Among the most beautiful drive in Spain — the MA-10 mountain road that traces the entire northwest coast of Mallorca through the Serra de Tramuntana, connecting Andratx in the south to Pollença in the north through Valldemossa, Deià, Sóller, Lluc, and Formentor in a 90-kilometer sequence of hairpin bends, cliff-face lookouts, and medieval villages that constitutes Europe's finest extended coastal mountain drive.
Why It’s Worth Your Time
The MA-10 was built in the 1930s to connect the Tramuntana villages that had previously been accessible only by mountain path — a road engineering achievement whose hairpin bends, cliff-hugging ledges, and tunnel sections reflect the genuine difficulty of cutting a paved surface into near-vertical limestone faces. The drive from Andratx to Pollença (90km) takes 3–4 hours with stops, which is the only way to do it: stopping at the Torres des Verger watchtower (16th century, views of Sa Dragonera island), descending to Valldemossa (Chopin's winter, the island's most visited town, worth arriving before 10am), continuing through Deià (an unavoidable stop — park at the village entrance and walk in), descending to Sóller (train and tram to the port, orange-grove valley), then the spectacular section north of Sóller toward Sa Calobra (where a side road of 800 hairpin bends descends to the Torrent de Pareis gorge), past the Lluc Monastery, and ending at Cap de Formentor. In June–September, a shuttle bus from Port de Pollença replaces private cars on the Formentor road (parking restrictions from 10am–8pm) — plan accordingly.
What Stands Out
- Most beautiful drive in Spain — the European standard for coastal mountain road beauty
- Valldemossa: Chopin's winter of 1838–39, the most visited village in Mallorca — arrive before 10am
- Deià: Robert Graves' village and the most concentrated artistic community in the Balearics
- Sa Calobra detour: 800 hairpins descending to the Torrent de Pareis gorge — the most spectacular single detour on the drive
- Cap de Formentor: the lighthouse at the island's northern tip, shuttle bus from Port de Pollença in summer