Posted by Arriving by plane to Mallorca
There are many flights to Mallorca from Germany, Austria and Switzerland. Hardly any other destination can be booked as easily, is as cheap and is flown to as frequently as Palma de Mallorca. The island is mainly served by charter airlines. You can usually find a one-way flight for under 100 euros or a round-trip flight for under 200 euros.
In winter there are significantly fewer flights, but still more than enough. You can book online or at any travel agency. Flights are almost always a little cheaper online these days than at a travel agency. There is only one commercial airport in Mallorca. The huge airport handles around 31 million passengers per year (as of 2025). Almost 500 aircraft take off and land at the Palma de Mallorca airport every day on average, and there are significantly more flights during the season.
The location of the airport is ideal for Ballermann holidaymakers and visitors to the capital Palma. These two places are less than 10 km away. Many buses run to and from the airport. Line 1 runs from the airport via Palma city center to the port. Buses run in summer from around 5:30 a.m. to 1:50 a.m. (in winter from 6 a.m. to 1 a.m.) approximately every 15 minutes in both directions. In the city, you can change to trains, subways and other buses at Plaça d’Espanya. A single bus ride to and from the airport costs just 5 euros. Bus tickets are generally inexpensive in Mallorca. The bus stops several times at the large airport. The airport has an area of over 6 square kilometers.
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Arrival by ferry to Mallorca
Only a few people travel to Mallorca by ferry from Central Europe; most fly. The best ferry port if you are coming from Germany, Switzerland or France is Barcelona. There are also ferries from some places further south on the Spanish Mediterranean coast (Valencia, Denia). In Mallorca, almost all ferries from the mainland dock in the capital, Palma. A few also dock in Alcudia, in the northeast of Mallorca. Ferries from Barcelona to Palma take 8 hours. Almost all of them travel overnight. They typically leave Barcelona at 11 p.m. and arrive in Palma between 7 and 8 a.m. The price for a one-way deck passage is around 45-65 euros. Cabins are considerably more expensive. All of these ferries are car ferries and can be booked in advance from Germany at most travel agencies. If you are traveling by car, you should definitely arrive 2-3 hours before departure to board. The ferry port in Barcelona is very centrally located not far from the famous pedestrian zone, Rambla. It is easy to reach by public transport (underground). In Palma, you can easily reach the city center from the ferry port by city bus (around 2 euros). Be careful: the port of Barcelona is not the best area; we were robbed in the terminal.
Current ferry schedules / booking ferries
You can find current ferry departure times on the good ferry booking website Ferryscanner.com. We recommend buying tickets for ferries in Spain online in advance. Ferries are often full, you often cannot find the right office to buy tickets, there are long queues at the counter, there are language problems.
Of course, there are also several ferries to the other Balearic Islands (Menorca, Ibiza) every day. Most ferries to Ciutadella on Menorca depart from the east of the island (Port de Alcudia). But there are also connections from Palma (mostly to Mahón). You usually travel to Ibiza by boat from Palma. The Balearic ferries are usually quite expensive. You should expect to pay 25-50 euros for a single crossing to Menorca or Ibiza.
There are also fast ferries from the mainland and from Ibiza to Mallorca, especially in the season. These run during the day, are much faster and more expensive.
More information on the websites of the 3 major ferry companies that serve Mallorca:
Trasmediterranea: Lots of ferry connections to the Spanish mainland and other islands
Iscomar: Often has the cheapest tickets on the route from Barcelona to Palma de Mallorca and back. Also ferries to other Balearic islands.
Balearia: Daily ferries to the mainland and to Ibiza.
Train to Barcelona
A train journey from Germany to Barcelona is quite expensive. However, you can sometimes find cheap special offers, especially if you book well in advance. Last year (2025) I managed to book a ticket from Frankfurt to Barcelona for under 150 euros. There are two options. One is to take the ICE or TGV to Paris and then change to Barcelona. The other route is to travel directly south from Strasbourg and change to Barcelona in Avignon, for example. Both options have advantages and disadvantages.
Trains from Germany to France and in the other direction are usually cheaper on the Deutsche Bahn website than on the French railway. Tickets between France and Spain can be bought online from either the French railway (SNCF) or the Spanish railway (RENFE). Both have online tickets. It’s worth comparing, as the prices for the same train are often completely different. You can pay for the tickets with a credit card or sometimes with Paypal. On the way back last year I stopped in Lyon for 2 days. I booked the Barcelona – Lyon ticket for around 60 euros, and the trip from Lyon to Berlin only cost me around 70 euros with a BahnCard 25. Unfortunately, the tickets are not always so cheap. The journey times are not as long as they used to be. There are train connections from Strasbourg to Barcelona with a journey time of well under 10 hours.
See also: Train on Mallorca
Traveling to Barcelona by bus
Buses are often cheaper than the train. The Flixbus coaches from southern Germany to Barcelona cost from around 70 to 90 euros one way. There are various connections from different cities in Germany. Connections from northern Germany are also quite cheap, but of course take longer. The journey time is shortest from Freiburg – the buses take around 15 hours from Freiburg to Barcelona (mostly night journeys).
See also: Buses on Mallorca
Map of Mallorca
