Away from the busy beach resorts, the Balearic Island of Mallorca offers a timeless, verdant landscape of wooded hills and orange groves, sweeping bays and rocky mountains. Dotted around the island are a host of historic gardens whose origins date back hundreds of years, as well as more modern creations, providing a rich range of horticultural delights to be enjoyed in the warm spring sunshine.

These include the gardens at Raixa and Alfaiba, both with Moorish origins and later Christian influences and the Gardens of Sóller, a botanist’s and enthusiast’s paradise. The Botanical Garden is found in a country estate known as “Camp d’En Prohom”, on the outskirts of Sóller. Its primary purpose is to preserve rare or endangered species of the Balearics

Elsewhere we visit the monastery of Real Cartuja de Valldemosa, with its peerless location high in the mountains; tour the island’s principal city of Palma with its Gothic cathedral and Arab baths and take an exhilarating ride on the Tren de Soller, a heritage train that runs through spectacular mountain scenery.