Llucmajor’s coast: Sa Torre, Cala Blava and S’Arenal

One municipality, three kinds of coast

Llucmajor is Mallorca’s largest municipality, and a large share of its people live by the sea rather than in the old market town. Its shoreline starts at s’Arenal, where Platja de Palma ends, and runs south along the Ma-6014 coast road through a chain of residential estates towards Cap Blanc. The town hall is inland in Llucmajor town, 15 to 20 minutes’ drive away. Our Llucmajor page covers the whole municipality.

The three places in this post lie within a few kilometres of each other but feel very different: a resort town with a long sandy beach, a pair of quiet estates on low cliffs laid out in 1958, and a bigger urbanisation on the high plateau.

s’Arenal: a beach town that never empties

s’Arenal is split by the Torrent des Jueus, a stream that is dry most of the year. The northern part belongs to Palma; the southern part, with the marina and the original village, belongs to Llucmajor. Which side a home is on decides which town hall handles its planning, local taxes and holiday-rental rules.

It is the most complete place on this coast. The Llucmajor side has the Trencadors health centre with a round-the-clock service, state primary and secondary schools, a municipal library, the Club Nàutic s’Arenal marina and a morning market in the Plaça Major from Tuesday to Saturday. Most homes are flats, and much of the town went up as the resort grew from the 1960s onwards.

The trade-off is summer. Platja de Palma is one of the island’s biggest hotel areas, and the party strip around Balneario 6, on the Palma side, draws large crowds in July and August. Visit on a summer night before you commit.

Cala Blava and Bellavista: quiet streets on low cliffs

A few minutes south, past Son Verí Nou, lie Cala Blava and Bellavista, two neighbouring estates planned in 1958. Most plots hold a detached house with a garden, and the seaward streets look across the bay to Palma and the Serra de Tramuntana. The small sandy cove of Cala Mosques, usually just called Cala Blava, is reached by steps. The rest of the shore is rock, and the water lies within the Bay of Palma marine reserve.

There is no village centre and no supermarket in either estate, so daily shopping means Son Verí Nou or s’Arenal. Many houses in Cala Blava are second homes, and the streets are very quiet in winter. The estates have been built up over several decades, so look closely at the condition of older houses. More on our Cala Blava page.

Sa Torre: the larger estate on the plateau

About 7 km further along the coast road, Sa Torre sits on the limestone plateau roughly 100 metres above the sea. With about 3,600 registered residents it is one of the largest estates on this coast. Its housing mixes apartment complexes, terraced houses and detached villas, and it has no old centre.

Its sea edge is a line of cliffs, part of a protected bird area, with viewpoints but no beach. The nearest ways down to the water include the wooden steps at Badia Blava. Supermarkets are in the neighbouring estates, Maioris has a shopping centre and Golf Maioris is next door. Sa Torre has a municipal nursery and a state primary school on its edge, and Badia Gran, just to the south, has a public health unit and a Saturday market.

Airport, buses and aircraft noise

The big draw of this coast is distance. From s’Arenal and the nearer estates, the airport is roughly 15 to 20 minutes by car outside rush hour, and Palma’s old town 25 to 30, mostly on the Ma-19 motorway. TIB bus 504 links the estates and s’Arenal with Palma’s intermodal station, and the A51 airport bus stops in s’Arenal. Beyond s’Arenal, though, a car makes daily life much easier.

Living near an airport has a flip side. Planes are a regular sight over the Bay of Palma, and what you hear depends on exactly where you are and which way the runways are being used that day. Aena’s permanent noise monitors are on the Palma side, at Sant Jordi, Sa Casablanca, Son Gual, Can Pastilla and Coll d’en Rabassa, near the ends of the runways, not in the Llucmajor estates. Even so, spend time at a property at different hours, and look at the official strategic noise maps for the airport published by Spain’s transport ministry.

A railway from Palma via the airport to Llucmajor has been approved, but trains are not expected for several years.

Which one suits whom

• s’Arenal: a flat near a long sandy beach, with shops, schools and a health centre on foot all year, for buyers who can live with a busy summer.
• Cala Blava and Bellavista: a house with a garden on quiet streets by the sea, about 20 minutes from the airport, with a car for errands.
• Sa Torre: newer houses and apartments, cliff-top views and more space, with a car for most things.

Areas in this post

Sa Torre & Son Verí Nou · Cala Blava & Bellavista · s’Arenal · Llucmajor town