Serra de Tramuntana & Mountain Villages: A Full-Day Mallorca Itinerary
The UNESCO-listed Serra de Tramuntana is the Mallorca most visitors miss from the beach: honey-stone villages, olive terraces carved a thousand years ago and a 1912 wooden train rattling through the mountains. Here is how to see Valldemossa, Sóller, Deià and Sa Calobra in one full day — with the best-rated tours to book for each stretch.
At a glance
- 1Valldemossa monastery in the morning
- 2Vintage wooden train to Sóller
- 3Deià and the coastal viewpoints
- 4Sa Calobra & Torrent de Pareis
Morning: Valldemossa and the Carthusian monastery
Start in Valldemossa, the cobbled village where Chopin and George Sand spent the winter of 1838–39 at the Real Cartuja monastery. Arrive before the coach crowds at 10:30 to have the blond-stone lanes almost to yourself, and try a coca de patata pastry with an almond milkshake — the local ritual. Guided day tours from Palma pair Valldemossa with the Sóller valley from around €55, and some add a Mallorcan wine tasting.
Midday: the vintage train to Sóller
The Ferrocarril de Sóller has run its polished mahogany carriages from Palma through thirteen tunnels in the Tramuntana since 1912, and the hour-long ride into the orange-grove valley of Sóller is a highlight in itself. Connect to the open-sided tram down to Port de Sóller for lunch by the bay. Half-day tours combining train, tram and hotel pickup start from around €60 — book ahead in summer, as morning departures fill first.
Afternoon: Deià and the west coast road
The Ma-10 coast road between Sóller and Valldemossa is one of the great drives in the Mediterranean, and tiny Deià — the artists' village where poet Robert Graves lived and is buried — is the essential stop. Full-day VIP tours cover Valldemossa, Deià and Sóller together from around €100, worth it for the cliff-edge viewpoints a bus timetable will never give you.
For the adventurous: Sa Calobra and Torrent de Pareis
If you would rather earn the scenery, head deeper into the range: the hairpin road down to Sa Calobra, the boulder-strewn gorge of Torrent de Pareis and marked trails through holm-oak forest. Guided Tramuntana hikes with picnic run from around €75, and canyon hikes to Torrent de Pareis are best done with a guide — the riverbed route is unmarked and impassable after rain.
Book the experiences in this itinerary
Top-rated tours for exactly what this plan recommends in Mallorca — prices per person.
