Mallorca

Mallorca has a reputation problem that has almost nothing to do with Mallorca. Say the name and a lot of people picture a strip of high-rise hotels, and that strip does exist – it is about four kilometres long and you can drive past it in six minutes.

The rest of the island is a UNESCO mountain range falling into the sea, stone villages with green shutters and bougainvillea coming over the walls, an old wooden train, a cathedral that Gaudí worked on, and more coves than you could swim in a summer. It is also only two hours from most of Europe, which is the part that still surprises people.

I have spent a lot of time here with a camera and the thing I would tell you first is to go north and west. Base in the Serra de Tramuntana, hire a car, and treat the beaches as day trips rather than the point.