Mallorca resort strip east of Palma, running along a broad sandy beach between former fishing villages.
Playa de Palma is a 3 km stretch of sandy beach running between the former fishing villages of Ca'n Pastilla and S'Arenal, a few kilometres east of Palma. Since the 1960s it has become one of the busiest resort strips in the Balearics, drawing a predominantly German-speaking crowd and earning a reputation for raucous nightlife. The beach itself is wide, clean, and well-equipped.
The seafront promenade — the Paseo Marítimo — is lined with bars, restaurants, and the odd surviving reminder of the fishing village origins. The water is calm and shallow, making it good for families with young children. At the Ca'n Pastilla end, the Palma Aquarium is worth an afternoon. The Club Nàutic S'Arenal at the southern end offers sailing and water sports for those wanting more than sunbathing.
If you are after solitude or culture, this is not the place; if you want easy beach access with reliable sun and cold beer within minutes of the airport, it delivers.
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Bars and Cafes
Playa de Palma has one of the liveliest bar strips in Mallorca, centred on the stretch known informally as the Bierkönig area — a dense cluster of open-air bars and nightclubs running along the promenade that fills up every night in summer and does not empty until the early hours. The atmosphere is rowdy and predominantly German-speaking; if you are after something quieter, avoid this section of the strip after dark.
Ca'n Pastilla at the northern end is a few degrees calmer, with beach bars and cafes that attract a slightly older crowd. The airport end of the strip also has several bars where you can watch planes making low approaches over the sea — an unexpectedly entertaining spectacle.
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Beaches
The beach is the reason people come, and it delivers. Three kilometres of pale sand runs in an almost unbroken arc from Ca'n Pastilla in the west to S'Arenal in the east, backed by the promenade and a line of sun-lounger concessions. The water is generally calm and shallow close to shore, which makes it popular with families.
The beach is cleaned and raked daily during the season and holds Blue Flag status. It gets very busy in July and August — arriving before 10am is the only reliable way to secure a spot without a pre-booked lounger. The far ends of the strip, particularly towards Ca'n Pastilla, tend to be quieter than the central sections.
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Eating Out
The promenade is dense with restaurants, most of them catering to the German market with hearty German food and local Mallorcan standards. Quality varies, but several places serve genuine island cooking among the tourist fare. Look for restaurants slightly set back from the first row of promenade tables — they tend to offer better value and fewer hard-sell tactics from the door.
Mallorcan staples worth ordering wherever you see them: pa amb oli (bread rubbed with tomato and olive oil), frit mallorquí (a pan-fry of offal and vegetables), and any fresh fish from the local catch. The S'Arenal end of the strip has a cluster of restaurants near the marina with better-than-average seafood.
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Getting There
Playa de Palma has the unusual advantage of being about ten minutes from Palma de Mallorca Airport by taxi or bus — one of the closest beach resorts to any major airport in Europe. The airport is at the Ca'n Pastilla end of the strip, and planes land almost directly overhead.
Bus line 15 connects the resort to Palma city centre, running frequently during the summer months. The journey takes about 30 minutes depending on traffic. Taxis from central Palma cost around €20–25. Many visitors arrive on charter flights directly into the airport and take a hotel transfer, never setting foot in Palma city itself.