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Gran Hotel Son Net, Mallorca
A 17th century palace which lies upon a mountaintop
By: Mary Gostelow
US television queen Oprah Winfrey adored Gran Hotel Son Net, on Mallorca, so much she wanted to buy every antique and painting in it, for one of her own homes.
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Imagine a late 17th century palace atop a small mountain, the three-floor building intact but brought up to date. Two giant olive presses in the restaurant, and many furnishings are at least a hundred years old. By contrast owner David Stein's art collection, beautifully hung between 20 foot-high cornflower blue curtains on the upper corridor, includes several works by Marc Chagall, David Hockney, Frank Stella and Andy Warhol. A favorite of many is the metre-high enigmatic Warhol of Jane Fonda's face.
We arrived here, one of Spain's most colorful luxury hotels, and gasped at the first view. From the village of Puigpunyent you look up to the palace, its exterior typically Mallorcan terracotta clay, a church bell suspended above its roof. As you drive up, you see the immaculate gardens, with topiary and olive trees, one of which is reputed to be 2,000 years old. (There are in fact 104 trees, not all that old of course, and David Stein is offering them for adoption - the lucky 'owners' are invited to help prune, pick and press as the season demands.)
You enter the original hall, with some 19th century children's toys on the floor next to a swipe-card computer for guests - though the entire property is wireless, a boon for laptop owners. All 24 rooms also come with Frette linens, Zen Zone toiletries, minibars and safes. Favourites are the Royal Suite and 22, both of which have big private terraces looking into treetops, and 21, for its four-poster. We were actually in 41, uniquely reached by an outside staircase and ideal for total privacy, with views over bushes to distant mountains.
Typical days here pass so quickly. No-one rises early, so breakfast would be around nine, on the terrace outside the restaurant, where the buffet between the olive presses offers juice from oranges in the fields around, and jams from the island, and delicious hot rolls. Next came the pool, or pools. The upper level has a delicious 30-yard pool, cleverly with one deep side rather than deep end so you can swim serious lengths.
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The lower level, looking into orchards, has two smaller pools, with inbuilt fountains. Both levels have private cabanas, fir green like all round-pool furniture. A brass plaque with your room number says which cabana is yours (note, numbers two through seven, upper level, have electric sockets, and wireless). Pool concierge Luis, a real comedian, comes round first with fruit kebabs, then with a just-made fruit and vegetable smoothie.
Lunch, on another terrace, may be cod brandade and a salad. After a needed siesta, we took two of the hotel's bikes - back gears only - for a ride, which was demanding because of the steep local terrain. We did not need the fitness room or a massage as another swim sufficed. Pre-dinner, people congregate on one of the terraces or in one of the many cosy corners inside, and a barman miraculously seemed to find you, wherever. The dinner menu is hot on fish, and a local speciality, baby suckling pig, here served as a square baton wrapped in crispy crackling, with a perfect jus around.
There are so many happy memories here. I would not copy Oprah, but I must admit I covet three Ben Jakober sculptures. In the restaurant a screen is formed of a rack of 21 standing knives, each two metres tall, and nearby stands a clear box of 13 forks, slightly smaller and set at distorted angles. And as we left Son Net, I looked out at the Jakober spoons, namely six giant spoons as part of a two metre-tall working fountain in a decorative pond. This place is lots of fun, old and new.
www.sonnet.es
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