Nixe Palace Hotel

The singular attribute of the Nixe Palace is its seafront location atop a public beach. The sea facing facilities, including our room balcony, the lobby and lobby bar, terrace seating for drinks and breakfast, the restaurant and pool/pool bar were all very enjoyable for lounging, sunning, people watching and relaxing. Breakfast was particularly peaceful, abundant and tasty.

Mallorca's Nixe Palace suffers a bit from delusional pretentiousness and a gleeful cheapness that suggests guests haven't actually experienced an authentic five star hotel or perhaps won't be coming back. Our seafront room with balcony was dark, scuffed and dreary. The blackout curtains (almost too heavy to shift) blocked the view and surf sounds but were necessary at night to cover the embedded exterior light in the balcony ceiling. Housekeeping was random and halfhearted. On two of our five nights turn down service was aborted with a postcard claim we were in our room. We were not. It was left, both times, while we were out to dinner. The service wasn't important but the card an irritation. The welcome champagne (unnecessary) was accompanied by strict instructions on beach towel protocol and the odd but alarming news that there was a 50 euro charge if we lost our towel cards or towels or something equally silly towel related. Finally there was the coffee capsule caper. We had an in-room coffee system which came with 4 capsules (2 caf/2decaf) and a little machine to make our morning coffee. The accompanying card said 4 capsules a day were complimentary and if we wanted additional capsules they would be 1,50 euros a piece. Each capsule made about 2 ounces of coffee which was not enough to make it out to the balcony and enjoy with our sea view. After ordering more (happy to pay) I found them in the market down the street (10 for 2,45.) This is such a small, sad thing but is said quite a lot about what was important to the Nixe Palace. Obviously coffee is important to me. Overall Mallorca was not the ideal destination after 10 fabulous days in Madrid and San Sebastian. Our discomfit and disappointment wasn't completely attributable to Nixe Palace. The island we saw was too crowded, too busy and too worn out so we do thank Nixe for our lounge chair tranquility, the good food we found there, the bountiful sunshine and warm, beautiful sea.