Description, map and holiday information links
Palma, the island's capital, has a population of approximately 300,000, which is practically half of the entire population of the island. It stretches some 15 km along the coastline, from El Arenal and Palma beach in the east as far as the cosmopolitan districts of Cala Mayor and San Agustin in the west.
Palma is a smallish city, having all the advantages that this brings, while at the same time having all the possibilities of a much larger city. Its main source of income comes from tourism and, consequently, leisure activities of all kinds are more than well~atered-for here. There are restaurants, cafeterias, pubs, concert halls, discotheques, a bull-ring, and all types of shows, offering the visitor entertainment and amusement at all times.
Tourism had already become an important aspect of life on the island of Majorca back in the early 1920's, although on a much smaller scale than today, of course. It was a select, mainly winter tourism which grew up steadily until the beginning of the Spanish Civil War. The later 'discovery' of Ibiza and Menorca did not occur until well alter the Civil War.
At that time Majorca was full of artists, who established what was, to all intents and purposes, a colony in and around Pollenca and its port (Pollensa). One of the most famous of them all was Anglada Camarassa. That conglomeration of artists and poets at Pollenca was to bring about something previously unheard of in island tourism -the construction in 1929 of the Hotel Formentor. It was promoted by the Argentinian entrepreneur Adan Dihel, who even suffered personal hardship in his determination to build the finest hotel on the Mediterranean, near a beach which was not really considered the most adequate place for rest and relaxation.
(If you would like to buy a place at Pollensa an apartment for sale on the beach at Pollensa for £225,000, an apartment for sale two roads back from the beach for £100,000 and a villa for sale at Pollensa near the sea with 4 acres for £875,000)
The Hotel Formentor brought about a previously unimaginable change in the island's tourist industry, and was soon imitated by the Hotel Cala D'or and the Gran Hotel Camp de Mar. These new hotels successfully joined forces with the already-existing Hotel Victoria, Gran Hotel de Palma and the Hotel Principe Alfonso.
The furthest distance that can be travelled on this island of 581,564 inhabitants is 120km. It covers an area of some 3,640 km2 between Puerto de San Telm and Formentor lighthouse at Cape Formentor.
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