Mirabó de Valldemossa

Finca Mirabó was an olive farm in 1503, on the slopes of the Serra de Tramuntana above Valldemossa, and since 1898 it has belonged to one family, who made it a hotel of nine rooms in 2004. The way up is a mountain road and then a private track, to a stone farmhouse under terracotta roofs, green with creeper, with a single palm standing over the chimneys. Inside it is still a farmhouse, only better furnished: beams overhead, shutters in deep window arches, and a fire in a tiled hearth beneath an old map of the world. In one bathroom a freestanding bath stands on hexagonal tiles, with a stone arch through to the basin. The infinity pool, thirteen metres by six, has 300 square metres of terrace and looks out across the valley to Valldemossa.

Recommended for couples, and the hotel says as much: it tries to have only one family with children staying at a time, to keep the place peaceful, and keeps no kids' club to tempt a second. The GR 221 trail across the Tramuntana can be joined from the grounds, on foot or by bike. Valldemossa is two kilometres down the road, for La Cartuja, the Carthusian monastery where Chopin and George Sand spent a winter, and the sea is eight, at the small Marina de Valldemossa. The restaurant cooks for guests only, Mallorcan dishes often from family recipes, and dinner has to be booked by five. Of the two pools, the smaller is the one to find: five metres square, with a terrace of its own, against old stone walls under a fig and a palm. It used to be the farm's pond, and has taken well to the change of use.