Serra de Tramuntana · 39.79°N 2.81°E
Ninety kilometres of limestone spine between Andratx and Formentor — and an island behind it that rides all twelve months. Ten climbs, four regions, every number sourced and dated.
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01 — The atlas
Numbers first, then what each one actually asks of you. Six in the Tramuntana, four in the flat two thirds of the island nobody writes about. Pick one and the map flies to it.
Every figure on these ten cards is measured against Spain’s 5 m national terrain model — as are 65 more climb-sides across the whole island, with the method and the exclusions, in the full atlas.
The figures in the hero, sourced: Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (AEMET) · Viquipèdia — «Serra de Tramuntana» · Viquipèdia — «Base militar del Puig Major» · Consell de Mallorca — Serra de Tramuntana Patrimoni Mundial. The 312’s climbing and the peak riding months are our own records. Puig Major is published at its modern height: most guides still give 1,445 m, which was the summit before 9 metres of it were blasted away for the radar station. Our own reading of Spain’s 5 m terrain model at the top is 1,438 m.
02 — When to ride
Palma’s mean daily high runs from 15.2 °C in January to 31.3 °C in August, and October is both warmer than May and the wettest month of the year. The bars are our judgement of riding conditions; the temperatures are AEMET’s.
Source Agencia Estatal de Meteorología (AEMET) · checked 6 August 2026AEMET publishes the station at 5 m altitude, 39° 33′ 39″ N 2° 44′ 12″ E. The airport sits on the plain: the Tramuntana valleys run cooler and the summits several degrees cooler again, so these are the island’s baseline rather than the temperature on a climb.
Three things that are true about riding here in July and August, each of them checkable. None of them is a claim about how the heat feels — each is a number with a source attached.
August averages a daily maximum of 31.3 °C at Palma airport against 19.8 °C in April, so the heat is a question of when you start rather than whether you ride. It is also the driest month of the year: 5 mm of rain in July.
The road to the lighthouse is closed to unauthorised cars 15 May to 18 October 2026, 10:00 to at most 22:00 — and bicycles are one of the exemptions the DGT lists, alongside the shuttle bus and pedestrians. The restriction covers exactly the months everyone calls unrideable.
Our highest measured road summit in the Serra is 873 m (Puig Major); across the whole rest of the island it is 540 m, Santuari de Cura from Randa, and 23 of our published climb-sides are out there. Lower is not cooler by itself — but it is less climbing for the same day.
Source Boletín Oficial del Estado (BOE-A-2026-1255) · checked 7 August 2026The Formentor window is the DGT’s, which runs three days longer than the Consell de Mallorca’s. Altitudes are this site’s own measurements; temperatures are AEMET’s 1981–2010 normals for Palma airport.
03 — The flat island
The Serra de Tramuntana comarca is 22.8% of the island — 830 km² of 3,635, measured off the comarca boundaries. The rest is the plain, the wetlands and the southern cliffs, and it holds two natural parks and the oldest surviving market on the island.
A parc natural since 2017, and most of it is water: 3,768.26 hectares in total, of which 1,441.06 are land. The salt pans behind the beach are still worked.
A natural park since 1988 and still the largest wetland in the Balearics at 2,036.23 hectares — 303 bird species have been recorded in it.
Sineu has held its market on a Wednesday since Jaume II granted it in 1306, and it is still the only one on the island trading live animals. The whole comarca holds four of the 75 published climb-sides — the biggest, Santuari de Cura, gains 251 m.
The Ma-6014 runs out to a lighthouse first lit in 1863, its beam 95 m above the sea on a 12 m tower — which puts the cliff under it at about 83 m.
“Region”, “Best” and “Terrain” are our own descriptions. Every figure in the lines above is sourced or measured. Sourced from: Govern de les Illes Balears — Espais naturals protegits (Es Trenc & the salt pans) · Ley 2/2017, de 27 de junio, de declaración del Parque Natural Marítimo-Terrestre Es Trenc-Salobrar de Campos (BOE-A-2017-10493) · Govern de les Illes Balears — Espais naturals protegits (S’Albufera & the northern flats) · Mercat de Sineu · Ports de Balears — Fars de Balears.
04 — Bases
Mallorca is not one cycling destination, it is three or four. Pick the base that puts the roads you want inside a morning. On the measurement, Sóller reaches 20 of them and Portocolom reaches 4 — so if the trip is about climbing, that ordering is the answer.
Three climbs start within 1 km of the centre — coll de la Creueta, pas de l'Escala de l'amo en Joan Cerdà and Talaia d'Albercutx. Nine of the island’s 75 published climb-sides are inside 30 km by road, 2,551 m of ascent between them — the biggest of them Coll de Femenia, 485 m over 14.0 km. Ride out to 50 km and it is 23.
Three climbs start within 1 km of the centre — Coll de Sóller, Coll d'en Marquès and Puig Major. Twenty of the island’s 75 published climb-sides are inside 30 km by road, 4,872 m of ascent between them — the biggest of them Puig Major, 848 m over 15.4 km. Ride out to 50 km and it is 53.
Nothing goes up for the first 13.4 km: the nearest climb is coll de la Creueta above Port de Pollença. Twelve of the island’s 75 published climb-sides are inside 30 km by road, 2,798 m of ascent between them — the biggest of them Coll de Femenia, 485 m over 14.0 km. Ride out to 50 km and it is 31.
Nothing goes up for the first 12.5 km: the nearest climb is Castell de Santueri above Felanitx. Four of the island’s 75 published climb-sides are inside 30 km by road, 901 m of ascent between them — the biggest of them Santuari de Sant Salvador, 373 m over 7.3 km. Ride out to 50 km and it is 15.
Compare every base, measured →
Shortest ridable road distance from each town’s OpenStreetMap place node to the foot of every climb-side we have measured, minus the motorways. “Best for” is our own view; the reach figures are not.
Every one of these bases is reached from Palma airport, usually with a bike box in the boot — compare Mallorca car hire.
05 — The map
Bike-friendly hotels, all ten climbs and the roads between them — mountains, plain, east and south on one screen. Nothing loads until you ask it to.
Loads a third-party map from Stay22 only when you click.
06 — Guides
What actually happens after a crash on a Mallorcan climb: the number that works without your network, the four hospitals that take you, how far each one is from every climb on the island measured over the road, and the three things the European and British health cards name as excluded — one of them mountain rescue, on an island whose fire service carried out 349 of them in a year.
Read →Spain's national casualty register puts every accident with victims on a road reference and a kilometre point. Divided by the measured length of each road, the Serra de Tramuntana spine comes out lowest of every road on the island with enough crashes to rank, and the flat Pollença–sa Pobla link comes out highest. Two years, 2,830 accidents, 89 roads measured.
Read →Most riders book a car they never need. The island's trains carry bicycles free of charge, four to a train, all year; the buses carry them by a rule keyed to the shape of the vehicle, and one shape takes none at all. Which of the 32 cycling bases work car-free, read from the operator's own database and the rules in the official gazette.
Read →The 312 on-sale date, a restriction that closes a road to bikes, a rule that changes what you may ride, a pass that reopens. Sent when one of them changes and not on a schedule, because a calendar reminder is not worth an inbox.