Hemmed in by the Serra de Tramuntana, the valley of Sóller on Mallorca’s northwest coast was cut off from the island’s other towns, and that isolation made it easier to trade with French merchants arriving by sea. Profits from oranges and lemons later paid for a railway through the mountains to Palma, and in October 1913 a tram began running from the town down to its harbour. On the cliff above that harbour the Jumeirah Group opened its first resort in Europe in 2012. Jumeirah Port Soller, now also called Jumeirah Mallorca, holds weddings on a terrace above the bay and in a ballroom that looks out to sea.
The orange valley and its harbour
The railway still runs. The Ferrocarril de Sóller leaves Palma across the plain, then winds through 13 tunnels in the Tramuntana before it reaches Sóller, where the station was developed from a fortified house of 1606 and now holds a museum of work by Picasso and Joan Miró. Because of the trade that paid for it, the line is sometimes called the Orange Express.
The tram starts outside that station, passes through the main square by the church of Sant Bartomeu and runs for just under five kilometres to the marina at the north end of Port de Sóller. Some of its original 1913 cars are still in service. Only two tramways of that first generation survive in Spain: this one and the Tramvia Blau in Barcelona.
The town shows where the money went. On the main square, the Banco de Sóller occupies a Modernista building of 1912 by the Catalan architect Joan Rubió i Bellver, a follower of Gaudí; the bank was founded in 1889 with the savings of emigrants who had come home prosperous. The houses that returning emigrants built along the Gran Via follow the Art Nouveau styles of France.
The bay is small and almost closed. Its mouth between the two headlands is 450 metres wide, opening to 830 metres inside, and a lighthouse stands on each headland. The one at the western entrance, Cap Gros, was first lit in February 1859. The eastern headland has stayed free of development because the Spanish Army uses it as a training ground.
A resort that steps down the cliff
The resort is made up of eleven buildings spread across 18,000 square metres of clifftop, stepping down the cliffside over nine levels and running for about a kilometre from end to end. Behind them rises the Serra de Tramuntana, a UNESCO World Heritage Site since June 2011, whose highest peak, Puig Major, is at 1,436 metres the highest mountain in the Balearic Islands.
That layout shapes a wedding here. Rather than a run of rooms in one house, the day uses terraces at different heights, each looking over the bay, the port or the mountains. Larger celebrations can take the whole resort, arranged around the date and the number of guests, so the terraces, pool decks and gardens are given over to the wedding party alone.
Vows above the bay
Weddings use two main spaces. The Tramuntana Terrace is an open terrace on top of the sixth floor, with the mountains on one side and the port and the sea on the other. Couples marry there or beside the infinity pool at the top of the hotel, timed for the sun going down over the water.
The Jumeirah Ballroom is the hotel’s largest indoor room, 218 square metres with windows that take in the view from the mountains round to the sea. It works as a ceremony room in its own right and as the indoor alternative to the terrace. Ceremonies take up to around 120 guests, and a seated wedding dinner about 100, served either in the ballroom or out on the terraces of the resort’s restaurants. An evening reception spread across the terraces can grow to around 150.
Three kitchens on the cliff
All the catering is done by the resort’s own kitchens, which cook Mediterranean, Spanish and Mallorcan menus with plenty of seafood from the coast below; outside caterers are not brought in. Each of the three restaurants has a terrace over the water, and wedding dinners can be laid on them as well as in the ballroom.
Cap Roig Brasserie takes its name from the cap roig, a fish of these waters, and serves fish, seafood and rice dishes with views over the mountains, the sea and the port. Es Fanals, at the top of the hotel, cooks Spanish dishes in an open kitchen. Guests reach it by a spiral staircase that winds around a chandelier two floors high, made from the fanals, the lamps fishermen used to attract fish. The Sunset Lounge, a restaurant and bar on top of the main building, has views across 180 degrees and faces the sea where the sun sets, with cocktails served as it goes down.
Where the wedding party sleeps
There are 121 rooms and suites: 81 rooms, 37 suites and three signature suites, sleeping up to about 250 guests between them. Most rooms have a French balcony or a private terrace facing the sea or the mountains, and red marble bathrooms. With the whole party staying on the cliff, guests walk from their rooms to the ceremony and to dinner, and nobody needs a car.
The three signature suites suit a couple and their families. The Lighthouse Suite, for two, has windows that rise from its lower living area up to a vaulted ceiling, and a private terrace with its own garden and jacuzzi. The Observatory Suite, on the eighth floor, covers 157 square metres, with a fireplace, a dining table that seats eight and a service kitchen, room enough for a family dinner the night before. The Mar Blau Villa, the largest, sleeps four and has a spiral staircase down from its balcony to a lower terrace and a small pool of its own.
Talise Spa has eleven treatment rooms, including one for couples, all looking towards the Tramuntana, along with a sauna, a Turkish hammam and a heated outdoor hydropool. The infinity pool at the top of the hotel is kept for guests over 16. The Sa Talaia pool, facing the port, is open to all ages, its blue mosaic chosen to match the colour of the sea at Es Trenc, one of the island’s beaches, which matters for a wedding with children among the guests.
A free day in the valley
A shuttle runs from the resort down to Port de Sóller, and the walk takes about ten minutes. In the port, the 13th century oratory of Santa Caterina now houses the Museu de la Mar, and the Torre Picada, a 16th century watchtower built against pirates and corsairs, still overlooks the whole bay.
From the marina the tram runs back to Sóller by way of the village of Horta, and from there guests can carry on by train over the mountains to Palma. Fornalutx, in the same valley, is a village of stone houses with red roof tiles and green shutters, set among orange and lemon trees, with olive groves above where some trees are more than a thousand years old. Deià is about a 25 minute drive along the coast.
The calendar matters too. Each May, Sóller marks the pirate raid of 11 May 1561 with the Firó, when locals dressed as pirates and defenders stage battles in the port and in the town square with fireworks. In August the feast of the patron saint, Saint Bartholomew, brings bonfires and the correfoc, a run of fire through the square. A couple marrying in either month may want their guests to see it; a couple wanting a quiet harbour may prefer another week.
From Palma to the cliff
Palma de Mallorca Airport is about 40 minutes away by road. Venue hire is indicated from around €12,500, with menus from around €280 a head, and both move with the date, the season and the number of guests; the resort is seasonal. The Jumeirah Port Soller profile holds the details and the enquiry form, and Jumeirah’s film of the resort is on YouTube. The Wedding Atlas guide to Mallorca explains how a ceremony on the island fits with the legal side of marrying, other Mallorca wedding venues are gathered in one place, and The Edit has profiled the island planners Cygnus Events.
Our verdict
Jumeirah Port Soller suits couples who want the sea and the mountains in one view, and a wedding that doubles as a stay in a valley with enough history to fill the days either side. It is a modern resort rather than a historic house; the history belongs to the valley below. The decision to make first is the date, because the resort works to a season and the valley has festivals of its own in May and August. Check your date.
