A lovely place to stay! (Cala D'or)

Member Name: lyndsey1989

Product:	Cala D'or
Date:	10/08/09 (57 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Peaceful, wonderful views

Disadvantages: 40 miles from Palma-difficult if the buses are not running

Cala D'or is a set of small sub-villages on the southern coast of Majorca (also known as Mallorca). We visited in April after booking a last minute deal. We booked through Thomas Cook and had 7 nights half board at the end of April for around £170 each (not including insurance).

When we booked this holiday we really didn't know what to expect, simply because quite frankly we had no idea where Cala D'or was in relation to the rest of Majorca and primarilly its capital, Palma. Anyway, we soon learnt that Cala D'or is infact basically the other side of the island to Palma. It is about 40 miles away which we found to be around a 1 and a half hour drive.

Cala D'or consists of a number of 'Cala's' (this means coves in Spanish) including Cala Gran, Cala Ferrera, Cala Esmeralda, Cala Serena, Cala Dor and Playa Cala Egos. We stayed in the resort Cala Gran which is in the middle of all of the Cala's and next to Cala D'or itself.

Cala Gran houses the largest beach in Cala D'or but please do bear in mind that in my opinion, it was a very small beach and went a lot further back than it did across! However, towards the end of April we found it never to be busy and usually to just be playing host to around 10 people. There is a lovely hotel overlooking the beach. Cala Gran had a large amount of shops, bars and restaurants and even in April there were a number of things to do in the area. Nightlife was ok and the majority of the bars usually put on some sort of entertainment whilst the hotel itself had something most evenings. There was a lot of English food available in the area and the majority of people spoke good English. Prices were very reasonable. It is worth noting that despite our tour guide giving us a bus timetable, there were no public buses running in April.

Cala D'or marina is certainly worth a visit and I believe you can hire boats from here if you wish. It is around a 15 minute walk from Cala Gran and houses a number of spectacular boats. Michael Schumacher houses his here on occasions.

Cala Fererra was quite run down when we visited however there was still a lot going on and on a couple of occasions I had began to wish we had stayed here ourselves. There was a number of shops, bars and restaurants all open and it was home to a nice beach. There were also a couple of very small fairgrounds for the children.

It is worth noting that if you are self catering then food prices (eg from spar) are quite expensive. For example you can expect to pay around 2euros for a packet of biscuits which have a 69p RRP on them. Therefore I would recommend looking for the local Eroski supermarket as we found prices to be a lot more reasonable there.

A great way to see all of Cala D'or is by using the land train, prices were very reasonable, I think it cost around 3euros each and it was a fun way to see some of the surroundings and a good way to spend the morning.

In April, temperatures were around 20 degrees centigrade and we had very little rain. However, between May and October it gets a lot hotter.

I think Cala D'or was a really nice place to stay on holiday, it was very relaxing and the majority of the locals spoke English which both me and my partner found to be extremely comforting due to it being our first trip abroad. The bays are all fantastic and the island itself plays host to a number of incredible places to visit (to name a couple; the mountains and caves del drach). We both really enjoyed our stay here and I really want to return again...maybe my Dooyoo miles can start to save!

If anyone has any questions please do not hesitate to contact me via dooyoo mail, thanks for reading

Summary: A great resort for both families and couples