General info
Geographical facts of interest
Capital city: Palma de Mallorca
Area: 3,640 km2
Coastline: 554.7 km
Highest point: 1,432 m (Puig Major)
Population: 702,122 inhabitants
People: Spanish
Language: Castilian Spanish, Catalan
Religion: 99% Roman Catholic
Government: Mallorca belongs to the Balearic Islands, one of Spain's 17 autonomous regions. It has its own parliament, president and supreme court.
Average annual temperature: 18.7 C
Average annual hours of sunshine: 2,958.7
BEACHES AND THE COAST
The Island coastline combines stretches of spectacular sheer rocky crags (on the north coast) which rise to heights of almost 300 metres in some places, with others of low-lying shingle or sandy beaches, more appropriate for gentle strolls or holiday relaxation.
It is in the north of the Island where you can find the most spectacular coves, many of them with shingle or pebbles instead of sand, such as Sa Calobra.
However, continuing up the coast in a north-easterly direction, the beaches become more accessible as they form extensive dunes of differing heights, at Sa Canova, Cala Mesquida and Cala Agulla for example.
The extensive sandy stretches of Pollenēa and Alcśdia in the north are quite outstanding although they are in the more urbanised areas. But when one speaks of Mallorcan beaches, the name that springs to mind is, undoubtedly, es Trenc, one of the loveliest and best-conserved stretches in the Archipelago.
Closer to Palma, there are also beaches worthy of being singled out, Arenal for instance, long and wide and white, half of which belongs to Palma and the other half to the Municipality of Llucmajor. There are many other beaches and a multitude of coves lying along the coast from Palma to Andratx, several of them of extraordinary ecological and scenic interest.