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 (EUR259.27), via openexchangerates.org, using today’s exchange rate.
It’s been a while since James I and his troops conquered ‘Medina Mayurqa’, but their Moorish legacy remains hidden in the nooks of Puro Grand Hotel and shows no signs of leaving any time soon. The hotel’s architects unearthed a bounty of beams, some inscribed with 12th-century Arabian messages and others with the royal family’s crest (replicating those found in nearby La Seu Cathedral). But it’s Catalan designer Làzaro Rosa-Violàn who’s brought the beams (and more) to life in these 16 minimalist rooms, the grand arched restaurant and laid-back living space. Throw in terracotta exteriors, hand-woven rugs and a lantern-lined staircase and Puro feels right at home in Palma’s chronicled Old Town.
Noon. Check-in, 3pm. Both are flexible, subject to availability.
Prices
Double rooms from £244.24 (€285), 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-in.
More details
Rates include an à la carte breakfast.
Also
There’s a lift that services all floors, and one of the rooms has been adapted with a wheelchair-friendly shower for those with limited mobility.
At the hotel
Courtyard, communal living room, free WiFi throughout. In rooms: TV, Nespresso coffee machine, tea-making kit, minibar, free bottled water, and Seaskin Life bath products.
Our favourite rooms
Room 11 (one of the Essence suites) is where you’ll find the wealth of ancient Arabic engravings, but all rooms at Puro Grand Hotel have hints of these original features, warmed with gentle lighting, woven-locally tapestries and neutral tones.
Spa
There’s no spa onsite, but a few minutes’ walk away is Puro’s sister hotel, Palacio Can Marqués, and you’re more than welcome to bask in the delights of its holistic spa. Masseurs use natural Seaskin Life oils for facials, aromatherapy massages, detoxifying body wraps, and ayurvedic treatments based on the sun, moon and earth. If you’d rather stay put, in-room facials can be arranged.
Packing tips
History buffs need not bring anything but their passion; for the rest of you, a willingness to learn and a love for design.
Also
The Puro group also has two beach clubs (Purobeach Palma and Illetas) that are both a 20-minute drive away.
All ages are welcome. There’s no kids’ club or crèche but babysitting can be arranged for around €90 a day (subject to change).
Sustainability efforts
Environmentally friendly products replace single-use items wherever possible, meals are made from locally sourced ingredients, water waste is minimised with a regeneration system, in-room sensors control air-conditioning and heating, and the hotel encourages you to fly direct where possible to cut air miles.
Among the courtyard’s olive trees, where romance is ripe.
Dress Code
Don any designer dresses you’ve picked up along Passeig del Born.
Hotel restaurant
Where red booths line tapestried walls and pendants swing from arched entries, you’ll find chef Leon Altamiro hard at work helming Beatnik Restaurant’s open kitchen. Menus are Mediterranean-based with a Latin American and Asian-fusion twist, and if you’re struggling to conceptualise the three together, let us help. Sharing plates include lightly battered prawns with a side of spicy Japanese mayo, tuna sashimi flatbreads with truffle oil, and falafel or pulled pork tortillas dished up with homemade guacamole. There’s also a Neapolitan-style pizza oven for those craving something a little simpler.
Hotel bar
Beatnik’s bar is attached to the restaurant, but during the summer cocktails are usually taken out to the courtyard.
Last orders
Breakfast is served daily from 8am till noon; lunch is noon to 2pm, and dinner is 7pm to 10pm. At weekends, brunch starts at 11am.
Room service
Dishes can be delivered to your door, round-the-clock.
Puro Grand Hotel is in La Lonja, a district in Palma’s Old Town, along Carrer de Montenegro.
Planes
Palma Airport is a 20-minute drive along the coast; the team can arrange transfers for up to three people (€70 each way).
Trains
The closest train station, Estació Intermodal, is a 10-minute drive from the hotel, and private transfers can be organised for around €15.
Automobiles
The hotel has a batch of electric bikes that are free to borrow, and Palma’s public transport system is well-established. But, if you do decide to rent a set of wheels, there’s valet parking a few minutes away for €40 a night.
Other
Ferries make their way round the Balearics and dock into Palma’s port, which is a 15-minute drive from the hotel.
Worth getting out of bed for
There are plenty of places to wander in Palma’s Old Town. Keep the history class going by heading to the Gothic La Seu Cathedral and roaming the cobblestone streets of the ancient Arabic quarter to the Palace of the Almudaina, once home to the city’s Moorish rulers. The garden-enclosed Arab Bath House also isn’t far. Shopping fiends need look no further than the designer boutiques that line Passeig del Born and beach bums can sip sangrias by the waves at Purobeach Palma or Purobeach Illetas, both a 20-minute drive from the hotel. There are plenty of tapas bars and food markets (Mercado 1930 is a fan favourite) for the gourmands, and the hotel can arrange a tour around Treurer Finca, one of the region’s famed olive-oil farms, that includes an oil and wine tasting. Otherwise, Puro has electric bikes that are free to borrow, so pedal where you please.
Local restaurants
Set in the Plaza de la Reina, a two-minute walk away, Ombu has you covered for tapas and cocktails. For a menu filled with modern Med classics (fried courgette flowers topped with goat’s cheese, salted cod fritters, grilled octopus with homemade mojo rojo…) and perfect wine pairings, El Camino has you covered. Or, if you’d rather a casual beachside bite, head to Assaona.
Local cafés
Set within its namesake shop, Café Rialto cooks up daily changing dishes for breakfast and lunch, all made with locally sourced ingredients and paired with fresh smoothies and hand-pressed coffee. During the afternoon and into the early evening, it also has a wine list with bottles from the family’s vineyards.
Local bars
Inspired by New Orleans’ famed blues bars and topped by a glass ceiling made of 3,000 vintage bottles, Brassclub serves custom cocktails and salty snacks in a sultry setting along Palma’s bustling Passeig de Mallorca.
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 historic hotel in Mallorca and unpacked their freshly pressed olive oils and handcrafted ceramics, a full account of their Balearic break will be with you. In the meantime, to whet your wanderlust, here's a quick peek inside Puro Grand Hotel in Palma…
Perhaps not glaringly obvious at first glance, but once you spy the Arabian inscriptions and carved-for-a-king crests that hide in the walls of this historic hotel, Puro Grand Hotel’s central position in Palma’s Old Town begins to make perfect sense. Interiors are a carefully considered game here; rooms blend Mallorcan blues and Middle Eastern golds with a dose of modern comfort, the restaurant’s sandstone arches pay tribute to the bygone Byzantines and a splash of the island’s botanics brighten the terracotta-toned courtyard. So, be sure to look beyond the minimalist design and mood lights, for there’s more than meets the eye.
