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Located about fifteen minutes east of Palma (about a $40 taxi ride) at the end of a cypress-lined drive is the Stein Group’s newest property: the twenty-five-room Gran Hotel Son Julia. Like its sister property, the Son Net, it feels like a private country estate, but here the design is less grand European and more exotic Mediterranean, with Moroccan sconces, Arabic gardens, Asian-colored silk pillows and even a salon inspired by the Alhambra. Guests lounge by one of two outdoor pools, take advantage of the intimate spa and play golf—just three minutes away are two eighteen-hole courses. Tip: Because the property is fairly new and not as established as Son Net, prices here are more affordable here. Rooms from $503.

To read a postcard about the Gran Hotel Son Julià, click here.

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The impressive yellow facade and foundation (which can be traced back to the 12th century) in no way give away the refreshing surprise one finds inside Son Brull. Mallorca’s most stylish designer oasis, this boutique resort showcases a seamless mix of contemporary interiors with carefully preserved historical details. Once a Jesuit monastery, as well as one of the area’s most important farming estates, since its opening in 2003 Son Brull has been home to a cutting-edge twenty-three-room hotel worthy of its savvy and sophisticated international guests. The lobby is an altar to minimalist chic, with polished blond wood tables and walls, geometric floor lights, black designer couches and a floor-to-ceiling modern white fireplace. A historic stone courtyard precedes the entrance to 3/65, the hotel’s polished black-and-white minimalist restaurant, and Son Brull’s cavernous bar-lounge, with its modern chandeliers of tangled spotlights, vaulted ceilings, and wine list offering an impressive variety of the island’s innovative new vintages.

The design of the guest rooms is just as sleek (almost too slick—once I almost slipped and fell on the bathroom’s poured concrete floor after coming out of the shower), with black floors, white uneven walls and a Starck bathtub in the middle. An international crowd of thirty- and- forty-something couples wrapped in soft white robes drift blissfully from the daybeds surrounding the outdoor seamless pool to the intimate two-storied stone-and-wood spa, complete with three treatment rooms, a sauna and a lap pool. My husband, a golfer, appreciated the nearby newly opened Robert Trent Jones–designed golf course, while I loved the tour the hotel arranged for us at the eclectic local studio of renowned Spanish painter and sculptor Joan Bennassar, a Pablo Picasso lookalike with a burning, infectious energy. Rooms from $463.