A hotel renaissance is taking place on the Balearic island, which is intent on attracting discerning (rather than debauched) visitors
Standing beside a low stone wall – one quite possibly meticulously built some centuries ago – and with the scent of lavender swirling lightly in the air, Sir Richard Branson gazed sentimentally out over a scene of Balearic beauty.
“Oh, it was love at first sight,” he said.
Spreading out before us, the ravines, ridges and forested peaks of Mallorca’s Tramuntana mountains tumbled down to a coastline peppered with coves and bays lapped by a sapphire sea. Completing the postcard in the near distance was Son Bunyola, the latest addition to Branson’s collection of hotels, and the newest to open on the island.
Spread across 1,300 acres of the Unesco-protected northwestern coast, the opening of the historic 16th-century finca turned 26-room resort is significant, not least because it marks a deeply significant milestone for the Virgin boss, but also because it represents a fundamental change slowly sweeping the island. A new wave of luxury has arrived, and with it a flurry of shiny new hotels, as Mallorca celebrates a reinvention that many argue is long overdue.