Note: This is a spon­sored post, how­ever I am the author of the arti­cle and the infor­ma­tion was obtained dur­ing  sev­eral vis­its I have done to each of the islands in the recent past.

Spain has been one of the most vis­ited coun­tries in the world for many years, but dur­ing the sum­mer months there are two islands that recieve more tourists than any other place in the coun­try: Mal­lorca (Majorca in Cat­alon­ian) and Tenerife.

Mal­lorca is the biggest of the Balearic Islands, located in the Mediter­ranean Sea about 30 min­utes by air from Valen­cia. The island boasts excel­lent beaches and plenty of attrac­tions that suit all kinds of enter­tain­ment needs: from iso­lated coves with pris­tine waters to wild night par­ties that last till well after dawn. Throw in nat­ural attrac­tions and exquis­ite gas­tron­omy and you have all you need to spend a great time. So where do you start?

Palma de Mal­lorca is the cap­i­tal city of the Balearic Islands, and the largest in Mal­lorca island as well. It is here that your plane or ferry will arrive and you will find the most rel­e­vant architech­ture, like the Palma Cathe­dral or the Cas­tle of Bel­lver. Both of them date back to the 1300s and are located in unique loca­tions excel­lent for walk­ing and tak­ing pic­tures. Near the cathe­dral you will also find many restau­rants where you can enjoy some of the unique flavours this part of Spain offers: make sure you try bread with sobrasada (a spread orig­i­nally cre­ated in this part of the world that derives from minced pig meat mixed with sev­eral spices) and ensaimadas ( a deli­cious pas­try that can have dif­fer­ent add-ons and be up to 70 cm wide or more!).

Once you get antsy and feel like explor­ing the island don’t hold back: rent a car and drive the stun­ning north west coast from Alcu­dia to Andratx, visit the quaint towns of Deia and Valldemossa in the moun­tains or visit the Drach Caves near Porto Cristo which fea­ture and under­ground river you can nav­i­gate along. At the north­ern tip of the island Cap For­men­tor offers spec­tac­u­lar views par­tic­u­larly dur­ing sun­set, and the Monastery at Lluc will set your soul in peace.

But hey, you’re in Mal­lorca after all, and you have to expe­ri­ence its nightlife! Ibiza might be the cap­i­tal party island of the world, but Mal­lorca isn’t too far behind with huge clubs that will keep you danc­ing all night. There’s plenty of bars too and again a sucu­lent din­ner right before will set you in the right mood. Once you have seen most of what Mal­lorca has to offer it will be the moment to find the beach of your choice (crowded or secluded), sit back and bake in the sun while gaz­ing at the turquoise waters think­ing that your hol­i­days to Majorca have every­thing you expected and more. Many peo­ple from Ger­many and the UK not only spend their hol­i­days here but now call Mal­lorca their home– there has to be some­thing going on!

Cala Bur­git in Mallorca

Fur­ther south the Canary Islands are Spain’s most dis­tant land mass. The two and a half hour flight from Madrid will take you to a group of vol­canic islands located about 1500 km off the west coast of Africa, of which Tener­ife is the largest and the most vis­ited. Tener­ife is a mostly arid island because of its vol­canic nature (only the north­ern tip can be par­tic­u­larly rainy) yet tourists flock en masse here every year. Why? The cli­mate is mild through­out the year (an aver­age of about 25 degrees Cel­sius), flights are very cheap to air­ports in Spain, France, Ger­many and the UK and prices remain cheap to fair most of the time.

Most tourists enjoy all inclu­sive Tener­ife hol­i­days because of com­fort, sim­plic­ity and value. There are hotels and resorts for every kind of taste though most are sit­u­ated in the south­ern part of the island because it tends to be sun­nier and it is here that the best beaches are located. Most of them have black sand and the water is cool (cold­ish?) most time of the year because of the cur­rents that dom­i­nate these waters. Surf­ing is a big sport in the island, as is wind­surf­ing in beaches like El Medano or El Pozo: you will not want to spend your hol­i­days in these two towns unless you are a wind­surfer or kitesurfer because gale force winds are per­sis­tant though­out the year.

The most pop­u­lar attrac­tion in Tener­ife is El Teide, an extinct vol­cano that at 3,718 m it is also Spain’s high­est moun­tain. Snow can be seen dur­ing most months of the year at the top, reach­able by a cable car that has its base at an alti­tude of 2,365 m. The road that leads to it is quite spec­tac­u­lar, begin­ning at sea level, then cross­ing an area with dense for­rests only to reach an almost-lunar land­scape above the clouds shortly after. Again on a clear day pic­tures can be mag­nif­i­cent! All hotels offer this trip as an option, so no plan­ning is needed.

Tener­ife also has an endemic cui­sine you must try, includ­ing papas con mojo picon (baked pota­toes with a spicy local sauce) or conejo al ajillo (roasted rabit with gar­lic). These del­i­ca­cies are best enjoyed in Guach­inches, fam­ily busi­nesses run in pri­vate homes scat­terred all over the island. It can be a way of min­gling with the locals and if you pay atten­tion you’ll see that the Span­ish spo­ken here has a dis­tinct accent from that spo­ken in main­land Spain, it being closer per­haps to that of South Amer­ica. You will need a car to reach them, but the good news is that the prices are very fair. Again some hotels might be able to orga­nize these trips!

If you’re a night owl don’t worry because most hotels have their own clubs, dis­cos and night shows, so why spend more money if you don’t need to? How­ever if you want to explore other places on your own there is no short­age of night bars either. These will always have plenty of British and Ger­man vaca­tion­ers who dis­cov­ered that these islands are a short flight from their home a long time ago and have it all wired.

Spain’s cul­tural her­itage is world known and sought after by vaca­tion­ers, with cities like Madrid, Barcelona, Toledo,or Valen­cia receiv­ing mil­lions of tourists each year, yet many peo­ple are well aware of the islands and make these their hol­i­day des­ti­na­tion of choice. The ques­tion is: which will you visit first?

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