre houses stack up a ridge between the Teix mountain and the sea, olive terraces run down to the water, and the whole village can be walked in twenty minutes. Robert Graves lived and wrote here for most of his life and is buried in the churchyard at the top of the village, which is worth the climb for the view alone.

Deià suits a long lunch rather than a packed itinerary. Cala Deià, a rocky cove with a couple of seasonal beach restaurants, is about forty-five minutes downhill on foot. Check the return bus before you walk down, because the climb back takes longer than the descent and the service is sparse in the evening. If you only have time for one Tramuntana village, Valldemossa is easier and Deià is more beautiful.

5. Fornalutx: A Mountain Walk from Sóller

Fornalutx is a stone village of steep stepped lanes and green shutters, set in the orange groves at the head of the Sóller valley. It is the reward for anyone who arrives in Sóller on the morning train and wants more than a café on the square. The old mule track from Sóller climbs gently through the groves via the hamlet of Biniaraix and reaches Fornalutx in a little over an hour on foot.

Pair it with the Sóller train for a full day in the mountains: train in the morning, walk to Fornalutx for lunch on the square, walk back down in the late afternoon and catch the 203 bus or the train back to Palma. Wear proper shoes, because the old stone paths are polished smooth, and carry water in summer.

6. Alcúdia: A Full Day Trip from Palma for Walls and Beaches

Alcúdia sits at the top of the island, about an hour from the Intermodal by coach, and it fills a full day. The old town is still ringed by its medieval walls, and you can walk a long stretch of them for a view over terracotta rooftops and the plain beyond. Inside the gates the streets are narrow, shaded and free of traffic, and the Roman ruins of Pollentia sit just outside.

The market runs on Sunday and Tuesday mornings and takes over the whole centre. A twenty-minute walk or a short local bus gets you to Port d’Alcúdia and a long, shallow beach that is far better for swimming than anything within Palma itself. Go on a market morning and give yourself until mid-afternoon on the sand.

7. Pollença and Cap de Formentor: The Wildest Day Trip from Palma

Pollença is an old market town in the far north, best known for the Calvari, a stairway of 365 stone steps lined with cypress trees that climbs to a hilltop chapel. The Sunday market fills the main square, and the town makes a good base for lunch before the drive or bus ride out to Cap de Formentor, the narrow peninsula of cliffs at the northern tip of the island.

The road to the Formentor lighthouse is one of the most dramatic in the Mediterranean, and it is closed to private cars in high season. In 2026 the restrictions ran from 15 May to 18 October, daily from 10:00 to 22:00, and the TIB 334 bus from Port de Pollença was the way in. Outside those dates the road is open to cars. Stop at the Mirador des Colomer on the way up, where the cliffs drop straight into the sea.

8. Sineu: The Day Trip from Palma for Wednesday Market Day

Sineu sits almost exactly in the middle of Mallorca, about forty minutes from Palma on the Manacor train line. For six days a week it is an inland town with a large church and a handful of bars. On Wednesday it holds the oldest market on the island, granted by royal charter in 1318, and the entire centre fills with stalls selling produce, leather, ceramics and livestock.

This is the trip for anyone who has had enough of the coast and wants to see the farming island that most visitors never reach. Go early, because the market winds down by mid-afternoon, and eat at one of the cellers, old wine cellars turned restaurants that serve the heavier inland cooking you will not find on the seafront.

9. The Drach Caves: The Rainy-Day Trip from Palma

The Coves del Drach at Porto Cristo are the island’s most visited attraction and the only trip on this list that is entirely indoors, which makes them the obvious choice on the one grey day of your trip. The route is a train to Manacor followed by a connecting bus, around an hour and a half in total, and the travel is covered by the free scheme. The caves stay between 17°C and 21°C all year.

The visit is about an hour, through a kilometre of lit chambers ending at Lake Martel, one of the largest underground lakes in the world, where musicians play a short concert from boats on the water. Adult tickets are €18.50 online or €19.50 at the ticket office, and children aged three to twelve pay €11.50 online. From November to mid-March there are four tours a day, so book a time online before you set off. Our full Drach Caves visitor guide covers the best time of day to go.

10. Es Trenc: The Beach Day Trip from Palma by Car

Es Trenc is a long, undeveloped stretch of white sand and shallow turquoise water on the south coast, backed by dunes and pine woods and the salt flats of Ses Salines. There are no hotels behind it, which is why it looks the way it does, and it is the closest thing Mallorca has to a Caribbean beach. It is about fifty minutes from Palma by car, and public transport does not reach it well, so this is the one trip where a hire car or a taxi earns its cost.

Arrive before ten in summer, because the car parks at Ses Covetes and Sa Ràpita fill quickly, and bring water and shade, since the facilities are limited. On the way back, stop in Ses Salines or Campos for dinner, or drive the extra half hour to the fishing harbour at Cala Figuera.

Day Trips from Palma by Car

A hire car opens up the parts of Mallorca the buses reach slowly: the south-east coves around Cala Llombards and Cala Mondragó, the wineries around Binissalem, and the full length of the Tramuntana road, the Ma-10, from Andratx to Pollença. With a car you can combine two of the trips above in one day, such as Valldemossa in the morning and Deià and Sóller in the afternoon, and stop at the viewpoints along the way.

The thing to know is that Palma Old Town is a restricted traffic zone, and only residents and authorised vehicles can drive into it. Most guests pick up a car on the morning they need it and return it the same evening, rather than keeping it in the city. Our team can arrange a car pick-up from the airport straight to the door, and can point you to the nearest public car park if you hire a car for a few days. Driving in the Tramuntana is slow going on narrow bends, so allow more time than the map suggests.

Day Trips from Palma for Cruise Passengers

If you are in port for the day the calculation changes, because the ship will not wait. Palma’s cruise terminals are a few kilometres west of the Old Town, and you need to build the return leg into every plan. The Palma cruise port walking itinerary covers the shuttle and transfer options in detail.

With six to eight hours ashore, only two of the day trips are sensible. Valldemossa works because it is thirty minutes each way, leaving a comfortable margin. Port de Sóller works if you take an early train, but only just, and you should treat the published return times as a hard limit. Alcúdia, Pollença, Sineu, Es Trenc and the Drach Caves are all too far to risk on a port day.

Planning Your Day Trips from Palma de Mallorca

A few practicalities are worth settling before you go. Buy the Intermodal Card on arrival, not on the morning you travel. Check the last return service for the mountain villages, which can leave as early as the first part of the evening outside high season. Carry water on the Tramuntana routes, because the villages are small and the shops keep short hours, and pack a layer from November to March, when the mountains are noticeably cooler than the coast.

On timing, the coach tours reach Valldemossa and Deià between eleven and three. Travelling either side of that window changes the character of both villages. If you are building a longer stay, pair one mountain day with one flat day rather than stacking two long journeys back to back, and keep one day in the city for the cathedral, the markets and the restaurants of the Old Town.

Our team is happy to plan a day out for you. We can book the Sóller train, arrange a private driver for the Tramuntana, or set up a wine tasting at a vineyard in the island’s interior through our Tasting Palma experiences. Ask at the bar the evening before and we will have it ready by breakfast.

Casa Roca Gallery: Your Base in Palma Old Town

Casa Roca began life in 1847 as the paper and stationery house of Francisco Roca, and the building on Carrer dels Hostals has been restored into suites, apartments and a three-bedroom penthouse. The original Papeles Roca sign still hangs in the lobby, and the Capitulo wine bar on the ground floor is where most day trips end.

Image credits: Serra de Tramuntana and Port de Sóller by Geir Hval (CC BY-SA 4.0); Ferrocarril de Sóller station and Sóller platform by Antekbojar (CC0); Valldemossa by dronepicr (CC BY 2.0); Deià by GerritR (CC BY-SA 4.0); Alcúdia by Adam Jones (CC BY-SA 2.0); Sineu market by King Otto (CC BY-SA 3.0); Palma cruise port by Northmetpit (CC BY-SA 4.0). All via Wikimedia Commons.