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Why Deià is the jewel in Mallorca's crown

Hip Mallorca: Cala Deià, overlooked by the popular Ca’s Patro March restaurant, which featured in The Night Manager: Shutterstock
Hip Mallorca: Cala Deià, overlooked by the popular Ca’s Patro March restaurant, which featured in The Night Manager: Shutterstock

Mallorca’s Tramuntana mountain range is said by some to boast a healing, magnetic field that draws creative types to Deià, on the north-west coast. However, one person who probably couldn’t wait to get away was the taxi driver from Palma who tried to get our 12-seater minibus up its bends during a deluge. In the dark. It was the kind of arrival that could give a visitor cold feet about a place.

But I soon warmed up after I crossed the threshold of S’era. The six-bedroom finca is in the exclusive area of Ca L’Abat, high above Deià, perched among terraces filled with olive trees and the occasional donkey. Opening the shutters of my room the following morning I was greeted with the heart-lifting bright blue of the sky and pool, the sun’s rays bouncing off the terraces as I looked towards the sea.

S’era’s lofty location means popping down to the shops is a bit of a trek. And in surroundings such as these — the villa strikes the perfect balance between interiors magazine elegance and homely comfort — it would be easy to stay holed up enjoying the privacy that makes this neighbourhood a haven for the rich and famous.

Rental agency Charles Marlow, which looks after many luxury properties in the Deià area, offers visitors advice about the best places to go — or the best ways to stay in. We opted for in-house entertainment, settling down to a three-course feast prepared and served by an in-villa catering service. A yoga class and a knot-busting massage provided by visiting spa therapists the next morning reinvigorated us after a little too much of the moreish Mallorcan wine.

But the lure of Deià itself is too strong to resist. Its pretty sand-coloured stone houses with their green shutters cling to the mountainside and a stream tumbles down to Cala Deià, the rocky cove where the poet Robert Graves swam in the sea daily (his house in the village is now a museum) and families and revellers gather in the summer, walking or hitchhiking back up to the village.

In August, Deià becomes party central, with the sound of celebrations echoing up to the houses higher on the hillside until 6am — the town’s two taxi drivers are kept insanely busy with a population that swells from 850 to several thousand. These are upmarket parties, though — the Belmond La Residencia hotel, once owned by Sir Richard Branson, has long been a favourite destination of royalty as well as screen, fashion and music stars, from Princess Diana to Robbie Williams. Meanwhile, A-lister Michael Douglas has an estate between Deia and Valldemossa, to the south.

(Rex Features)
(Rex Features)

The summer celebrity crowd rubs along with the all-year population, nowhere more so than at the Sa Fonda bar. It serves as a village hub, dishing out live music — on the night I visited, a jazz band featuring a tuba player and a tap dancer went down a storm. The friendly, multinational crowd mostly seemed to be artists, writers, musicians, yoga teachers and therapists — or a combination thereof. The area has attracted artistic types for decades — centuries, if you include Chopin and George Sand. Some, like artist David Templeton, originally from Nottinghamshire, first came here in the Seventies and ended up making it their home. Templeton and fellow Brit Arturo (“Arthur in London”) Rhodes are full of tales about the residents and regulars, past and present. Rhodes produces surreal and witty paintings and settled in Mallorca after working as an illustrator in Japan and a cartoonist for the New York Times.

Many local artists open their studios to visitors and some offer workshops. Ceramicist Maria de Haan upped sticks from London to set up her studio in Deià. She smoke-fires her pots, in which found items such as seaweed, leaves and pine cones are packed, to leave unique markings as they burn in the kiln. Maria offers patient, friendly lessons at the potter’s wheel on the terrace of her townhouse. Surrounded by orange trees and looking out across the village cradled by the mountains, it’s impossible not to feel inspired. Even if the clay has its own ideas.

There’s plenty of art on show in local restaurants too. Xelini offers tapas, live music and a bustling atmosphere, Cafe Es Punt has pizzas and Es Raco d’es Teix boasts a Michelin star. Fans of last year’s hit TV thriller The Night Manager should book in advance for the chance to bag a table at Ca’s Patro March at Cala Deià, scene of the fake kidnapping of Richard Roper’s son.

But it’s not just art fans and foodies who flock to Deià. The area’s rocky landscape and spectacular views draw hikers, and the twists and inclines of the coastal road challenge keen cyclists (as well as the patience of the drivers behind them).

If you want party Deià go now, or wait until September for a more peaceful break. Whenever you go, you’ll wonder how you resisted the lure of those mountains for so long.

Details

BA, easyJet, Monarch, Jet2, Norwegian and Ryanair fly from London to Palma. Rental rates at S’era (charlesmarlow.com/rentals) €15,000 a week in September. Ceramics workshops (mariadehaan.com), €75 for half a day. Yoga and massage (spaathomemallorca.com) €55 an hour.