We curate Mallorca
around the people
travelling
The island is not the problem.
The noise around it is.
Mallorca receives somewhere in the region of fifteen million visitors a year. An enormous industry has grown up to serve them, and most of it is organised around volume, which is a perfectly reasonable way to run a business and a poor way to plan a holiday.
The result is that the information available to someone planning a trip here is abundant and almost useless. Rankings are paid for. Reviews are gamed. The same twelve places appear on every list. A family with a three year old and a group of postgraduates researching Mediterranean trade are offered exactly the same top ten things to do in Mallorca.
We started Mallorca G.O.A.T. because the useful version of this service already exists. It just is not available to most people. It is what you get when you happen to know someone who lives here: a shorter list, honest opinions, a phone number that answers, and someone who says not that one, this one, and go on a Tuesday.
That is the whole proposition. We are not trying to show you everything the island has. We are trying to make sure the week you have is the right one.
Four things, properly
01
Personalised
Every selection starts from the people travelling: the occasion, the group, the ages, the pace. Two enquiries for the same week in July will get two different answers.
02
Local knowledge
Real familiarity with the island and with the people who work on it. Which road is worth the drive, which month a place is unbearable, which restaurant has changed hands.
03
Quality
A clear standard for what enters the portfolio, applied consistently. Fewer options, each of which we would send a friend to without hesitating.
04
Peace of mind
A local point of contact while you are here. Not a call centre in another country and not an email address that answers in three days.
Selection is
mostly refusal
The useful work is not finding things. It is deciding what does not go in.
We go ourselves
Nothing enters the portfolio on the strength of a website, a brochure or a commission rate. Someone from our team does the experience, or watches it run, before it is offered to anyone.
We meet the people
We work with operators we can call directly and who will answer. That relationship is what makes it possible to move a boat day, hold a table, or fix something that has gone wrong at short notice.
We check the detail
Actual duration rather than advertised duration. Real group sizes. What is genuinely included. Whether the walk described as easy is easy with a seven year old.
We keep it under review
Places change. Chefs leave, boats are sold, a guide stops caring. Anything that slips comes out of the portfolio, and we would rather have a short list than a stale one.
Why a goat
There is a goat that lives in the Serra de Tramuntana. It is a native Balearic breed, and it spends its life on the steepest, least accessible ground on the island: the parts with the best views, which almost nobody reaches.
It is also stubborn, extremely selective about where it puts its feet, and entirely uninterested in the easy path. We thought that was a reasonable thing to name a curation business after.
The other reading of the acronym is the obvious one, and we are aware of it. We would rather earn it quietly than put it in a headline.
Who we work with
Skippers, walking guides, cooks, ceramicists, drivers, gallerists, restaurant owners and villa managers. Most of them are small operations, often one or two people, which is precisely why they are good and also why they are difficult to find from abroad.
We are not an agency that resells whatever is available. We work with a limited number of partners we know, and we say no to a great deal in order to keep it that way.
If you run something on this island that you think belongs in that group, we would be glad to hear from you.
What to expect,
and what not to
What you can expect
- A real conversation first. We ask questions before we suggest anything.
- A short, specific selection. Not a catalogue with everything in it.
- Honest advice. Including when the answer is to do less, or to go somewhere else on the island.
- Clear terms. What is included, what it costs and what happens if you cancel, in writing, before you commit.
- Someone reachable. While you are here, not only while you are booking.
What we do not promise
- That anything is possible. A great deal is. Some things are not, and we will tell you which.
- Instant availability. The best partners are small and get booked. Notice helps enormously.
- Control of the weather. Sea conditions decide boat days, not us.
- The cheapest price. We are not a discount channel, and we do not pretend to be.
- Access we do not have. If we cannot arrange something, we say so rather than trying anyway.
Tell us what you are looking for
There is no form you have to fill in first. Send a message describing the trip in your own words and an advisor will come back to you with something specific.