Editor’s Review: Son Bunyola, Richard Branson’s Quietly Luxurious Mallorca Hotel

Legend has it that over a century ago, a crew of sailors found themselves shipwrecked off the northwest coast of Mallorca after their ship collided with a fishing boat. Fortunately, the shipwreck wasn’t far from a certain 1,300-acre estate, where the seamen were nursed back to health.

This estate—known as Son Bunyola—still offers rejuvenation, as I discovered during a recent trip to Mallorca. (Though becoming shipwrecked is not a prerequisite to visit.) Nestled in the Tramuntana mountains, a UNESCO World Heritage site, the 26-room luxury property is lined with olive trees—over 7,000 of them—and looks down on the Mediterranean. From the main patio, you can even catch a glimpse of Sa Foradada, the famous rock formation just up the coast. The entire landscape is so cinematic and, at the risk of hyperbole, makes you feel as though you’ve stepped into an alternate reality, where the sun always beams brightly and the water is never anything but perfectly crystalline blue.