The best boutique hotels in Palma: 8 old-town stays

Palma is one of the best small-hotel cities in Europe, and the reason is architecture. The old town is full of casas senyorials — noble houses built around a stone courtyard, with a grand staircase and, if you are lucky, a garden — and over the past decade the best of them have become hotels of fifteen to forty rooms. Eight now hold a MICHELIN Key, and all eight are in this guide.

They are more alike than their websites suggest: a historic house, a courtyard, a rooftop, a small spa. What separates them is the quarter, the size of the house, whether there is a real pool and who they suit. Choose on those four things and you will not go wrong; choose on photographs and you will spend two days comparing courtyards.

The eight boutique hotels in Palma at a glance

Room counts matter more than star ratings here: a fourteen-room house and a sixty-eight-room hotel produce very different stays. Every hotel below is within about a ten-minute walk of the cathedral.

Which quarter of the old town

The old town is small enough to walk end to end in twenty minutes, but its quarters feel different. The streets around the cathedral and La Calatrava, by the sea walls, are the postcard: Es Princep and El Llorenç look over Parc de la Mar and the bay. Sa Llotja and the Born, to the west, are for restaurants, bars and the port; Can Bordoy is here.

The upper old town — Sant Francesc, Canamunt and the streets towards the Plaça Major — is quieter at night and full of noble houses: Can Cera, Sant Francesc and Posada Terra Santa are here, with Convent de la Missió and Nobis a few streets north, near the Plaça Major. If you want evenings on foot with less noise, choose the upper town; if you want the sea in view, choose the walls.

Best for romance and a garden: Can Bordoy

Can Bordoy Grand House & Garden is the hotel people remember. A 16th-century palace near the Llotja has been turned into twenty-four suites of antiques, velvet and stone baths, arranged around a walled garden with old trees and a pool — rare in a city of courtyards. A rooftop terrace faces the cathedral, and Botànic, the first plant-forward restaurant in Palma, serves breakfast in the garden.

It is the most expensive of the old-town houses and it welcomes children, so it is not a hushed adults-only hideaway. Book it for a celebration or a first trip to Palma where the hotel should feel like part of the city's story.

Best intimate house: Can Cera

Can Cera has fourteen rooms in a 17th-century palacete on a quiet street near the Basilica of Sant Francesc, built around a stone courtyard with arches and plants. It holds two MICHELIN Keys — one of only a handful of hotels in Spain to do so — and accepts guests from 14.

There is no pool: the spa, with sauna and hot tub, is booked for private use. That makes it the best house in Palma for two people who want to feel they are staying in a home, and the wrong one for a family or anyone who wants to swim in the afternoon.

Best for food: Convent de la Missió

Convent de la Missió turned a 17th-century convent near the Plaça Major into about twenty-seven white, quiet rooms and suites, with the old chapel as a lounge and gallery and a spa under stone vaults. Its restaurant, Marc Fosh, holds a MICHELIN star; Fosh was the first British chef to win one in Spain.

Book the restaurant when you book the room. Booking channels list the hotel as adults only from 16, but its own site does not say so, so confirm the age if it matters to you.

Best for design: Nobis Hotel Palma

Nobis Hotel Palma, on the Carrer de les Caputxines, occupies a palace with roots in the 12th century around two stone courtyards. The Stockholm group behind it and the architects Wingårdhs have made thirty-seven rooms, each a different shape, in stone, wood and linen; a carved ceiling with Arabic calligraphy survives in the reception.

The courtyard bar and NOI, the restaurant, make it the liveliest of these hotels in the evening. Some bathrooms are compact, and there is no pool to speak of; come for the building and the atmosphere.

Best for a sea view: Es Princep

Es Princep is the exception: a contemporary five-star on the Carrer de Bala Roja, by the old sea walls, with sixty-eight rooms, most of them looking over the Bay of Palma. The rooftop infinity pool is the best place to swim in the old town, and Zaranda, Fernando Pérez Arellano's restaurant, holds a MICHELIN star.

What it lacks is the patina of the palaces. Choose it when the view and the facilities matter more than a historic courtyard, and pay for a sea-view room.

Best value: Posada Terra Santa

Posada Terra Santa is a palace built in 1576 in Canamunt, restored by the New York studio Rockwell Group into twenty-six rooms. It has a rooftop pool and solarium over the old-town roofs, a small spa with an indoor pool under stone vaults, and a restaurant beneath a Gothic arch — the full palace experience at rates below the top of the market.

The other two: Sant Francesc and El Llorenç

Sant Francesc Hotel Singular fills a 19th-century neoclassical mansion by the Basilica of Sant Francesc with about forty rooms and a rooftop plunge pool; it is the most polished all-rounder for a first city break. El Llorenç Parc de la Mar, in La Calatrava, has thirty-five rooms, a rooftop pool facing the cathedral and DINS Santi Taura, a MICHELIN-starred tasting menu built on old Balearic recipes; it takes guests from 16.

Above the city: Castillo Hotel Son Vida

If you want Palma without sleeping in it, Castillo Hotel Son Vida is a hilltop castle ten minutes above the city, with the Son Vida golf courses at the gate, big pools and one of the best views of the bay. It is a resort rather than a townhouse, and adults-only from 12.

Car, parking and when to go

You do not need a car in Palma. The airport is fifteen to twenty minutes away by taxi, the old town is largely pedestrian and parking near these hotels is scarce and expensive. Hire a car for the days you leave the city, or collect it on the way to a second base in the mountains or on the coast.

Palma works all year. April to June and September to November are the sweet spot; July and August are hot and busy, when a rooftop pool earns its price. In winter, hotels without a heated pool matter less, and rates drop sharply.

How we selected these hotels

Every hotel is scored on the public Unlisted Index. All eight in this guide hold a MICHELIN Key in the 2026 Spain selection. Room counts, facilities and age policies were checked against official hotel information on 13 September 2026; policies change, so confirm them on the final booking page.

Availability buttons may use affiliate links and can earn The Unlisted a commission without changing your price. Commercial links do not decide inclusion.