This pretty village is a wonderful place to spend a day when visiting Mallorca and is probably most known because composer Frédéric Chopin spent a winter here. Set in the Tramuntana mountains there are gorgeous hiking trails around the outskirts and the town is filled with pretty areas to wander.
Getting Here & Tips
It's about a 30 minute drive from Palma and there are designated parking areas as well as paid parking lots. Bus #203 also runs from Palma to Valldemosa. It's higher in elevation so the temperatures are often a little cooler than elsewhere so having an extra layer is a good idea when visiting outside the hottest times of the year.
The Hike
We decided to do the Es Caragolí - Puig des Pou - Cova s'Ermita Guillem which is a loop of a little over 6 miles and 1,886 feet of elevation gain. It's quite rocky so we suggest wearing shoes that can comfortably handle that for several hours.
For the first part of the hike we climbed through forested areas and had views overlooking Valldemosa. There were fast moving clouds when we began so it made for quite an ethereal feel looking down on the village when they rolled in.
Then we began to get more peeks of the blue ocean on the horizon as we continued gaining elevation and went past the hermit cave.
At this point we made the final push up to get to the top of the peak.
The Views!
The path follows along the edge of the peak for quite a ways so it might be a little disconcerting for those that have a fear of heights but it's wide so didn't feel unsafe and there was plenty of room to maneuver back from the edge as much as we wanted. The clouds moved out and the wind picked up so I put my scarf on as we continued, stopping regularly to enjoy being up this high with such sweeping panoramic views. .
It was pretty cool to look down on Sa Foradada, where we had previously hiked! After walking along the top the route turned and began its way back down. We passed some beautiful goats on our way. At this point we were glad we had downloaded the trail map ahead of time (since at times we had no cell coverage) because parts of the return trail weren't marked very well. It was a robust hike and we were tired by the time we got back to the bottom but absolutely loved it.
The Village
We began our wandering by stopping at one of the oldest bakeries in town called Panaderia Pasteleria Ca'n Molinas where we enjoyed some of their freshly made sweet potato rolls called coca de patata. Then we started walking around the cobblestone alleyways and streets, many of which are pedestrian only.
Since it was January there were still Christmas decorations up which was fun and it was cooler so not many people were sitting at outside restaurants. We imagine that during the summer season this would feel and look a lot different. After exploring a bit we decided to stop and sit on a quiet little balcony at La Posada where we had a glass of freshly squeezed orange juice and lunch while we enjoyed the views.
We branched off the main area and headed down some side streets and found we had them to ourselves! It also meant we found great new perspectives of the town and surrounding valley.
Valldemosa was definitely one of our favorite mountain areas in Mallorca for the combination of green landscape and quaint stone village that resembled a painting.
January 2023