If you haven’t entered any dates, the rate shown is provided directly by the hotel and represents the cheapest double room (including tax) available in the next 60 days.
Prices have been converted from the hotel’s local currency (EUR288.00), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
Mi casa es su casa is an ethos firmly adopted at Portella. A powerhouse team of Palma-based architects and Parisian designers has renovated this 17th-century home with hand-blown Gordiola glass lighting and Santanyí stone, while retaining a glut of original features. Moorish flourishes enliven the pared-down palette, fitting with the ancient Arab Baths as your neighbours. With an intimate dining space, a view-toting rooftop terrace and a prime Old Town postcode, Portella is your boutique gateway to Palma.
Smith Extra
Get this when you book through us:
A one-way airport transfer, private use of the hammam and a bespoke Mallorcan gift
Noon. Check-in is at 3pm, but both are flexible, subject to availability.
Prices
Double rooms from £271.79 (€317), including tax at 10 per cent. Please note the hotel charges an additional local city tax of €4.40 per person per night on check-out.
More details
Rates at Portella are room-only; an à la carte breakfast is €30 each.
Also
Although one Double Room is on the ground floor and is accessed by a ramp, this historic hotel is not best suited to guests with reduced mobility.
At the hotel
Courtyard, rooftop terrace, hammam, gym, charged laundry service and free WiFi throughout. In rooms: smart TV, Bang & Olufsen Bluetooth speaker, air-conditioning, ceiling fan, Nespresso coffee machine, tea-making kit, minibar, free bottled water, bathrobes and slippers, and Diptyque bath products.
Our favourite rooms
Contemporary design and classic details come together in the hotel’s rooms. The spaces are light-filled, and clad with terracotta tiles, Moorish details, and bespoke and antique furniture. Out of the Double Rooms, number five is our favourite – sunshine floods in from the Juliet balcony, and it connects with Room Three via a narrow arch-framed corridor. If you’re staying in the two-bedroom Apartment, bagsy the room on the left for within-touching-distance views of the verdant Arab Baths’ garden, or if sharing isn’t caring, book the whole hotel exclusively to have it all to yourself.
Packing tips
Before its latest iteration, Portella was the home of Spanish painter Joaquim Torrents Lladó, a close friend of poet Robert Graves; follow in their creative footsteps and bring your watercolours and a notebook.
Also
Head to the rooftop terrace for a fitness class or an alfresco aperitif; it has panoramic views of Palma, encompassing the Arab Baths’ leafy garden, Santa Clara nunnery and the caramel-coloured cathedral.
Children
Over-12s are welcome. Some rooms can connect to create family-friendly suites, and the Suite and Junior Suite can accommodate a third guest on a sofa-bed (for €30 a night, including breakfast).
Sustainability efforts
Portella has held onto its original 17th-century features, including cast iron railings and solid wood doors, wherever possible. Local materials, such as Santanyí stone, terracotta tiles, bespoke local glasswork and Mallorcan cobblestone, have been prioritised throughout the renovation. And the hotel reduces its carbon footprint, waste and food mileage by choosing close-to-home suppliers and placing bath products in rooms on request.
Book-lined shelves are the backdrop for dinners at the library’s sole, candle-lit table.
Dress Code
As homey as Portella feels, leave dining in your pyjamas and slippers to your own casa. You can keep it casual, but this thoughtfully renovated retreat feels deserving of something smarter.
Hotel restaurant
Meals in Salon, the hotel’s intimate dining room, feel a little like scoring an invite to a laidback family get-together. The open-plan kitchen encourages easy chatting between guest and chef, and there’s a pass-the-marmalade cosiness to the communal table. Miguel and his team take hosting cues from their abuelas – asking what you’d like for dinner or what they can fetch you from the morning market – before transforming local and sustainable produce into just-as-you-like-it dishes. And, perhaps best of all, breakfast is served until a leisurely 1pm, so snooze your alarm for as long as you like.
Hotel bar
Settle in with postprandial cuppas, cocktails and card games at the courtyard-facing living room, which has floor-to-ceiling windows, a small library, sink-into-me armchairs and a cobalt-blue sofa. You can also dial down from the rooftop terrace for sunlounger-bound refreshments.
Last orders
Breakfast is served from 7am until 1pm; lunch is 1pm to 6pm, and dinner is 8pm to 11pm. The bar pours from 7am until 1am.
Room service
You can order dishes and drinks from the restaurant’s menu to your room round the clock.
Portella brushes shoulders with the Cathedral of Mallorca and the Arab Baths in Palma’s Old Town, and the beach and city centre are within strolling distance.
Planes
Palma de Mallorca Airport is a 25-minute drive away; a one-way transfer to the hotel is included with the room rate and staff can arrange a return transfer for €66.
Automobiles
You don’t need a set of wheels for getting around the city – it’s easy to navigate by foot, public transport or taxi. Should you drive, the hotel has a private car park a short walk away and valet services are included with your room rate.
Other
If you plan to arrive by chopper, there's a private helipad a 15-minute drive from the hotel.
Worth getting out of bed for
You won’t have to wander far from Portella to marvel at Palma’s big hitters (you can even spy most from the hotel’s rooftop): the close-enough-to-touch Arab Baths are your ancient neighbours and have lush botanical gardens; the Cathedral of Mallorca, a gothic behemoth, is the city’s crowning jewel; stop by sweet-treat-selling Santa Clara Convent, or amble through La Portella, the mediaeval city entrance and the hotel’s eponym. Uncover chic boutiques, secluded courtyards and independent art galleries along honey-hued streets, or weave past bag-wielding shoppers on designer-dotted Passeig del Born. And to cool off, head to Can Pere Antoni Beach or the boat-flecked harbour for a dip or a sea-breeze-kissed stroll.
Local restaurants
El Camino is the Balearic outpost from the brains behind London-loved Barrafina. Take a front-row seat at the long convivial counter: you’ll fall as hard for the tapas of ruby red prawns, lime-green leeks and courgette flowers as you will the cool chefs whipping them up. The plant-based plates at Restaurant Botànic will impress the most fervent omnivores (and if you really can’t forgo it, local meat and fish star in a handful of dishes). You might head to tucked-away Tast Club for their talk-of-the-town tortillas, but the rest of the menu is just as praise-worthy.
Local cafés
Make for a sun-dappled table at Mistral Coffee House, where days start very well with saccharine baked goods and Palma-roasted beans. Fuel up with caffeine, cardamom and cinnamon at Fika Farina, a hole-in-the-wall bakery specialising in Swedish-style buns.
Local bars
Bottles line the stripped-back walls at natural-wine-pouring Bar La Sang, where you can tuck into light bites as you sniff, swirl and sip. If you like what you’ve tried, the bar doubles as a bottle shop too. Classic cocktail spot Bar Nicolás shakes up sours, margaritas and martinis; bat your eyelashes at the mixologists across the bar, or take your tipple out to the terrace.
Every hotel featured is visited personally by members of our team, given the Smith seal of approval, and then anonymously reviewed. As soon as our reviewers have returned from this elegantly understated hotel in Mallorca and unpacked their boutique buys and fluffy ensaimadas, a full account of their Balearic break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Portella in Palma…
If you find yourself sighing ‘home, sweet home’ before you’ve set your bags down at Portella, don’t be surprised. There’s a distinctly familial feel – from its boutique spec to personal touches such as chef Miguel asking what you fancy for dinner. This homey Old Town stay is yours to soak up at your leisure, whether it’s admiring the panoramic Palma views from the rooftop terrace, relishing a lie-in breakfast (eggs cooked to order, natch), or dining en familia in the intimate salon.
A top-notch basecamp for Old Town forays, Portella also delivers on hotel frills: a thoughtful concierge is on hand to advise on days out, best beaches and dinner reservations. Original 17th-century features paired with bespoke furnishings and hand-blown glasswork by artisans at just-next-door Gordiola bring design kudos, and a modest gym and hammam confirm that this is no ordinary townhouse retreat. Turns out there’s no place like home, nor Portella.
