Gran Hotel Son Julia pairs Majorcan style and serenity with modern design and facilities. The spacious guest rooms are elegantly furnished with subtle, oriental accents, retaining period aspects of its 500-year old heritage. The hotel offers fine gourmet cuisine, spa and wellness therapies amid landscaped vistas and lush gardens.

The hotel is 10 minutes away from the airport and 15 minutes from Palma de Majorca, taking the freeway in the direction of Llucmajor. It is based in the southeast section of Majorca, an area known for its flat and green landscape and famous for its white sandy beaches.

Art is an integral part of the estate's character. Paintings by Miquel Mesquida Sansó decorate the hallways as part of a permanent exhibition, also available for purchase. Public areas have been expertly decorated with intricate handcrafted lamps by noted Majorcan artist Guardiola. Lavish furnishings include handmade oriental rugs.

The hotel has a unique and rich history, tracing back all the way to the 15th century when the noble and highly esteemed Julià family owned vast lands, keeping Son Julia as their private residential estate, which was passed on from generation to generation. One of the heirs, Bartolomé Julià added the wording Ca S'Hereu, and today both names are still visible when entering the property. Another heir, Pascual Felipe de Togores, tenth count of Ayamans, played an important role in the neighboring village of Llucmayor. In the late 1800s the state had over 7,500 almond trees, a thousand fig trees, hundreds of carob trees, olive trees and various fruit trees. Remnants from the Cyclopic era were found on Son Julia's grounds, but were unfortunately destroyed.

Son Julia has been completely restored in 2006, preserving certain original items such as the well and the property's stone archways. The estate now has 25 sumptuously designed guestrooms and impressive suites, with private balconies and terraces, spacious bathrooms and offering guests the very best in technology, elegance and comfort.

Restaurant Son Julia: The restaurant offers refined Mediterranean cusine with a notable Catalan influence, delivering delicately created gourmet fare under the direction of chef Isaac Gonzalez Nieto. Guests can partake of the á la carte and monthly changing degustation menus, created with attention to detail, balance and culinary creativity. Fine wines accompany exquisite dishes and Son Julia's sunny terrace invites guests to enjoy their meals in a pleasant and relaxing countryside atmosphere.

Mandarina Pool & Grill: This is a relaxed outdoor restaurant for informal dining under the Majorcan sun. Located next to the hotel's outdoor swimming pool, it offers meats, fishes and local seafood from the grill, a wholesome salad or a simple snack freshly prepared on site. The atmosphere is relaxed and unpretentious.

Orange Patio: This serene outdoor courtyard is rich with tangerine and orange trees, ideal for relaxing with a cocktail or to peruse a good book.

Bar Solinit: Characterized by crimson and black leather sofas and a marble bar with chocolate seating, the lounge area features art by Mesquida. An intricate crystal cupola gives the bar an open, unpretentious feel, enhhanced by chill-out music and choice tapas amid subtle lights. Signature cocktails include El Residente, comprising white rum, lemon juice, grenadine, Cointreau, Martini Extra Dry and Martini Rosso.

The Bodeguita: An extraordinary 500-year old converted wine cellar in the estate's lower level, perfect for small meetings, celebrations and wine and tapas tastings, with a choice of the finest Iberian hams and Spanish cheeses.

GUEST ROOMS & SUITES: The hotel has 25 impressive rooms and suites, such as the Gran suite, Royal suite and Imperial suite - one of the largest suites in Europe. All rooms feature elegant furniture in warm Mediterranean colors, handmade oriental carpets and original works of art. The spacious marble bathrooms are equipped with a large shower cabin and a separate bathtub.

SWIMMING POOLS: Son Julia features two outdoor and one heated indoor swimming-pool in the spa area. Deddon deck chairs and furniture, and large Italian sunshades add a feeling of elegant relaxation.

ZEN ZONE SPA: The hotel features a beauty center and wellness area, with a fully equipped gym, personal trainer, hydrotherapy Jacuzzi, pressure showers, steam baths, and treatment room with a comprehensive choice of beauty and relaxation treatments.

SPORTS & FITNESS: The hotel features a tennis court and a paddle court. Rackets and balls for both sports are provided at reception. Private lessons are available on request. Described as a combination of several paddle racket sports; paddle, has similarities with tennis, racquetball and squash. The game is played on a court similar to tennis, but the ball is allowed to bounce off the side and back walls. It is a popular sport in Spain, played by both young and old. Cycling camps and daily cycle tours are offered through Lifestyle Cycling.

ACTIVITIES: The hotel's surrounding area is ideal for golfing, biking, hiking and taking a walk through the countryside or the charming villages nearby.

CHAPEL: The private chapel of the Julià family has been carefully restored and is available for private functions.

SPECIAL EVENTS: The hotel offers a selection of private spaces such as the Salón Las Bóvedas and Salón Oriental to celebrate special events or corporate meetings. The extensive gardens, terraces and the patio also provide an excellent backdrop for any kind of event.

Golf is one of the most popular activities in Majorca. The hotel's guests can enjoy some of the best golf courses on the island, with special rates on green fees and in some cases with preferential tee times.

The exclusive golf club Son Gual is 15 minutes away from the hotel. The course features 18 holes, Par 72, it is 6621 meters long, and was designed by Thomas Himmel.

Son Antem East and West are located just a 5-minute drive from the hotel and both were designed by Francisco López Segalés. The East course was inaugurated in 1994 and is an 18-hole resort course with wide open fairways. Woodland and lakes come into play on some holes, adding to the attraction. The West course is a championship course, with verdant hills capes adding to the lakes and woodland. The large American-style greens provide an abundance of challenging putts.

The three related 18-hole courses of Son Vida, Son Muntaner and Son Quint all offer preferential green fees to Son Julia guests.

Son Vida ranks among the island's most beautiful courses, with the tree lined fairways offer breathtaking views of the spectacular surroundings and the bay of Palma.

The Son Muntaner golf course encourages every golf enthusiast to enjoy a round surrounded by a spectacular Mediterranean environment.

Son Quint offers 18 spectacular sporting and varied holes covering over 6.200 meters of magnificent Majorcan countryside, once again with fantastic views over the bay and city of Palma. Just 20 minutes drive brings you to Golf Park Puntiró, an 18 hole course with a par of 71, designed by golfing legend Jack Nicklaus, and measuring over 6,000 meters from the back tees, a great course in a superb natural setting.

The course at Club de Golf Alcanada, designed by Robert Trent Jones Jr. opened in 2003 and measures 6649 metres from the back tees. A beautiful course, with many of the holes holding a spectacular view over the bay of Alcudia.

Golf Professional Marc Amort is a licensed golf trainer qualified by the PGA of Germany. After having played as a professional for ten years, he has dedicated his life to teaching golf. He coaches all levels: beginners, enthusiasts, team players, and he even trained the two famous German players, Christoph Günther and Marcel Haremza.

GUIDED TOURS: The Tourist Guides of the Balearic Islands offer a variety of professionally guided multilingual tours and itineraries, focusing on the islands' rich historical, archeological, cultural and natural heritage.

Colegio Oficial de Guias Turisticos de las Islas Baleares
Avda. Gabriel Alomar i Villalonga, 7 entlo. A
07006 Palma de Mallorca
Contact: Magdalena Torrens, President
Cell +616.652.858 info@colegioguiasib.com
Tel. +971.460.697 www.colegioguiasib.com/en/

Majorca is the largest island of Spain and is part of the Balearic Islands archipelago in the Mediterranean Sea. The official languages of Majorca are Catalan and Spanish. Like the other Balearic Islands of Ibiza, Formentera, and Minorca, the island is a popular destination, primarily for German and British tourists. Although the Balearic Islands are a world unto themselves and are linked by proximity, each island has its own character. Majorca is both mountainous and flat, featuring the rainiest and driest places. A land of torrents, fertile plains and majestic towns, Majorca represents something like a miniature-sized continent.

Majorca has two mountainous regions that occupy the northwestern (Serra de Tramuntana or Tramuntana range) and eastern thirds of the island. The highest peak on Majorca is Puig Major (1,445 m) in the Serra de Tramuntana. As this is a military zone, the neighbouring peak at Puig de Massanella is considered the highest accessible peak (1,364 m). The northeast coast comprises two sweeping bays: the Badia de Pollença and the larger Badia d'Alcúdia. The northern coast is generally rugged and has many cliffs. The central zone extending from Palma is generally a flat fertile plain known as Es Pla.

The climate is Mediterranean, with markedly higher precipitation in the Serra de Tramuntana. Summers are hot in the plains and winters mild to cool, getting colder in the Tramuntana range; in this part of the island brief episodes of snow during the winter are not unusual. The fact that Majorca is an island and the Mediterranean climate are both essential factors in the survival of a way of life based on self-sufficiency in terms of agriculture and livestock as the foundations of the rural economy, complemented by hunting and harvesting and a fairly insignificant amount of fishing.

There are over 2,400 restaurants in Majorca, ranging from small bars to full scale restaurants. Mallorcan gastronomy enjoys the benefits of what is known as the Mediterranean diet. Food on the island is, generally speaking, very high in fat, with large quantities of olive oil and even lard, but balanced with plenty of fruit and vegetables. Tomatoes form the basis of the frugal pa amb oli (bread with olive oil) and of the typical Balearic salad trempó, which also contains peppers, onions and oil. Despite its location in the Mediterranean, seafood is often imported. Olives and almonds are typical of the local diet. The island now has over 4 million almond and olive trees. Among the typical Majorcan food specialties are saffron rice cooked with chicken, pork and vegetables — sobrassada, arros brut — and, a sweet pastry known as ensaïmada, made with very fine pastry, sugar, eggs and lard or saïm, hence its name.

Visitors can not only enjoy magnificent beaches in Majorca, but also a wide range of leisure centers, nature parks that showcase fauna and waterfowl, impressive natural caves, manor homes, world-famous archeological remains, guided tours and an array of leisure and cultural activities to suit the most varied tastes. A myriad of alternatives also exist for nightlife. Restaurants and clubs for late nights abound in the Balearic Islands. In Majorca, the island of calm, it is possible to find places to enjoy a drink which stay open until the early hours of the morning.

PALMA DE MAJORCA
The capital of Majorca, Palma, was founded as a Roman camp called Palmaria upon the remains of a Talaiotic settlement. The city and the island experienced a turbulent history with several Vandal sackings during the fall of the Roman Empire. It was later reconquered by the Byzantine, colonized by the Moors, and finally established by James I of Aragon. In 1983, Palma became the capital of the autonomous region of the Balearic Islands. The recent boom in tourism caused Palma to grow significantly. In 2008, 22.8 million tourists passed through the Son Sant Joan Airport in Palma, with an additional 1.5 million arriving by sea. The Marivent Palace was offered by the city to the then Prince Juan Carlos I of Spain. The royals have since spent their summer holidays in Palma.

Plaça d'Espanya
The Plaça d'Espanya is the bus and train transport hub of the island. Two old buildings house several cafés on either side of two large escalators which lead into the Estació, located underneath a large and popular park. There are train-themed playing structures, each one shaped like a train carriage and named after towns along the line of the Ferrocarril de Sóller, a railway dating back to 1911. A new bus station is currently under construction nearby.

The Cathedral area
Palma is famous for La Seu, its vast cathedral originally built on the site of a previous Arab mosque. Designed in Spanish "levantino" Gothic style with influences of the North European gothic, it was founded by King James I of Aragon in 1229 but finished only in 1601. It sits overlooking the Parc de la Mar and the Mediterranean Sea, protected by the old town walls. Fifty years after a restoration of the Cathedral had started, Antoni Gaudí was invited in 1901 to take over the project. While some of his ideas were adopted — moving the choir stalls from the middle nave to be closer to the altar, as well as a large canopy — Gaudí abandoned his work in 1914 after an argument with the contractor. The project was cancelled soon after.

The Old City
The Old City in the southeast area of Palma behind the cathedral, is a fascinating maze of streets reflecting its Arab past. With the exception of a few streets and squares which allow traffic, the walkways are fairly narrow, and are surrounded by a diverse range of interesting buildings and intricate architectural designs. The majority are private houses, some of which are open to the public as discreet museums or galleries. The tall structures, characteristic window boxes, detailed metal carvings and overhanging eaves of these buildings stand in stark contrast with the view of the bay.

Banys Àrabs
The Banys Àrabs, or Arab Baths, one of the few remnants of Palma's Moorish past, are accessed via the quiet Ca'n Serra street near the convent of the cathedral, and include the lush gardens of Ca'n Fontirroig, home to Sardinian warblers, house sparrows, cacti, palm trees, and a wide range of flowers and ferns. The small two-roomed brick building that once housed the bath is in fact of Byzantine design, dating back to the 11th century and possibly once part of the home of a Muslim nobleman. The bath room has a cupola with five oculi which let in dazzling light. The twelve columns holding up the small room were pillaged from an earlier Roman construction. The floor over the hypocaust has been worn away by people standing in the centre, mainly to photograph the entrance and the garden beyond it. The whole room is in a rather disreputable condition. The other room is a brick cube with a small model of the baths as they once were in the corner. Unfortunately one of the columns in this model has fallen over. The gardens and bath are open all year round.