Palma
Palma de Mallorca is a city on the island of Mallorca, one of the Balearic Islands off the Spanish east coast.
Palma de Mallorca, the capital of the Balearic Islands, is the largest city in Mallorca; the population of the Palma municipality was approximately 380,000 at the beginning of 2004. Half the population of Mallorca lives in the city of Palma.
The city occupies the north western end of a bay in the south west of the island of Mallorca. The city council also has jurisdiction over the sub-archipelago of Cabrera including the islands of Cabrera, Conejera, Estells, Imperial, Rodon, Foradada, Plana, and Pobra.
The name Palma dates back to the Roman settlement on the site of the present city, although the area was originally settled during the Bronze Age. In the early middle ages it was invaded by Arabs, who named it Madina Mayurqa. In 1229 it was conquered by King Jaime I, ruler of Valencia and Aragon, and became an important trade city. Attacks by Turkish pirates in the 17th century led to a century long decline, finishing when Charles III opened trading with the Indies.
The city became a tourist destination in the 1950s, and tourist numbers have continually increased in the subsequent half century.
Palma's city airport (IATA: PMI) is the major airport in Mallorca, and has daily flights from many European cities on national and budget carriers. The airport is managed by Aeropuertos Españoles y Navegación Aérea [2].
PMI is only 9 kilometres from the center of Palma. EMT's Line 1 bus service runs between the sea port, the city centre and the airport every fifteen minutes between 6:15am and 2:30am, and the fare is €1.85.
TIB [3] runs train services between Mallorcan towns.
Travelers can only drive to Palma from other cities in Mallorca; there are no bridges or any road links to other islands or to the mainland. Most cities and towns in Mallorca have road links directly to Palma. There are several companies in Majorca that offer transfer facilities from the airport to any destination on the island. Balearic transfer services [4] is one of these companies.
EMT [5] (ph. 971 43 10 24) runs the local bus service in Palma. Regional buses to destinations around the island are operated mainly by TIB (Transport de les Iles Balears [6]). All EMT buses are equipped with onboard screens and loudspeakers that state the current and next stop, in both Spanish and Mallorquin languages. EMT's line number 1 will take you from the airport through Palma downtown and to the outer dock of the main Palma harbour (where often some visiting cruise ships are berthed). Arrivals/departures every 15 minutes from 6:15AM through 02:15AM. The fare is €1.85 (appr. $2.36) as of 2008. There is only one fare, so you don't need to specify your destination to the driver/conductor!
Any number of cruise ships berth at Palma, and there are also a number of ferry services to other Balaeric Islands and to the Iberian peninsula:
Buses are the only form of shared public transport in Palma de Mallorca. The local buses are run by Empresa Municipal de Transports Urbans de Palma de Mallorca (EMT) and are very frequent. They have particularly good coverage of the beaches and the center of the city. Timetables and fares are available from the city council [10].
The Palma City Sightseeing bus (which is numbered line 50 on the EMT bus maps) does a circuit of Palma that includes tourist attractions like Pueblo Español and major shopping centres like Av.
