Where Alcanada is raw and specific — the peacocks, the lighthouse, the headland above the Alcúdia bay — Son Muntaner is polished and panoramic. José María Olazábal designed the course on a hillside above Palma Bay in 2001, using the natural terrain of the Mallorcan hills behind the city to produce a course with views that extend from the Tramuntana mountains in one direction to the Palma cathedral and the Bay of Palma in the other.
Son Muntaner is private. Members include Mallorcan families, Palma’s professional community, and the international residents who have made the southwest of the island their base. The Sheraton Mallorca Arabella Golf Hotel adjacent to the course provides visitor accommodation and access — the practical solution for the non-member who wants to play the course.
The Mallorca double-leg that this platform has been building toward across the Gem course series: Alcanada in the north (raw, headland, lighthouse, peacocks) and Son Muntaner in the south (polished, hillside, Palma panorama). Two rounds, two entirely different experiences, one island. This is how the Mediterranean golf circuit produces its finest days.
The Alcanada lighthouse from the north, the Palma cathedral from the south, and the Tramuntana mountains on both horizons. The Mallorca double-leg is the finest two-course day in Spain.
The courses: what you are actually playing
Son Muntaner is an 18-hole course, par-71, 6,200 metres from the competition tees. The Olazábal design applies the designer’s characteristic philosophy — courses that reward strategic thinking over power, that present risk-reward options from the tee rather than simply punishing long hitters, that use the natural terrain rather than reshaping it.
The Mallorcan hillside gives Olazábal more to work with than most inland locations would. The elevation changes produce views at every tee position and create approach shots that are visually framed by the bay or the mountains depending on the routing direction. The greens are complex in the Olazábal manner — subtle, with the kind of break that first-time visitors read incorrectly and regular players navigate with earned precision.
The conditioning is at the private club standard that Son Muntaner’s membership expects: consistent, well-maintained, the fairways and greens performing at the quality that justifies the green fee. The Sheraton Arabella hotel’s operational involvement means the course benefits from resort-level infrastructure investment in conditioning.
The hole worth knowing
16th hole par-3: played from an elevated tee with Palma Bay directly behind the green and the Palma cathedral visible on clear days at 20 kilometres. The hole is genuinely beautiful — the combination of the old city, the bay, and the island horizon produces a par-3 backdrop that rivals the Alcanada lighthouse and the Spérone sea-carry for visual significance on this list.
The resort: what families actually need
The Sheraton Mallorca Arabella Golf Hotel is a 4-star property adjacent to the Son Muntaner course with golf packages available to hotel guests. The hotel provides the practical base for a Son Muntaner visit: accommodation, golf access, pool, spa, and the 10-minute drive to Palma’s old town and Palma Bay for the non-golf day.
Palma itself is the non-golf asset that distinguishes Son Muntaner from Alcanada. The Mallorcan capital has genuine cultural depth: the Gothic cathedral (La Seu), the Palau March, the Passeig des Born with its mixture of Modernista architecture and street life, the Es Baluard contemporary art museum. A family that plays Son Muntaner and spends a full day in Palma has experienced two entirely different and separately excellent things.
For families with children: the Son Muntaner-Palma combination provides better non-golf infrastructure than Alcanada’s Port d’Alcúdia base, with the trade-off of slightly higher accommodation prices in the Palma area.
Best time to go
April to June and September to October. The Son Muntaner hillside climate is slightly cooler than the Palma Bay coastal average — welcome in spring and autumn, and more comfortable in the summer than the fully exposed coastal courses. May is peak season for Palma’s cultural calendar and the course’s best conditions simultaneously.
Getting there: the logistics reality
Palma de Mallorca Airport (PMI) is 20 minutes from Son Muntaner — the shortest airport-to-course transfer in the Mallorca double-leg. Year-round excellent European connections from Ryanair, easyJet, Vueling, Iberia, and Jet2. Mallorca is one of the most accessible island destinations in the Mediterranean.
What to wear: the Inesea style edit
Son Muntaner’s visual environment is more polished and more urban than Alcanada — the Palma panorama and the private club atmosphere call for a more restrained register than the expressive Alcanada approach. The MARK & LONA aesthetic or ANEW’s quieter end sits correctly here.
The Son Muntaner dress code is strictly enforced, as befits a private club. Collared tops, tailored bottoms, golf shoes. The overall register: smart golf, not resort golf.
Three pieces worth packing
ANEW polo in stone or warm navy — the Palma Bay panorama responds to these tones.
Peter Millar Bingham trouser in navy or stone — the private club register and the Palma old town evening in one piece.
A MARK & LONA wind gilet — the hillside elevation produces wind even on warm Mallorcan days.
The honest family verdict
Who should book it
Any golfer building the Mallorca double-leg — Son Muntaner plus Alcanada. Families using Palma as a cultural base who want championship golf integrated. Players who want Olazábal’s design intelligence in a Mediterranean private club context.
Who might look elsewhere
Those wanting the most dramatic single-course experience in Spain without travelling between north and south Mallorca. Alcanada alone, with Port d’Alcúdia as the base, is the simpler Mallorca decision.
Official site:
About the author
Diana Suke
Diana Suke is the founder of Inesea and Europe's leading editorial voice on women's golf fashion and culture. A business transformation director by profession, she coordinates junior golf programmes across Malta and travels the Mediterranean circuit with two competitive junior golfers. She came to golf in her mid-thirties and hasn't looked back.
inesea.co