As one of the pioneers of the package holiday, Mallorca was for years tarred with the cheap and tacky brush. Despite the fact that wealthy independent travellers and the Hollywood set (Ava Gardner was a fan) had been holidaying on the island for years, it was better known for the big, brash resorts, such as Magaluf and Palma Nova, that first became popular in the Sixties.
Forty years on, the island still offers cheap package holidays with all the associated trappings: English-style pubs and fish and chip shops. About 70 per cent of the two million UK visitors are on tour-operator packages but now, thanks to an increase in low-cost flights and a huge choice of stylish accommodation, the independent sector is driving tourism growth on the island.
EasyJet already has 32 flights a week into Mallorca and a further four airlines - Excel, Air Scotland, Jet2 and Globespan - introduced flights from the UK last spring. So if you are looking for a side of Mallorca away from the package tour hordes, these are our best alternative holidays.
1 Boutique hotels
Mallorca has several stunning new boutique properties. One of the latest is Son Brull, a 25-room boutique hotel just outside Pollensa. Although housed in a seventeenth-century former convent, (run by the same people who have the acclaimed Cala Sant Vicenc), its style is more urban chic. Facilities include a swimming pool, tennis courts and spa.
Hotel Convent de la Missió is the latest boutique hotel in Palma. On the site of a seventeenth-century convent, it has 14 rooms.
The Hotel Maricel in Calvia on the west coast,was the place to stay in the Fifties and Sixties. Closed for 10 years, it has reopened following a refurbishment with a contemporary new look and infinity pool.
One of the best selections of independent hotels is featured by tour operator Castaways (01737 812255) ranging from 'agrotourism' properties on working olive oil estates to the luxury of La Residencia, founded by Richard Branson.
Cost: Rooms at Son Brull (00 34 971 535353) start at €300 (£206) per night in summer and £137 in winter. Hotel Convent de la Missió (00 34 971 227347) has double rooms from £110 B&B. Hotel Maricel (00 34 971 707744) has double rooms from £225. It's also featured in the Castaways brochure if you want a flight-inclusive package.
2 Self-catering holidays
Forget bland, concrete, whitewashed villas - Mallorca has some of the most characterful self-catering properties in the Mediterranean. There is no shortage of stone-built rural fincas and farmhouses converted into stylish holiday homes, many with their own pools, orchards and orange groves. Individual Travellers Spain has 50 properties on the island, ranging from village houses for two in Pollensa to large family villas with pools. Many are available year-round or for three-night short breaks. Upmarket villa specialist International Chapters has 25 luxurious properties, from modern villas to a seventeenth-century olive mill, most located in the north of Mallorca around Pollensa.
Cost: Individual Travellers Spain (08700 773773). A small town house in Pollensa, sleeping four adults and three children, costs from £590 for one week, including car hire. Flights are extra. International Chapters (020 7722 0722) offers a week in Son Salas farmhouse sleeping 14, with pool from £7,840.
3 Walking in winter
With spectacular mountain and coastal trails and a mild climate, it is no surprise that walking is one of the most popular winter activities in Mallorca. The north and west of the island are the least developed, while hundreds of paths criss-cross the Sierra Tramuntana mountain range and there are also pretty trails through the olive and lemon groves lining the valleys. A number of walking holiday specialists, including HF Holidays (020 8905 9558) and Headwater (01606 720033), offer guided group holidays. If you'd prefer to design an individual trip, one of the best-known local guides is Valerie Crespi-Green, author of Landscapes of Mallorca, which features 60 walks with tips and general information. Crespi-Green can tailor walking trips for groups of two-10 people for all levels of ability.
Specialist tour operator Try Mallorca (0870 754 4545) can put together packages for walkers, including flights, transfers and accommodation. They will put you in touch with Crespi-Green who will design an individual itinerary. A sample package for a week's holiday including EasyJet flights, two guided walks, car hire and hotel accommodation on a B&B basis is £258 per person.
4 Wellbeing holidays
The Mardavall Hotel and Spa, a few minutes from Puerto Portals, is the only hotel on the island with a thalassotherapy centre. Its Thalasso Spa and Wellness Centre offers a range of thalassotherapy treatments based on seawater. Treatments include a hot adventure shower, stone sauna, Swedish massage, thalasso facial and thalasso Spiruline Firming facial, as well as traditional spa and beauty treatments.
La Serrania, a retreat on the slopes of the Tramuntana mountains, offers week-long relaxation and wellbeing breaks from September to June. The pilates and massage course, for example, involves two one-and-a-half-hour classes a day. Two massages, all meals (excellent local dishes cooked by a Spanish chef are one of the highlights) and wine are included in the price. There are three pilates courses: 6-13 March, 5-12 June and 4-11 September. Other activity holidays include walking, creative writing and painting. The house has eight rooms with its own terrace and a swimming pool. Country walks and trips to Pollensa are laid on for guests.
Cost: A four-night B&B stay at the Mardavall Hotel and Spa costs from £1,515 through specialist spa operator Erna Low (020 7594 0290), with flights. At La Serranía (00 34 639 306 432) the pilates and massage course is £750, including all classes, two massages, food, wine and transfers from Palma airport, but not flights. To book, call Sarah Rosenfield on 020 7722 4373.
5 Food and wine
Last year, the Balearic Ministry of Agriculture launched four food and wine routes giving suggested itineraries for holidaymakers who want to visit family-run producers of wine, cheese, sobrassada (a local sausage) and organic fruit. You can pick up a leaflet from a local tourist office or, if you want to whisk up local dishes yourself, several hotels lay on cookery classes. At Read's Hotel and Restaurant in Santa María, head chef Marc Fosh gives tips on his Michelin-starred cuisine.
Cost: Cooking demonstrations at Read's (00 34 971 140261) cost about £19 per person. The next one is on 31 January.
6 Sailing round the islands
Palma, in particular the Club del Mar yacht club in the Bay of Palma, is one of the sailing meccas of the Mediterranean. Many holidaymakers visit the marina - one of the largest in Europe - just to gawp at the multi-million pound yachts, but if you want a slice of the action yourself there are plenty of sailing companies offering bareboat or skippered yachts for hire. The coast of Mallorca has hundreds of unspoilt inlets and gorgeous coves- some of which can only be reached by boat - and the water is crystal clear. UK sailing company Sunsail can tailormake holidays of any length, although it recommends at least two weeks if you want to sail to neighbouring islands.
Cost: Sunsail (023 9222 2222) has a large fleet of boat charters. Prices start at £960 for a boat for a week; a skipper costs £90 a day extra and a hostess (to do the shopping, hand out drinks etc) is also £90 a day. Flights not included.
7 Horseriding holidays
Elysian Holidays operates from Rancho Son Callar in the foothills of Santa Magdalena near the town of Inca. Half-day, full-day and five-day courses are available for all levels. The horses come from Menorca and Andalucia, both famed for their horses and horsemanship, and are matched to suit the rider's ability. Day trips take riders through the countryside to a traditional finca for a picnic lunch or barbecue.
Cost: Hacks: full-day £80, half-day £63; five full days £369; five half-days £204.
Prices cover the cost of the riding only; picnics cost £7 extra. The company can also arrange accommodation in nearby villas. Contact: 01580 766599.
8 Weddings on the island
Samantha Scott-Jeffries set up My Majorca Wedding last year after struggling to find a company that could help her organise her own wedding on the island.
The appeal of tying the knot on the island, according to Scott-Jeffries, is the fantastic venues (you can choose between churches and chapels, five-star and boutique hotels, private fincas and restaurants ) and the financial saving - a typical wedding costs about a quarter of what you would have to pay for a similar ceremony and reception in the UK.
Only Spanish residents are allowed to marry on the island, so My Majorca Wedding recommends that UK clients marry in a register office in Britain and have the blessing ceremony and party in Mallorca.
'You will have everything you have at a normal wedding - including a full church service if that's what you want. The only difference is that you won't sign a piece of paper at the end of the ceremony,' says Scott-Jeffries.
Cost: My Majorca Wedding (020 7700 5526) tailormakes weddings so costs vary but start at around £3,000-£3,500.
This covers the blessing ceremony and reception, including all food and wine, entertainment (usually a live band), photography and wedding cake. The company can also organise extras such as a vintage car.
9 Learn another language
If you want to come back from Mallorca with more than a suntan, how about combining your holiday with Spanish lessons? Language Courses Abroad has courses lasting from two to 12 weeks at an international language school in central Palma. They are based on just under four-hours' study a day, leaving you free to explore the island - and practise your Spanish - for the rest of the day or take part in activities such as cocktail events and film evenings arranged by the school.
Most students stay with a local family, but the company can also book shared apartments or studios for two. Ages range from 16 to 80.
Cost: Language Courses Abroad (01509 211612) has Spanish courses for £272 for two weeks at Easter and £295 for two weeks in summer or £272 (plus a registration fee of £35); two weeks' accommodation with a host family costs £249.
Start dates are 29 March and 13 April for Easter and from 7 June to 31 August in summer.
10 Flights from the UK
BMI (01332 854000) has daily flights from Heathrow to Palma for £66.90 return including tax.
BMI Baby (0870 264 2229) offers two flights a week from East Midlands and Cardiff during winter months, going up to daily and three times a week respec tively in the peak holiday season. There are daily flights throughout the year from Manchester. Flights start at £45 return, including tax.
GB Airways (0129 366 4239) has up to eight flights a week from Gatwick; prices start at £99, including taxes.
EasyJet (0871 750 0100) runs seven flights a week from Gatwick, Stansted, Luton and Liverpool, and four a week from Bristol. Prices start at £40.98 return, including tax and charges.
Air Scotland (0141 848 4990) flies every Saturday from Glasgow) from £80 per person, including tax.
Jet2 (0870 737 8282) flies from Leeds Bradford to Palma three times a week. Return flights over a weekend in March cost £104.96, including tax and charges.
Globespan (0870 556 1522) is launching daily flights from Glasgow and Edinburgh from 2 April 2004). A return flight including tax is £118.90 from Glasgow, £98.90 from Edinburgh.
Star qualities
Jack Nicholson: All work and no play makes Jack a dull boy, so to relax he enjoys the splendid golf courses on the island, which are in prime condition in the low season. He has also been known to frequent the sights of Palma, where there are quirky shops, trendy bars and clubs such as Tito's, where Marlene Dietrich and Ray Charles strutted their stuff in the good old days.
Gwyneth Paltrow: Has been seen chilling out in Palma, not surprising as the capital is a favourite with the rich and beautiful, many of whom have humongous yachts in the harbour.
Tom Cruise: Cruise is rumoured to own a villa in the Camp de Mar area, and has been seen sun- bathing on a yacht around Puerto Andratx.
John Lennon: Lennon once stayed in the Hotel Son Vida, a converted castle 15 minutes outside Palma. The hotel is surrounded by golf courses and has two pools, restaurants, and a spa which offers hydro-jet massage. Brigitte Bardot and Zsa Zsa Gabor also stayed.
Michael Douglas: Whether for love of the island, or a hefty £3 million pay packet from the Balearic government, Douglas is showing his support for Mallorca by promoting it at international tourism fairs over the next four years. Douglas has loved the island since he bought the S'Estaca estate near the port of Valldemossa with his ex-wife, Diandra, about 20 years ago. The Moorish mansion once belonged to the adventurer and writer Luis Salvador, Archduke of Hapsburg, Lotringa and Borbón, one of the first 'alternative tourists' to the Balearics. Douglas now spends part of each year there with his second wife, Catherine Zeta-Jones, and their children.
Douglas has been spotted playing on some of the island's numerous golf courses and eating in the rustic Ca's Xorc restaurant, which is housed in a converted olive mill.
Claudia Schiffer: The supermodel has been a regular visitor for years. She is often seen hanging out in Palma and owns a villa in the celebrity-infested Camp de Mar area. The resort is hugely popular with Spanish and Germans - Michael Schumacher has a home there. Claudia has been known to dine in Ca's Xorc, which serves speciality dishes such as marinated mountain goat.
