Porto Cristo Travel Guide

Porto Cristo is about 67km from Palma, 13km from Manacor, 53km from Alcudia. The caves are about a kilometer away from the city.

By tour
Most visitors use an organized bus tour that usually includes a stop at one of the numerous pearl factories of the Manacor area.

By local bus
From Palma you can take bus#412 but the rides takes about 90minutes, not very convenient you have to plan your visit according to the strict timetable and probably that will be the only place you will visit that day.

There’s a bus at 10.15am and 12.00 (not on Sunday)
From Coves del Drach you can return on weekdays at 16.20 and 17.35. On Sundays you can return at 14.50, 17.35

By car
Driving there by car was very easy for us, we arrived at the caves in about an hour from Palma.
Next to the caves there’s a big (free) parking area. If you want to visit the town of Porto Cristo have in mind that there was a lot of traffic it was not easy to find a free parking space.

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There’s a Caprabo supermarket actually in Porto Cristo - we drove past it on the way back to the airport, whoops - but if you have your own transport then for a much wider selection of stuff, well priced, try the Caprabo Hypermarket at Sa Coma. This supermarket is HUGE. Sa Coma is a resort in the Cala Millor style (ie: not very attractive with tower block hotels) a few kilometres north on the coastal road.

What to buy: This place sells everything you'd need and then some more. I even picked up a set of really chavvie trainers for 10 euro. My mother would be proud!

Every time I’m somewhere Mediterranean I come back with bag loads of stuff that's just so much cheaper than in the UK. This time it was the usual few litres of red table-wine for 96 cents each, balsamic vinegar, then some bottles of more decent, more expensive wine, a Catala cava (at about 10 euros this was a treat) and plenty of chorizo. Oh and some packets to make instant flan. Should keep me going until the next Ryanair trip…

What to pay: We probably spent about 50 euros on food and drink in this place that was actually consumed in Mallorca. And another 50 euro on stuff to take home...

First primitive harbor premises were complete in 1888. Prior th that, the coastal ships moored at the entrance of the Cave del Correu and the goods were transported on floating platforms pulled by ropes. Contruction of the quay was complete only in 1934.
You should zoom the picture to see the cave entrance. The fine sandy beach near the harbor is very clean and sheltered, and you can hire sun-beds and pedals there.
About 10 minutes’ drive away you’ll find Porto Cristo Novo beach – it’s smaller and quieter, in a pretty little cove, but has a sailing school and windsurfing facilities.

Now, my Spanish vocabulary isn’t up to much when it comes to motoring. In fact I’m not up to much when it comes to cars generally, but I must admit that I wasn’t expecting to come home with the Castillian for ‘windscreen wipers’ etched into my brain…

This was the only thing from the trip that left a bitter taste. Actually, that litre of wine for 96 cents did too, however… On the second full day, expecting to be spending the morning having a short drive to a legendary beach - legendary because it was just that, a legend, try as we might we never found it - but I digress… Basically we came out to find our windscreen wipers had gone. Nicked. Tea-leafed, or ‘robado’, as the nice lady at the gasolinera wrote on my receipt for the car-hire people. The hotel didn’t seem at all concerned even though it happened in their car park and I was most displeased.

On the plus side, the people in the gasolinera were so helpful while trying to get the only set that they had in stock onto the front of the car while trying to serve surly locals petrol at the same time, that my faith in humanity was restored (well, as much as it was there in the first place…). In case you’re wondering, new 'limpiaparabrisas' for a SEAT Alhambra cost around 10 euro. Unfortunately we were driving a SEAT Ibiza. Ho hum.

In the 1st century AD the Romans built a port in the area (you can visit the site of a Roman port behind the harbor, a Roman basilica and see the remains of a Roman ship which were found here just a few years ago). Then the settlement was abandoned for 2,000 years. Only in 1877 the Vadell family, proceeding from the neighbor fishing village Porto Colom, settled down in a cave located in the gardens in front of today’s Club Nàutic. Together with the Perlins family they were the first to found the Port of Manacor. On the occasion of the centennial of the foundation of Porto Cristo, in 1998, a bronze plaque, a work of Pere Pujol, was placed there in their memory.

Favorite thing: The main town’s church is only stone throw from the harbor. In 1890 Jorhe San Simón, marquis del Reguer donated the plot where the first chapel was built. The construction of the current church started in 1916 according to plans of father Antoni Maria Alcover. In 1922 the construction of the Neo-Roman church was complete. In 1957 the church was enlarged and completed with the steeple in the same style. Dedicated to the Virgin del Carme, the patroness of fisherman and navigators, it was raised to parish category in 1965.

There is a wonderful view over the sea from the church square.