Palma de Mallorca Nightlife: Best Bars in Palma Old Town, Santa Catalina and Clubs

Every evening around seven, the bar at Casa Roca fills with guests deciding where to go next. Our answer depends on the night they want. For a glass of Mallorcan wine on a terrace under a Gothic arch, it is La Lonja, ten minutes’ walk from our door on Carrer dels Hostals. For cocktails in a small bar full of locals, it is Santa Catalina. For dancing until five, it is the Paseo Marítimo. Palma nightlife covers all three, and the best nights often take in two of them.

Palma does not stay up as late as Madrid or Barcelona, but it stays up later than most of the Mediterranean. Dinner at nine is early, the terraces outside the Llotja are still full at one in the morning, and the clubs along the marina reach their peak around two. On a warm June night, with the old stone still holding the day’s heat, a table at one of the best restaurants in Palma followed by a drink in the Old Town is one of the great pleasures of the island.

How Palma Nightlife Works

The key to a night out in Palma is the Spanish timetable. Everything starts later than visitors expect, and everything is better for it. The evening builds slowly, from a vermouth on a terrace to a long dinner, and the bars do not reach full volume until most tourists have gone back to their hotels. The table sets out how a summer night usually runs.

Time	What happens in Palma	Where to be
7pm–9pm	Aperitivo: vermouth, a caña or a glass of island wine with a small plate	Terraces around La Lonja and Santa Catalina, or the Capitulo bar at Casa Roca
9pm–10:30pm	Dinner, which fills restaurants from about 9:30pm	The Old Town, La Lonja or Santa Catalina
10:30pm–1am	Bars and cocktails	La Lonja for terraces, Santa Catalina for cocktail bars
1am onwards	Clubs	The Paseo Marítimo along the marina

None of it is compulsory. Palma works just as well as a seven-to-eleven city for anyone who wants a beautiful evening without a late night. The streets of the Old Town are lit and lively until midnight in summer, and walking home through them after dinner is half the pleasure of staying in the centre.

Map of Palma Nightlife Areas

The map is centred on the Llotja, the heart of the bar quarter. Carrer Apuntadors runs north from it towards the Born, the Old Town and Casa Roca lie to the east, Santa Catalina sits west across the Passeig Mallorca, and the Paseo Marítimo and its clubs follow the marina west along the seafront.

Best Bars in Palma Old Town

The best bars in Palma Old Town are small, historic and within a few minutes of each other on foot. These are the ones we send guests to most often, from a palace full of flowers to a vermouth bar the size of a living room.

1. Capitulo at Casa Roca: Mallorcan Wine in the Old Town

Our own bar is on the ground floor of Casa Roca, in what was the shop of the Papeles Roca paper and stationery house from 1847. The Capitulo café and wine bar opens from 08:30 for breakfast and coffee and serves Mallorcan wine and tapas until 23:00, with a self-service wine machine that lets you taste island reds and whites by the glass. It is open to everyone, not only to guests.

Downstairs, the Speakeasy bar opens at 8pm in the Art Deco vaults of the building, with natural wines and cocktails. Guests often start here before dinner and come back for a last glass afterwards, and our team will happily book a table at a restaurant in La Lonja while you finish your drink.

2. Abaco: Palma’s Most Theatrical Cocktail Bar

Abaco, on Carrer de Sant Joan in La Lonja, is set in the courtyard and rooms of an old Mallorcan palace, filled with cascades of fresh fruit, flowers, candles and classical music. It is one of the most unusual bars in Spain, and walking in for the first time is an experience in itself.

The cocktails are expensive and the setting is the point, so go for one drink rather than a whole evening, ideally early before the room fills. It makes a memorable first stop on a special night out, and it is a five-minute walk from the Llotja terraces.

3. Bar Bosch: The Classic Palma Café-Bar

Bar Bosch has stood at the top of the Passeig des Born, on Plaça del Rei Joan Carles I, for generations, and its terrace is one of Palma’s great meeting points. Locals come for a coffee in the morning, a beer and a llonguet sandwich at lunch, and a drink at dusk while the city walks past.

It is not a cocktail bar, and that is its charm. For people-watching at the crossroads of the Old Town, nowhere beats it, and it is the natural place to meet before walking down the Born to dinner.

4. Café La Lonja: Drinks Beside the Llotja

Café La Lonja sits right beside the Gothic exchange that gives the quarter its name, with an old wooden interior and a terrace on the square. It is the classic place for an aperitivo in La Lonja, with tapas, wine and beer, and it stays busy from early evening until late.

Take a terrace table around eight and watch the square fill as the restaurants on the surrounding lanes open for dinner. It is an easy starting point for a slow walk through the bars of Carrer Apuntadors.

5. La Rosa Vermutería: Vermouth Hour in Palma

Vermouth is Palma’s aperitivo, and La Rosa is a small vermouth bar and delicatessen on Carrer de la Rosa, a few minutes from the Born. Order a vermut on ice with an olive and a slice of orange, and a plate of Mallorcan cheese or sobrassada to go with it.

It is the place to understand how Palma starts an evening: standing at a counter, unhurried, before dinner. Go between seven and nine, when the bar is at its best.

6. Ginbo: Gin and Tonic, Palma Style

The Balearic Islands have a long gin tradition, and Ginbo, on the Passeig Mallorca at the edge of the Old Town, specialises in it, with a long list of gins and carefully made gin and tonics. It sits on the way between the Old Town and Santa Catalina, which makes it a useful halfway stop on a night between the two.

Ask for a Mallorcan or Menorcan gin, made with local botanicals, and let the bartender suggest the garnish. It is a relaxed, grown-up bar that suits a late drink after dinner.

7. Brassclub: Serious Cocktails in Palma

Brassclub is one of the city’s most respected cocktail bars, a short walk from the Born, with a dark, intimate room and classic and seasonal cocktails made with real care. It draws a local crowd who take their drinks seriously.

It is the bar for anyone who cares more about the drink than the view. Seats are limited and it fills on weekends, so arrive early in the evening or late after dinner.

La Lonja Nightlife: Palma’s Bar Quarter

La Lonja takes its name from the Llotja, the Gothic merchants’ exchange built in the fifteenth century, and it is the most atmospheric bar district in Palma. The lanes around it, Carrer Apuntadors, Carrer de Sant Joan and the Plaça de la Llotja, are lined with bars and restaurants that put their tables outside from spring to autumn. The buildings are centuries old and the terraces stay busy until late.

La Lonja is at its best when you do not plan too much. Walk the streets from around eight, find a terrace you like, and let the night take shape. Most bars serve tapas as well as drinks, and the Mallorcan wine lists are reliable. It is livelier and more international than Santa Catalina, and at weekends in summer the busiest lanes are loud until the small hours, so the Old Town is the better place to sleep and La Lonja the better place to spend the evening.

Santa Catalina Nightlife in Palma

Santa Catalina is the neighbourhood around the covered market, about fifteen minutes on foot west of the Old Town, and it has become the most talked-about part of Palma after dark. Its grid of low streets is full of natural wine bars, cocktail bars and small restaurants, many run by people who live in the area, and the crowd is younger and more local than in La Lonja.

Santa Catalina nightlife suits a longer evening in two or three places rather than a bar crawl. The streets around Carrer de Fàbrica, Carrer de Sant Magí and the market hold the most bars, and most are small, so a table for two to four is easier than for a large group. The Santa Catalina neighbourhood guide covers the market and the best places to eat before a night out.

A good Santa Catalina evening often begins at the market itself. The bars inside and around the Mercat de Santa Catalina serve a glass of wine and a plate of something fresh from the stalls until the early afternoon, and the restaurants on the streets around it take over in the evening. From the Old Town, walk west along the Passeig Mallorca and cross the old riverbed at the Plaça de la Feixina, or take a taxi for the five-minute ride, and walk back along the seafront later in the night with the cathedral lit up across the bay.

Rooftop Bars in Palma

A sundowner above the rooftops is one of the best ways to begin a night in Palma. In summer the sun sets between half past eight and twenty past nine, so arrive half an hour before for the best of the light over the cathedral, the bay and the Tramuntana. Several hotels in the Old Town and along the seafront open their rooftop bars to visitors, usually with a drink or a booking required.

In Santa Catalina, the rooftop bar of Hostal Cuba, a modernist building from the early 1900s, looks out over the harbour and the old windmills of Es Jonquet. At Casa Roca, the rooftop terrace is reserved for guests throughout their stay, with cold Mallorcan white wine brought up from the Capitulo bar below. It is a private alternative to the busier public rooftops, with the same view across the tiled roofs of the Old Town.

Palma Marina Nightlife and Clubs

The clubs are along the Paseo Marítimo, the seafront road that runs west from the cathedral along the marina. Several large venues open around midnight and run until six, with commercial house and mainstream dance music, and the crowd is international in July and August and more local in spring and autumn. A taxi from the Old Town takes about ten minutes.

For live music, look at the listings for Sala Fonfone and the smaller venues in La Lonja that host bands on weekends. Palma has a small but lively local music scene, and from June to September the city’s squares and Bellver Castle host open-air concerts. In summer the beach bars along the seafront towards Can Pere Antoni and Portixol add music and cold drinks from early evening.

What to Drink on a Night Out in Palma

Ordering like a local is part of the fun. Mallorca makes excellent wine, a herbal liqueur found on every bar shelf, and some of the best vermouth in Spain.

To taste the island properly, our Tasting Palma wine and vermouth experiences take guests through Mallorcan wines with tapas, and the Capitulo bar at Casa Roca pours island wines by the glass every evening.

A Night Out in Palma Old Town, Step by Step

This is the evening we plan most often for guests on their first night in Palma. It is all on foot, it starts at our door, and it works from spring to autumn.

Step 1, 7:30pm: a glass of Mallorcan wine in the Capitulo bar at Casa Roca, or on the steps by the cathedral as the stone turns gold in the last of the light. Step 2, 8:15pm: walk down through Plaça de Cort and the narrow streets of the historic centre of Palma to the Born, stopping for a vermouth at La Rosa or a drink on the terrace of Bar Bosch.

Step 3, 9pm: dinner in La Lonja, booked ahead in summer, on a terrace near the Llotja. Step 4, 11pm: one drink at Abaco for the spectacle, then a walk along Carrer Apuntadors and Carrer de Sant Joan as the bars fill. Step 5, after midnight: either a taxi to the clubs of the Paseo Marítimo, or a slow walk back up through the lit streets of the Old Town to Carrer dels Hostals, which are at their most beautiful at this hour.

On a Sunday or in winter, the same route works with an earlier start and a long dinner instead of the bars. Many restaurants and bars in La Lonja stay open all year, and the Capitulo bar at Casa Roca is open every evening.

Where to Stay in Palma for Nightlife

The best place to stay for Palma nightlife is the Old Town. It puts La Lonja ten minutes away on foot and Santa Catalina twenty, so you can walk to the bars and walk home again, without sleeping above the busiest lanes. The best areas to stay in Palma compares each part of the city, from the Old Town to the marina.

Casa Roca is on Carrer dels Hostals, three minutes from Plaça Major and ten from La Lonja, on a street that stays peaceful at night. Start with a glass in the Capitulo bar, walk down to the Llotja for dinner, and come back through the lit streets of the Old Town at midnight.

Casa Roca Gallery: Evenings in Palma Old Town

The Papeles Roca sign in the lobby, the marble staircase and the suites upstairs make Casa Roca a place to start and end a night in Palma.

Image credits: Llotja chapel by Joan Gené (CC BY-SA 4.0). Via Wikimedia Commons.