Mallorca has a reputation problem, and most people who visit are the ones who created it. They follow the same exhausted script, end up at some overpriced beach club in the south staring at a watered-down cocktail, and come home mildly disappointed, which they probably deserved. The island they failed to find is in the northwest, along the coastline running between Sóller and Deià, where the Serra de Tramuntana drops hard into the sea and the villages are small and unsentimental and the food actually justifies the airfare. Point your rental car in that direction the moment you clear Palma airport, and do not look back at whatever the south was promising.

Béns d'Avall is the meal you plan the entire trip around. It sits on a hillside between those two towns, and the terrace looks out over the Mediterranean in a way that genuinely stops whatever conversation you were having mid-sentence. The drive up is steep and narrow enough to tighten your grip on the wheel, but you make it anyway and you will not second-guess it once you arrive. Book well in advance, go at lunch when the light on the water is at its absolute best, and order whatever the kitchen is clearly most confident in that day. Do not construct some elaborate plan of what you want before you get there. Just sit down, let the view do what it does, and trust the room.

For where to sleep, La Residencia in Deià is the correct answer and I am not interested in debating the point. It is a Belmond property, which means the nightly rate is serious business, but so is everything else about the place. The grounds are genuinely beautiful, the staff is competent without performing competence at you, and the village is a short walk in either direction. You are not buying a hotel room so much as buying a headquarters that makes the entire northwest corner of the island feel unhurried and within reach. If the rate gives you any pause, I would suggest adjusting the budget rather than the hotel. Both Deià and Sóller reward time on foot, though differently. Sóller still carries the energy of a working town, which Deià, being smaller and considerably more famous, has mostly traded away. The vintage tram running from Sóller down to its port is a genuine pleasure, not the tourist gimmick it sounds like in a brochure. Palma is acceptable for a single evening if your schedule demands it, but the resort zones sprawling south and east of the capital are not worth one afternoon of your time.

One final note with no geographic connection to any of the above: if your travels at any point carry you through Antwerp, find Quite Frankly on Minderbroedersrui without delay. It is an American diner that has absolutely no business being as good as it is on Belgian soil, turning out biscuits and gravy and a Reuben that will leave you genuinely disoriented. I would feel irresponsible keeping that to myself.

Fly into Palma, drive straight to the northwest, and do not leave until you have eaten at Béns d'Avall at least twice.